CI Information Requested

K

KandysMan

New Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2007
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Hi everyone. A year ago, my g/f lost her hearing completely. She basically just went deaf over night. This past year has been extremely hard on her. After seeing multiple doctors, they all determined they could do nothing for her. The nerves inside her ears were just too badly damaged. She is completely deaf. She was only 16 years old when she lost her hearing. Now, there is a new hope. And that is with a CI. I would like to know about what she is going to go through, when the time comes for the surgery, and I guess after activation. What will her hearing be like? Will it be like b/f she lost her hearing, only she won't be able to hear quite as good? I would like to get input from people who have actually had a CI. I pray to God it works, so she will finally be able to hear again.
Thanks to anyone who replies.
 
Hi, KandysMan, and welcome to AD; there's TONS of information on CI's here shot throughout many topics and it will take you until kingdom come to get thru it all, lol....
 
KandysMan said:
... What will her hearing be like? Will it be like b/f she lost her hearing, only she won't be able to hear quite as good? I would like to get input from people who have actually had a CI. I pray to God it works, so she will finally be able to hear again.
Thanks to anyone who replies.
Click to expand...

While I never had full hearing being HOH all my life, I had it good enough with HAs until I had to go the CI route. This was in March of '05. I can say that it is definitely different but not bad and one gets quite used to it. This is another way of saying one's brain can adapt easily to the input and make the transition to hear with a CI. I hear quite well with it including music and all that jazz. However, I can say she won't hear like she did before no questions about that. She should have no problem with speech and sounds in general. It may sound rather tinny, robotic, daffy duckish at first but it rounds out and sounds fairly normal after a while. Remember everybody is different and not everybody gets the same results. It really depends on too many different factors to answer here. Take time to research, ask questions, and especially use the resources at the CI center.
 
sr171soars said:
While I never had full hearing being HOH all my life, I had it good enough with HAs until I had to go the CI route. This was in March of '05. I can say that it is definitely different but not bad and one gets quite used to it. This is another way of saying one's brain can adapt easily to the input and make the transition to hear with a CI. I hear quite well with it including music and all that jazz. However, I can say she won't hear like she did before no questions about that. She should have no problem with speech and sounds in general. It may sound rather tinny, robotic, daffy duckish at first but it rounds out and sounds fairly normal after a while. Remember everybody is different and not everybody gets the same results. It really depends on too many different factors to answer here. Take time to research, ask questions, and especially use the resources at the CI center.
Click to expand...

Thanks again, for your input. I'm still trying to figure out how I will be able to help her through with it. I will be extremely happy if she is able to understand my speech, and can hear other sounds. I heard that it might sound robotic at first... how long does it usually take for that feeling to pass? I suppose I could ask the professionals at the CI center.
 
Well speaking for myself, when I first got activated with my CI, a lot of sounds were rather beepy at first. If my experience is any example, it should take a few days to a couple of weeks to adapt to it. I should note here that I'm a prelingual (which means that I became deaf before age 3) and your girlfriend is postlingual (she became deaf after age 3) so she may adapt to the CI faster than I did.

Your girlfriend sounds like an ideal candidate for a CI.
 
I received my first CI 2 years ago and my second 1 year ago.

When my first CI was activated, everything I heard sounded "metallic" and indistinguishable for 2 weeks. After that point, I was able to start understanding speech to a limited degree, but over time, I was able to understand speech without any difficulty. I'm now able to understand close to 100% of what I hear both in noise and in quiet but as sr171soars said, keep in mind that everyone is different.

In my case, I can say that what I hear does sound 100% normal (meaning what I remember when I wore HAs). Like sr171soars, I've never had normal hearing, so I have no basis for comparison between normal (i.e. perfect) hearing vs. what I hear with my CIs. However, I can tell you that what I hear with a CI is a tremendous improvement over what I heard with HAs when I had severe-profound loss.

If you would like to read stories about other CI users, visit the CIHear website at Welcome to CI Hear - A website for those wanting to learn about Cochlear Implants
 
KandysMan said:
Thanks again, for your input. I'm still trying to figure out how I will be able to help her through with it. I will be extremely happy if she is able to understand my speech, and can hear other sounds. I heard that it might sound robotic at first... how long does it usually take for that feeling to pass? I suppose I could ask the professionals at the CI center.
Click to expand...

That depends on the individual. I was one of those who started right out of the starting blocks basically hearing normally by the next day. I mean speech was the easy part for me and it took a couple of days for environment sounds to be "normal". Believe me, I would wish that for everybody but it isn't typical. I would say the average would be several weeks to normalize. Some shorter and some longer and some maybe much longer.
 
With my first CI it took a year for speech to sound normal. I had an overlapping "echo" voice (a voice that sounded extremely high pitched over a voice that sounded "normal" whenever I or others spoke), but it didn't negatively interfere with my ability to understand speech.

As for my second CI, speech sounded extremely high pitched at activation, but normalized within a month.

With my first CI environmental sounds took a month or so to normalize. With my second CI, they normalized within 2 weeks.
 
It does sound like your gf, having had normal hearing for the first 16 years of her life, could be a good candidate for a CI. She'll need to go to a CI centre to have a range of tests (i.e. speech recognition, MRI, hearing test etc) to get formal candidacy.

It may not sound exactly how she remembered it but the chances are good that she'll be able to perceive speech. I'm a prelingual (born deaf, grew up with hearing aids) and speech started off like beeps but by two hours after switch on I could understand female voices and within a few days male voices sounded better too. I do remember that male voices sounded more robotic in tone for a few weeks but this gradually improved. I'm really pleased with what I hear now.

The best way you can support your gf is by just being there. Go with her to the appointments, surgery etc. Encourage her to be patient with herself to begin with and to start with low expectations. Have you also thought about encouraging her to have counselling as well for the feelings she experienced when she suddenly lost her hearing? It is devastating for a person who is used to hearing.

Whatever she decides, good luck with it all :)
 
Hi Kman Sorry to hear about your girlfriend, maybe she would like to join us too as the support here has been wonderful for me.Im fairly new hear as I too went deaf (lost the last of my residual hearing) 1 year ago.I came here because ENT said its time for a CI I cant do anything more for you. I was devastated but then came to terms with it. Now after going through testing I have been denied.There are guidelines some tougher than others.I think insurance and depending where you are from may be a factor.Now I have to come to terms that I cannot have a CI until my HA will give me no sound whatsever as its pretty bad as it is.Read through some of the posts there is alot of info.If you go onto my thread of CI TESTING on May 20th there are the 3 brands you can click on and that will give you some more info.Best of luck to you and your GF. Tami
 
Thank you everyone again for your input. I am curious though, my g/f has no hearing what so ever. So, any testing involving speech recognition or any hearing test would obviously fail. Would she still be a candidate for a CI then? They haven't been to the doctor yet, and she still doesn't know about it. We don't want her to get her hopes up incase they can't do it. I think there is a good chance that it will work though. Basically, she has no residual hearing left. She's completely deaf. Would that effect her chances of a successful CI?
 
KandysMan said:
Thank you everyone again for your input. I am curious though, my g/f has no hearing what so ever. So, any testing involving speech recognition or any hearing test would obviously fail. Would she still be a candidate for a CI then? They haven't been to the doctor yet, and she still doesn't know about it. We don't want her to get her hopes up incase they can't do it. I think there is a good chance that it will work though. Basically, she has no residual hearing left. She's completely deaf. Would that effect her chances of a successful CI?
Click to expand...

To answer your questions...

1) Yes, she would be a candidate especially if she can't hear anything now.

2) Since she had hearing previously and has developed speech and all that jazz, she would be an excellent candidate.

3) Being totally deaf now would not hinder her chances for having a successful CI.

The likelihood of success with a CI is as follows (in order of probability to be most successful to least successful)...

1) Had hearing and have developed speech sufficiently (typically by 5 and older)
2) Receive a CI very young say 1-5 years
3) Been HOH and developed speech (this is my category and I'm a smashing success)
4) Been HOH and could hear sounds and not understand much speech if any
5) Deaf and really never heard sounds let alone speech

Remember just because one is a better probability category doesn't mean one will be successful. The best attitude is to keep expectations low and be pleasantly surprised.
 
Well Sr117soars, I'm not sure what category you'd put me in as I did develop good speech but I've always had a hard time understanding speech with my HA.
 
sr171soars said:
To answer your questions...

1) Yes, she would be a candidate especially if she can't hear anything now.

2) Since she had hearing previously and has developed speech and all that jazz, she would be an excellent candidate.

3) Being totally deaf now would not hinder her chances for having a successful CI.

The likelihood of success with a CI is as follows (in order of probability to be most successful to least successful)...

1) Had hearing and have developed speech sufficiently (typically by 5 and older)
2) Receive a CI very young say 1-5 years
3) Been HOH and developed speech (this is my category and I'm a smashing success)
4) Been HOH and could hear sounds and not understand much speech if any
5) Deaf and really never heard sounds let alone speech

Remember just because one is a better probability category doesn't mean one will be successful. The best attitude is to keep expectations low and be pleasantly surprised.
Click to expand...

I agree 100% with your statement about "high hopes, low expectations." That's the mantra followed by all CI users and following that advice really does work.

When I went into my activation day, I approached it with a sense of adventure. I didn't expect that I'd be able to understand anything I heard -- including environmental sounds. To my delight, I heard all kinds of environmental sounds which made me forget about the fact that I couldn't understand speech. :)

Even throughout the following weeks, I took things slow and let sounds come to me. For example, when I watched TV or listened to the radio, I relaxed and thought about the words or voices I *could* understand.

As for the categories above, I fit under #1 and #3. Why? I was diagnosed with a mild hearing loss at age 3 -- although my HA and CI audis believe the loss may be congenital due to the fact that newborns weren't given hearing screenings back in the late 60s/early 70s.

After having my first CI for 2 years and my second for a year, I'm now able to understand 97% of sentences in quiet bilaterally, 93% of sentences in noise bilaterally and 99% of sentences in quiet with my Freedom (with my N24 I understand 54% of speech in quiet which I attribute to it being older technology).

Granted, I'm totally blind and always grew up using my hearing, but even if that weren't the case, I suspect that my chances of success with a CI would still be good to excellent given the fact that I've had over 20 years of auditory input.
 
Back
Top