CI's or Surgical Hearing Aids

While the device hasn't given us "perfect" hearing it is a great improvement. My S/R score went from 62% to 90%
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Again that's awesome, but still.....it doesn't give you perfect hearing. Is the orgional S/R score unaided or aided? With digital aids or analogs? One of the things I don't like about the implant is that there's no hardware to display as an obvious clue to hearies that you're hoh. I'd rather have that visual clue, rather then them thinking I'm an out of it moron b/c I'm missing 10% of the conversation. Thing is, the S/R score is not a good indicator of how well you really hear, since most audis or speech testing recordings tend to have pretty good speaking voices. The general population does NOT have good quality speech. That's why despite the fact that I have good residual hearing, I am so dependant on speechreading.
 
At a meeting tomorrow, a guy with CI's is going to talk about them and "how much they changed his life." Fortunately, I'm a reporter for the university newspaper and can ask him tough questions, which I will do. I'll keep everyone posted.
 
My S/R score was with an anolog aid. As I said the Enoy isn't perfect(I still have trouble in large crowds) but its a great improvement over aids, for me any way. And I dont have the discomfort of wearing something in my ear,dont turn it off for swimming or a shower, no battery to change,ect.
 
Pek1......AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!!! Don't be too hard on him, but if he DOES turn out to be an AG Bell type (eg hearing world is SO wonderful, no value in the deaf-world) or a HE-style CI advocate.....REALLY REALLY let him have it! :mrgreen:
Jeff...... what discomfort about wearing an aid? For me, I feel NAKED without my aids. Are you talking about ITE aids or BTEs? If the speech score was with an ITE aid.....I am NOT surprised....ITE aids SUCK!They generally aren't powerful enough for more then a mild loss, and they are uncomfortable..That's good that you got such a HUGE improvment! Still, maybe it's dependant on the type of loss you have. And I mean, maybe you could have gotten a simalir score with digital aids or Phonaks or Oticons.....You really have NO idear how different aids are.....Like the difference between my Siemens and my Phonaks are amazing.....I could hear SO much more with the Phonaks....and they were just analogs! Like I think there might be different subtypes of losses, and that's why one loss can respond well to aiding while another doesn't respond well.
No, battery to change? That's an advantage.....but I dunno....I kind of like being able to switch off my aids and getting a rest from hearing so much.
I also love being able to turn my aids off on people....best thing in the world!
 
True dat, homie^^. Ha ha my nana told me that at her 'hearing society' meeting that BTE's are the best kinds. And Deafdyke is right: ITE's SUCK. I've never personally worn them but my audi told me that they don't provide a lot of benefit for people, and they're expensive, not to mention that fact that they fall out of your ears too.
 
Breezy said:
True dat, homie^^. Ha ha my nana told me that at her 'hearing society' meeting that BTE's are the best kinds. And Deafdyke is right: ITE's SUCK. I've never personally worn them but my audi told me that they don't provide a lot of benefit for people, and they're expensive, not to mention that fact that they fall out of your ears too.
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I've worn ITE's for 25 years, never once have they popped out of my ears. I've always had good luck with them.
 
deafdyke said:
Pek1......AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!!! Don't be too hard on him, but if he DOES turn out to be an AG Bell type (eg hearing world is SO wonderful, no value in the deaf-world) or a HE-style CI advocate.....REALLY REALLY let him have it! :mrgreen:
Jeff...... what discomfort about wearing an aid? For me, I feel NAKED without my aids. Are you talking about ITE aids or BTEs? If the speech score was with an ITE aid.....I am NOT surprised....ITE aids SUCK!They generally aren't powerful enough for more then a mild loss, and they are uncomfortable..That's good that you got such a HUGE improvment! Still, maybe it's dependant on the type of loss you have. And I mean, maybe you could have gotten a simalir score with digital aids or Phonaks or Oticons.....You really have NO idear how different aids are.....Like the difference between my Siemens and my Phonaks are amazing.....I could hear SO much more with the Phonaks....and they were just analogs! Like I think there might be different subtypes of losses, and that's why one loss can respond well to aiding while another doesn't respond well.
No, battery to change? That's an advantage.....but I dunno....I kind of like being able to switch off my aids and getting a rest from hearing so much.
I also love being able to turn my aids off on people....best thing in the world!
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Okay, here's the update!

The guy did not pitch the brand of CI, but did mention everything about them. It would have to be an individual decision based on ones own research, not what the Deaf Community says, which is based on not researching. I have researched it and continue to do so. For starters...they are not for everyone. You will go through a lot of testing...psychological, medical, et al., to see if you'd be a candidate. He only has one side, as the facial nerves on the left were removed after a car accident when he was 18 and is 51 now. He has NO hearing in the left, cannot get a CI on that side. There are no guarantees, if you are chosen, to get some hearing. What hearing you did have, if the CI does not work, oh well, it was worth a shot. I said precisely what you thought I said. Your residual hearing, if the CI did not work, is gone forever.

Now, my job is to convert this information into 1. a speech. 2. a newspaper article. 3. a class assignment. 4. I wished I never walked into this one. :Ohno:
 
Did I mention that the CI he had done a couple years ago tunes to the price tag of $90K? That's 90-thousand (US) dollars.
 
pek1 said:
Did I mention that the CI he had done a couple years ago tunes to the price tag of $90K? That's 90-thousand (US) dollars.
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Er...it really depends on where you have it and your insurance situation. Mine only cost me about $50,000 six months ago. Believe me, the center I did it at was very good.

I believe the average is about $75,000 a CI today.
 
pek1 said:
Okay, here's the update!

The guy did not pitch the brand of CI, but did mention everything about them. It would have to be an individual decision based on ones own research, not what the Deaf Community says, which is based on not researching. I have researched it and continue to do so. For starters...they are not for everyone. You will go through a lot of testing...psychological, medical, et al., to see if you'd be a candidate. He only has one side, as the facial nerves on the left were removed after a car accident when he was 18 and is 51 now. He has NO hearing in the left, cannot get a CI on that side. There are no guarantees, if you are chosen, to get some hearing. What hearing you did have, if the CI does not work, oh well, it was worth a shot. I said precisely what you thought I said. Your residual hearing, if the CI did not work, is gone forever.

Now, my job is to convert this information into 1. a speech. 2. a newspaper article. 3. a class assignment. 4. I wished I never walked into this one. :Ohno:
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Agreed, there are risks in everything. I had to think about that for myself. As for the hearing, well that wasn't too much of a concern as I was losing it rapidly anyway.
 
pek1, sounds like the guy was relatively late deafened. Seems like the hardcore advocates are the ones who were late deafend or had progressive losses. Not saying that a prelingal deaf kid can't learn, but it does seem like the pool of sucessful users of hearing hardware tend to have had hearing experiance....I mean there are some prelingally and congentially deaf folks who have been able to hear and talk, but a lot of those folks come from families who adopt therapy as a lifestyle.....those are the kids who would be sucessful with ANY method!
 
I think I need to clarify something that I did NOT say...this guy did lose his hearing about age 18, as he said. He only had the CI done not too long ago, per article. So, all his adult life he's been deaf.
 
What a surprise.....seems like the best sucesses are late deafened or progressively deafened folks
 
deafdyke said:
What a surprise.....seems like the best sucesses are late deafened or progressively deafened folks
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I would agree with you there. Life is interesting and there are always events that don't follow the script...
 
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