Cochlear Implants are only for people who never had hearing

Hi,

Nobody could say for sure how much hearing will improve for your mum as the results vary from person to person but generally she would shift from being profoundly deaf to someone with a moderate hearing loss. I would say it was highly likely considering she had normal hearing until her 30s that she would be able to resume normal conversations again and a lot of people report no longer having to lipread. Also with CIs I am hearing about people who have never had normal hearing or who lost it early as children being able to use telephones after having a CI so in your mum's case she stands a good chance there. So I would suggest that a CI would be helpful to her job wise.

Yes the brain adjusts to the different medium in hearing and takes a few weeks or months to do so. You may as well not expect anything for the first few weeks because you have to allow for the brain to change and the mappings to be adjusted to suit you. In the first few weeks there are a lot of mappings as they switch the channels on.

You might also like to join the CIhear e-mail group as there are a lot of people there who were in your mum's situation.

R2D2
 
R2D2 said:
Yes the brain adjusts to the different medium in hearing and takes a few weeks or months to do so. You may as well not expect anything for the first few weeks because you have to allow for the brain to change and the mappings to be adjusted to suit you.

R2D2
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Thanks. What do you mean when you say not to expect anything the first few weeks? My mom wont be able to hear/understand anything at all?
 
Lou82 said:
Thanks. What do you mean when you say not to expect anything the first few weeks? My mom wont be able to hear/understand anything at all?
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She'll be able to hear sounds but she won't be able to make sense of them to begin with - it will seem like nonsense. It won't sound anything like the hearing that she remembers. But then quite quickly actually the brain adapts to the new signals and of course the mappings will improve things. To begin with the maps with the audiologist will be frequent - like once a week. She will also have to put in some work in retraining her speech perception e.g. listening to the radio or talking books. I reckon based on the accounts I have read that by 3 months after activation she'll be happy with the results - maybe sooner.

I think it is really important to prepare her for this by having her read accounts of people who have been there and done it. That way she will know what to expect and not have a huge let down when she is first activated.

I haven't even had my surgery yet and yet here I am an expert already! Everything I've written is what I have learned from reading the experiences of others.
 
Yes, I had no idea about this. So for the first few weeks my mom will not be able to understand people when they talk to her, correct?
 
Lou82 said:
Yes, I had no idea about this. So for the first few weeks my mom will not be able to understand people when they talk to her, correct?
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Yes, speech perception will not be immediate and how fast it comes depends on her prior auditory experience (good from what you have told me).

If she already lipreads then that will help her even more during the transition stage. She may be asked not to use the hearing aid in the other ear in the transition stage in order to get her to adjust to the CI faster.

It doesn't sound like your mum is getting much benefit from her hearing aids if you have to speak loud and for her to lipread you when they are in. Before my sudden loss I did not need for people to speak loudly with my hearing aids in and I had a severe/profound loss. At profound levels of deafness the hearing aids may be giving her quite a lot of distortion too. I would be surprised if she could not get something better from the CI.
 
Is there any hope of being able to add a second CI implant in the other ear in the near future to further improve one's hearing? Just curious

Thanks for all your help. I joined those groups you posted and I am gonna buy the book "bionic ear" for my mom.
 
Lou82 said:
Is there any hope of being able to add a second CI implant in the other ear in the near future to further improve one's hearing? Just curious

Thanks for all your help. I joined those groups you posted and I am gonna buy the book "bionic ear" for my mom.
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Some people have already done it (typically those who are visually impaired but not all) but is it not many in the scheme of things. But as a whole, most insurance companies are fairly willing to allow one CI but not really two. The reasons are simple...economic and the benefits of a second CI are not significant enough to justify it as necessary (excepting maybe those who are visually impaired). Put another way, the jury is still out with the insurance companies as they are still assessing this idea. Some might consider it and others won't. There will probably a much more uniform consensus down the road.

Hey, if you had the money, nobody stopping you :D
 
sr171soars said:
Some people have already done it (typically those who are visually impaired but not all) but is it not many in the scheme of things. But as a whole, most insurance companies are fairly willing to allow one CI but not really two. The reasons are simple...economic and the benefits of a second CI are not significant enough to justify it as necessary (excepting maybe those who are visually impaired). Put another way, the jury is still out with the insurance companies as they are still assessing this idea. Some might consider it and others won't. There will probably a much more uniform consensus down the road.

Hey, if you had the money, nobody stopping you :D
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Thats interesting,. I thought they could not do 2 ears because it didnt work (like the implants wouldnt communicate with eachother) .
 
Lou82 said:
Is there any hope of being able to add a second CI implant in the other ear in the near future to further improve one's hearing? Just curious

Thanks for all your help. I joined those groups you posted and I am gonna buy the book "bionic ear" for my mom.
Click to expand...
From what I read, it's not a problem. Obviously, it depends on the state of your "unused" auditory nerve. It might not respond any more after a long time of activity.

But the benefits:
Ability to localise direction where sound comes from.
Ability to hear better in noisy environment.

The last one is due to soundwaves entering the "ears" at different times. The difference is used by the brain to filer out noise.
I have an article article about it for those who are interested.

Time for breakfast - it's 10:00 here.
 
Lou82 said:
Thats interesting,. I thought they could not do 2 ears because it didnt work (like the implants wouldnt communicate with eachother) .
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Oh, they can work extremely well together. Er...how do you think normal hearing people do it :D A CI simply is "hooked" into the cochlea which is the same place that normal hearing people get neural impulses transmitted to the brain. Every brain is wired for two such spots and therefore two CIs work just fine. I heard of a couple of people that have them on how well they are working for them.

It really more of an economic issue and of need more than anything else. Of course, some people couldn't get a second one because that other ear (non-CI one) may have some medical reason that prevents a CI from being done.
 
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