Cochlear Implant Patients.

[sr171soars]

I got my hair cut really short before hand so that it wouldn't look as weird for as long. it should all grow back at a somewhat normal and even pace..

...

Yeah, I cut mine shorter as well. Actually, I keep it short anyway but I really went the whole hog to minimize the hair issue.

Congratulations on a straight forward and uncomplicated surgery. The next step will be the most exciting for you. When do you do the hook up?

I wish you the best success!!!

 

[Bottesini]

this is the one from during surgery

this is the one right out of surgery

and this is the one after the removed that stupid bandage

Great! That's amazing clarity on the wire. And you are a good looking kid too. I hope you get all you want out of your implant.

 

[Deaffy]

Intresting, My surgery scar is alot different. I just have a small slice behind the ear. they never needed to shave anything. Is that the nucleus 5 in the previous photo? yeah give it time the ringing could go away. When you wear the processor it has the possibilty the processor will drown out your tinnitus and you wont notice it much. Good luck man, You look just like I did with the bandage.

 

[Fl885]

why did you want Med-El, is it better than Cochlear?
I wish you very fast recovery and an amazing activation, please do not forget us here, your friends once you get going with your activation , I guess we will always will need each other here and support each other. I'm soon going to decide what to do as I'm getting less confused as before, so hopefully I make up my mind soon

 

[sr171soars]

why did you want Med-El, is it better than Cochlear?
I wish you very fast recovery and an amazing activation, please do not forget us here, your friends once you get going with your activation , I guess we will always will need each other here and support each other. I'm soon going to decide what to do as I'm getting less confused as before, so hopefully I make up my mind soon

While the question isn't directed at me, I believe it is in the eye of the "beholder". Besides, how would one know unless one has tried all three which is well nigh impossible.

Example...I have a friend how is bilateral. One side is Med-El and the other is Cochlear. Not your typical situation (and a long story). He said that Med-El is better environmentally sound wise while Cochlear is better speech wise.

 

[john57]

Actually no not really. I still hear it mostly fine. This could be because i still have my other ear that wasn't implanted but it also has a cracked cochlea, so i honestly don't know.

And for the record the ringing must take time to come, because it has definitely came. But i'm trying to talk it into leaving

My ringing started one week after the operation and it was mostly none stop for a month before it started to die down. I had to be as calm and patient, no lifting and no stretching or yawing helps me in the next two months to keep the ringing in control. Not getting too exciting helps. Looks like you doing well!

 

[Fl885]

While the question isn't directed at me, I believe it is in the eye of the "beholder". Besides, how would one know unless one has tried all three which is well nigh impossible.

Example...I have a friend how is bilateral. One side is Med-El and the other is Cochlear. Not your typical situation (and a long story). He said that Med-El is better environmentally sound wise while Cochlear is better speech wise.

Thanks sr171soars, yes I know it is hard to compare but I hardly met or heard of anyone who had Med-El

 

[Deaffy]

Zebadee,

If you have any question's in regards to the nucleus5 you can always pm me. I am a nuke 5 user as well. Might I add those are some sweet pics. You are now part man/ part machine.

 

[Anij]

I have a friend how is bilateral. One side is Med-El and the other is Cochlear. Not your typical situation (and a long story). He said that Med-El is better environmentally sound wise while Cochlear is better speech wise.

I actually know a number of people who are bilaterally implanted and have two different brands of CI - specifically because one is/can be slightly better for speech, the other for music (and other non-speech sounds)

 

[overthepond]

Awesome pics, Zebadee, well you are lucky boy u didn't need to wait long for your hair to grow back whereas I am a girl and had back length long hair, they LITERALLY shaved 1/3rds of it off!! I looked like I had a half mochian! it took so long to grow back so I had my hair cut to shoulder length 8 months after the surgery.


If I remember rightly (it was least 3 years ago when I did the research), Med-el does have longer array which can go deeper into cochlea, Zebadee may have small cochlea hence he may have been advised to choose other device. But I thought Med-El also does short array and is known better device for people who has ossification. Back to research all devices to refresh my grey brain cells...

 

[sr171soars]

I actually know a number of people who are bilaterally implanted and have two different brands of CI - specifically because one is/can be slightly better for speech, the other for music (and other non-speech sounds)

Interesting.

If I ever decide to go bilateral (chances are slim to none), then I will have to get a Med-El on my other side. That should "round" me out!

 

[Deb1hd]

Glad to know that you are doing okaY. I go for my pre op this morning. 12 days and I'll be getting mine hopefully...

 

[zebadee2010]

why did you want Med-El, is it better than Cochlear?
I wish you very fast recovery and an amazing activation, please do not forget us here, your friends once you get going with your activation , I guess we will always will need each other here and support each other. I'm soon going to decide what to do as I'm getting less confused as before, so hopefully I make up my mind soon

I personally wanted Med-El because of the longer electrode. I felt that if there were future upgrades that the sound processor may be able to take better advantage of having more electrodes. My doctor recommended the N5, and it could be because i had a smaller cochlea or it could have been because my doctor ended up being my surgeon and was just more comfortable with the N5.
Either way i'm just glad there were no complications!!

As for the scar thing, I was kinda hoping he would just cut around my ear like i've been seeing , but on the other hand he didn't cut nearly as far up as I have seen in some pictures, which is a good thing. Yes I kinda miss my hair and i'm hoping it grows back soon!

Deb1hd
Glad to know that you are doing okaY. I go for my pre op this morning. 12 days and I'll be getting mine hopefully...

Do they normally do pre-op a week ahead? Just wondering we asked for them to hurry to increase the possibility of me getting to work. I had pre-op the day before surgery. MRI's aren't that fun by the way!

While the ringing isn't terrible it is noticeable, but it hasn't been much worse than it was before I had surgery. It comes and goes. Could be because of my CF which causes me to cough a lot. ( I do keep my mouth open though. )

And I really want to go with bilateral implants eventually. Hopefully my left ear will heal in such a way that I can get one in both ears. Probably go back with the N5 or whatever the newest one is!

 

[Deaffy]

Brilliant photo OTP... Did you go to any raves with that smashing hairstyle ? :P I think its neat to see how different surgeons perform the surgery's a hair bit different ( no pun intended).

 

[zebadee2010]

Brilliant photo OTP... Did you go to any raves with that smashing hairstyle ? :P I think its neat to see how different surgeons perform the surgery's a hair bit different ( no pun intended).

I know its been a while but i just now noticed your activation dates! So I take it that your getting along good with relearning to hear? And how do you like the N5.

 

[Deaffy]

Yeah I have only been activated 4 months or something. Im doing really well with the implant. I have no regrets getting this done. The nucleus 5 has some pretty nifty programming. I pretty much stay in my everyday program for the most part because I like it more than the other programs. I tried the music program for it but it didnt seem to do what I thought it would. But WIth my everyday program I can listen to music and it doesnt leave bits out. It takes awhile for the brain to learn how the device is working. I couldnt distinguish the different programs for awhile. I go back in feb for my 6 month review. Thanks for posting the pic of the implant inside the skull.. its amazing they can install a chip into a human to help us out. Your tinnitus will be bad for a lil while due to the invasion of your cochlea It took me a couple days for it to settle out. Wishing you the best. Let us know how activation go's. Oh and I had my pre-op about a week and a half before surgery thankfully so it gave me time to get my BP under control or else y surgery could have been postponed.

 

[zebadee2010]

Yeah I have only been activated 4 months or something. Im doing really well with the implant. I have no regrets getting this done. The nucleus 5 has some pretty nifty programming. I pretty much stay in my everyday program for the most part because I like it more than the other programs. I tried the music program for it but it didnt seem to do what I thought it would. But WIth my everyday program I can listen to music and it doesnt leave bits out. It takes awhile for the brain to learn how the device is working. I couldnt distinguish the different programs for awhile. I go back in feb for my 6 month review. Thanks for posting the pic of the implant inside the skull.. its amazing they can install a chip into a human to help us out. Your tinnitus will be bad for a lil while due to the invasion of your cochlea It took me a couple days for it to settle out. Wishing you the best. Let us know how activation go's. Oh and I had my pre-op about a week and a half before surgery thankfully so it gave me time to get my BP under control or else y surgery could have been postponed.

Yeah, I seem to be having the most pain in my inner ear/ the ringing of it. the outside where it was stitched and stuff doesn't hurt that bad! I'm thinking since I could possibly have such vast differences in my environments that i might have them program the music map for "live" sounds and use the everyday for just that. lol

And as i said my preop was the day before. sounds more preop-ish! But i don't have and BP problems or anything so I think thats why we went ahead. Right now i'm just trying to cope with this pain/ringing.. I'm trying not to take the pain meds but i'm also finding it hard not too. i'm 2 hours overdue right now..

 

[john57]

If you have some pain I would take the meds it may help with the ringing. Stress is one thing that can make the ringing louder. I had to chil out and be mellow as much as possible to get my ringing more in control when I was first implanted.

 

[overthepond]

My pre op was the day before my surgery and straight off the plane!!! I was racing yachts abroad when they gave me the phone call, called mum to arrange my flight for both of us (her from Austria, me from Ireland) jump on the plane, jump off the plane, 1 hour drive straight to the CI centre, he looked at me and told me " see you tomorrow at 7.30" i was like what!! no pee stick, BP etc so I went home. All in space of 2 and half days! I had no time to think about the op!! It was in the OR when I realised "Oh my god, is this for real?"
I have low blood pressure, they had no problem keeping it controlled.

Please take pain meds. it also helps with inflammation it also aids your recovery better. I was given pescription drugs (pain killers/anti inflammatories and anti biotics) for 2 weeks.

 

[Deb1hd]

yes they do the pre op in advance in Norfolk... I had already had a cat scan last month. No MRI for me because i have a plate in my cervical spine. I have been trying to get this done since April.. and now we are down to the nitty gritty. because my insurance deductible is met for the year. If i get it done after the first then I'll have to come up with 5,000 out of pocket.
I chose the Nucleus 5 for my implant because of the short elect robe, Im trying to preserve what little hearing i do have in that ear. But the doctor said most likely I'll lose it. If i do then I do. I have 12 percent speech recognition on that ear. If i like how it turns out maybe I'll have my other ear done in a few years. because I am profound in both ears. The ringing in my ears have been going on now for 30 years Some people says it goes away after Implant. That would be so lovely if that were to happen to me.