CI and time off work?

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sappstter

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How do you handle time off work for the surgery and recovery time?

It seems to be a candidate you need to have your hearing loss for 6 months before you can be approved. I don't know how I would be able to work during that time, plus the additional time it takes to learn to hear again.

I've been told with my condition LVAS that I would be approved sooner given they would know that my hearing isn't coming back. I'm not at the point where I need CIs yet, I'm curious how to deal with the down time. I have a wife, 3 kids, mortgage, student, loans, etc... I'm sure I could take an extended leave from work, but that would mean no pay.

My hearing fluctuates from day to day or incident to incident. Loss of hearing gives me a lot of anxiety mostly due to financial issues that would/will arise if I lose all of my hearing. CIs are a somewhat comforting thought, but they're not a perfect or immediate solution.
 
CI's will not make your life return to normal, if that is what you are thinking.

You will need to adapt to being deaf in any situation. The CI may help you understand people better, but you are still going to be a deaf person. Sounds cold, but that is the reality.

I would recommend you sit down with your boss and find out what you can do without needing to hear, and in those situations where you must hear, come up with some solutions that would make everyone happy. Put all communications in email format....pen & paper, etc. Learning how to lipread will help, etc. If your employer is understanding, take advantage of that opportunity and work things out.

I have owned 2 properties and raised 2 annoying kids & wife, and was able to work in jobs that hearing people find impossible to do being deaf. Many of us deaf folks have done that.

Not easy, no. I took one day off work after both CI surgeries...only because I was taking Percocet, which makes me a loony. Back to work the next day, bandage on head & all.

It is going to be a rough road, but you can do it. Therapy helps, too.
 
green427 said:
CI's will not make your life return to normal, if that is what you are thinking.

You will need to adapt to being deaf in any situation. The CI may help you understand people better, but you are still going to be a deaf person. Sounds cold, but that is the reality.

I would recommend you sit down with your boss and find out what you can do without needing to hear, and in those situations where you must hear, come up with some solutions that would make everyone happy. Put all communications in email format....pen & paper, etc. Learning how to lipread will help, etc. If your employer is understanding, take advantage of that opportunity and work things out.

I have owned 2 properties and raised 2 annoying kids & wife, and was able to work in jobs that hearing people find impossible to do being deaf. Many of us deaf folks have done that.

Not easy, no. I took one day off work after both CI surgeries...only because I was taking Percocet, which makes me a loony. Back to work the next day, bandage on head & all.

It is going to be a rough road, but you can do it. Therapy helps, too.
Click to expand...

Bolded: You raised your wife too? :lol: Just joshing with you.
 
it took me about a week to go back to work last time, and they advised two weeks of no heavy physical activity.

if there's any work you can do from home that would be ideal. i was able to use the computer and get some work done after the first couple days. it's not too bad, and if you could previously hear, learning to hear again shouldn't be too difficult. i picked up a lot after the second programming and kept getting better from there.
 
I guess being retired gives one time to recover from the operation. I went home the next day and could go swimming in 2 weeks. The Implant was activated in 4 weeks.
The only restriction was not to lift hand weights of 25 pounds for a few months. Possible to "split/damage" the stitches. Not exactly a major production!
Good luck in recovery
 
My husband took off from work for about almost 3 weeks. Some others took shorter than my hub. it depends on how long will they heal or pain somehow takes to recover. I was there for him to make sure as he recovers from surgery very well. I remember my hubby was worried all of the things that he can handle. So He and I discussed about how to handle the situation and be preparing for anything unexpectedly and so. It did help for me to be aware with his plan and the situation. Have you discuss about this with your wife ?
 
I took 2 weeks off of work and 4 days off of school. I was fine returning to work, but could have used an extra day off from school.

If being deaf is something that can't work with your job, you need to start planning now. You will be deaf, with or without a CI. You need to start working with your boss or looking for alternatives. At minimum, you will be deaf for 4-6 weeks, from surgery to activation. That doesn't take into account before surgery, or the time it will take you to re-learn how to hear and understand speech, which can take 6 months to a year. So, plan now.
 
Unfortunately my job requires a lot of communication with other people. I have to attend meetings both in person and through conference calls, in addition to coordinating with others in the office. I'm a mechanical engineer and in college I would have never thought engineers worked with other so often. Implants at the moment are my plan, how effective they will be is the question. I think finding another career that will meet my financial needs would be difficult at this point, finding one that I can work while being deaf would be even more difficult.

It's disappointing to learn with implants you still have to rely heavily on written communication. If that's the truth, then that is what I want to hear. It is so hard to get a straight answer out of people. I understand that an implant is much better than nothing at all and can truly change the way you live your life. I've read a lot on the cochlear manufacturers forums and everything is so positive it leads you to believe you could function at the level you did with hearing aids. Is this not true?

I guess the longer I can hold out the better the technology will get.
 
Some people do so very well with their implants that they don't need the written communication (can use the phone with ease and understand TV shows/movies without captions), while others still need a little extra support to make sense of what they're hearing. There's no way to know for sure how one person will do with an implant, it's going to be different results for each person. Some people function a lot better with the implants than they did with hearing aids. Again, it's going to be different for each person. There are no guarantees that one will have 100% speech comprehension with a CI.
 
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