cochlear implant experience

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SLPstudent1

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Hi,

I previously posted about needing to interview individuals with hearing aids. As an alternative, I am looking to interview individuals with cochlear implants as well. The questions are below. If you would like to participate, please reply with your responses to the following questions. Your feedback will help me better serve cochlear implant users as a future speech language pathologist. Thank you in adavance!

SLPstudent1

1. When did you have the surgery to get your cochlear implant?
2. After you were implanted, how long did it take before you were able to see benefit
from the implant?
3. What situations are best for listening with your implant?
4. What situations are hardest for you when listening with your implant?
5. What complaints do you have about your cochlear implant?
6. Do you feel like your cochlear implant has lived up to what your audiologist and/or
surgeon told you it would do?
7. Do you think you do better with the implant as compared to when you had hearing​
aids?
 
1-July 12, 2007
2-Activated August 8, 2007. Started to hear right away

3/4 contingent on the closeness of the speaker/ amount of background noise
5- none
6- yes
7- yes became bilateral DEAF December 20, 2006

Good luck in your speech language pathology courses.
 
Thank you for taking the time to fill out the questionnaire drphil. I realize that this forum receives many requests for people to answer questions about their experiences with hearing loss, and I would imagine it being a bit annoying. I appreciate your willingness to help me with this assignment despite the fact! God Bless!
 
1. When did you have the surgery to get your cochlear implant? March 23, 2012
2. After you were implanted, how long did it take before you were able to see benefit
from the implant? Activated April 3, 2012; took maybe a couple of weeks or so. Was fully deaf in the left ear before, so it took a while for my brain to start recognizing the sounds the CI was picking up.
3. What situations are best for listening with your implant? quiet situations, one-on-one interactions
4. What situations are hardest for you when listening with your implant? any place that is noisy
5. What complaints do you have about your cochlear implant? can't think of any
6. Do you feel like your cochlear implant has lived up to what your audiologist and/or
surgeon told you it would do? yeah, definitely, and I still have a ways to go I'm sure.
7. Do you think you do better with the implant as compared to when you had hearing
aids? yeah, couldn't use a hearing aid in the left as I received no benefits. Now with both CI on left and hearing aid on the right, I pick up on more and it's more balanced. I have "surround sound" with both CI/HA combo.
 
Sure.

1. When did you have the surgery? 17 years old (2007)

2. After you were implanted, how long did it take before you were able to see benefit
from the implant?
Maybe 2 or 3 months.

3. What situations are best for listening with your implant?
Ambiguously worded.
The implant is most useful in slightly noisy room when someone is talking behind me, or in a classroom - that's when I get the most benefit.

It's easiest to hear when the room is very quiet and the person is facing me, within 6 feet or so.

4. What situations are hardest for you when listening with your implant?
Anywhere noisy, especially bars, restaurants, concerts, city streets.

5. What complaints do you have about your cochlear implant?
I don't like the way the buttons work. I wish that it had an all metal or fully enclosed plastic design, and that instead of having a wire from the magnet to the processor, that the entire unit was contained in the magnet section.

That's just cosmetic. Functionally it's excellent, no complaints.

6. Do you feel like your cochlear implant has lived up to what your audiologist and/or
surgeon told you it would do?

Yes.

7. Do you think you do better with the implant as compared to when you had hearing
aids?

Yes, much better. Hearing aids were barely an improvement over no aids at all.
 
1. When did you have the surgery to get your cochlear implant? June 12, 2009

2. After you were implanted, how long did it take before you were able to see benefit
from the implant? 3 weeks after surgery and activated in July 7, 2009 heard for first time

3. What situations are best for listening with your implant? quiet in environment, can understand the sound in noise environment, music and TV

4. What situations are hardest for you when listening with your implant? in strange or not familiar communication from foreign speak languages, too many people's chattering in same time

5. What complaints do you have about your cochlear implant? None

6. Do you feel like your cochlear implant has lived up to what your audiologist and/or
surgeon told you it would do? Yes. They are awesome audiologist and surgeon.

7. Do you think you do better with the implant as compared to when you had hearing
aids? I'm growing up with hearing aids since I was 2 years old. I have no long hear any sound from hearing aids benefit. I was good candiate for cochlear implant when I was 6 years old. I supposed to get it but I scared of surgeon and hospital. My dad had to let me grow up to be older make a decide to get CI. Finally I got CI at age 27 years old. I'm still wearing hearing aid on my right ear. I can hear bilateral with CI and HA. I am plan to get second CI surgery in few years later.
 
1. Dec 16, 1998 in Knoxville, TN
2. Approx. 6 to 8 months
3. Low or no noises in the background, people talk loud and slow
4. People with thick mustache; deep and thick accent, lots of background noises
5. Weight and design. Weight: Cochlear 3G and N5 are the best light weight. Freedom was heavier and didn't like it. Design: I do not like N5 remote design plus it's overpriced and clunky.
6. YES! Was really thankful to my AuD/SLP for that.
7. YES! I have hearing aids my whole life but it didn't go well when I was in high school. I got CI right around before Christmas break.

@SLPstudent1 - Which college do you go to? University of Florida?
 
1. When did you have the surgery to get your cochlear implant? Sept 26, 2012
2. After you were implanted, how long did it take before you were able to see benefit
from the implant? Myself, 3 months. Everyone around me says that I was noticeably benefiting after 1 month.
3. What situations are best for listening with your implant? Quiet situations.
4. What situations are hardest for you when listening with your implant? Noisy areas that are not a constant noise (restaurant vs air conditioner)
5. What complaints do you have about your cochlear implant? No complaints. Every wishlist item I have is being added with the next sound processor (smaller size, wireless connectivity)
6. Do you feel like your cochlear implant has lived up to what your audiologist and/or
surgeon told you it would do? Far beyond it actually. I just wanted something stable that could provide an added 5% speech recognition and it is far beyond that already. I can also tell that it is going to continue to improve.
7. Do you think you do better with the implant as compared to when you had hearing
aids? I had absolutely no hearing at all in the implanted ear for 30 years so it is definitely better.
 
1. Apr 2012
2. Immediately, but a couple months of tweaking to get it 'just right'
3/4. Direct audio input is the best for me, I can hear tv/movies fine without subs. Quiet environments do best with CI's, if it get's too noisy or there are to many people talking the CI just doesn't have the ability yet to sort through that
5. The cables and the neptune covers break easily, the cables are $125 a piece to replace so after the warranty that can be pricy without insurance. I also wish they had built in wifi or bluetooth, but that's coming soon enough.
6. I feel it went beyond expectations, they were making it sound like it would still be very difficult to hear
7. No, my last aids (Oticon Agil's) were amazing and I could hear quite well in almost any environment.
 
1. May 2012.
2. About 3 Month till I stopped hearing weird noises and heard voices of different people.
3. Almost any. I can now hear in most situations, but 1 to 1 is the best.
4. Any situation with non constant background noise. My implant lowers background noise, but if it is not constant, it doesnt lower it properly.
5. Not too much of complaint. Maybe it doesnt make my hearing perfect? Thats all I could currently think
6. Definitely. Much better than my hearing aids.
7. Same as #6. I had huge difficulty hearing with my aids due to reaching its limit. I had difficulty hearing higher pitched noise or much of anything in noisy situations. Implant helps me a lot and can actually make voice too loud, something that has never happened to me with hearing aids.
 
xunixan said:
I can hear tv/movies fine without subs.
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Wow...that's really amazing. I've worn hearing aids my whole life and I can't understand anything without subtitles. Even movies I've seen dozens of times. I always need subs....really amazing....

Laura
 
Lau2046 said:
Wow...that's really amazing. I've worn hearing aids my whole life and I can't understand anything without subtitles. Even movies I've seen dozens of times. I always need subs....really amazing....

Laura
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It does depend thou.....there are implanted people who need no HOH style accomondations, but many still do.
 
1). May 2012
2). 3-4 months
3). One on one with no background noise
4). Anywhere with noise. I can not hear movies, tv, telephone or music:-(
5). People who think I am not deaf anymore who think I can hear everything
6). Yes expectations were not set high for me due to other medical issues
7). Never wore hearing aids. Became totally deaf over night.
 
Lau2046 said:
Wow...that's really amazing. I've worn hearing aids my whole life and I can't understand anything without subtitles. Even movies I've seen dozens of times. I always need subs....really amazing....

Laura[/

Everyone is so different. I can not hear movies or tv at all.
Click to expand...
 
Angel1989 said:
Lau2046 said:
Wow...that's really amazing. I've worn hearing aids my whole life and I can't understand anything without subtitles. Even movies I've seen dozens of times. I always need subs....really amazing....

Laura[/

Everyone is so different. I can not hear movies or tv at all.
Click to expand...

Do you mean what I think of as understand rather than hear? Don't you know it is on but not understand words?
Click to expand...
 
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