Cochlear Implants in fiction.

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dreama

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I am writing a fantasy novel at the moment. One of the characters has a Cochlear implant. Only there is quite enough myths about the CI so I want to get my facts straight first. I would very much apreciate any CI wearers or anyone who work closly with those wearing CI's to answer my questions?

How would working in intense heat affect the CI? Would attaching icepacks to the side of the head help?
What about fast jolty movement? Would that affect the CI?
What about dust? The story is set in the desert. So there will be a lot of dust around.
If the external part of a coclear implant was to go missing how easy/difficult would it be to get it replaced. Would you need to go through your whole mapping again? How much would it likely to cost?
If the internal CI componant needed removing in an emergency would it be possible for an unspecialized surgeon to do the job or would they need someone specifically aware of CI's? What would the survival rate be if an unspecialized surgeon tried removing it? Say if they were in a country that simply didn't have CI specialists when the accident happened?
 
I'm sorry I seemed to have accidently created this thread twice. Could moderator please delete one of them?
 
interesting....

Umm..

Working in intense heat probably would affect CI as it would to HA's anyway in small percentage, like for sweat, the CI would need go in the dehumidfyer to dry out, the heat i am not sure but like all electricals they work up/down to certian temp. Do u mean putting icepack on the processor (external piece?)

Fast jolty movement - shouldn't affect us but many of us had lost some balance (i haven't phew) that may be affected. With wearing CI, it may fall off so ear mould or snugfit would prevent it from falling.

Like all electrical equipments we need to remove dust from it's holes to allow it air or get sounds through the microphone. COCHLEAR (Brand of Cochlear implant) have gore-tex lining in the microphone section and we have spares which we can replace easily ourselves.

As I am british, We have Holiday loan scheme to borrow spare processor at small price and it's setted at your map. My centre also said that if there's any problem with my orginal processor they would fed ex the spare immediately but thats up to what sort of post it is like in the middle of dessert so i suspect having one on loan is best idea.

I am not sure about the internal part, i suspect that only people who specialises in CI/ENT can remove them as it's very delicate operation which involves bypassing your facial nerve. So perhaps a flight home would be safest idea.

Hope this helps and if anyone thinks i am wrong please do feel free to say something. I have just been implanted 3 days so i am pretty much new to this.

Another thing there's list of do and don'ts with cochlear implant on british cochlear implant group (BCIG) if that helps.
 
dreama said:
I am writing a fantasy novel at the moment. One of the characters has a Cochlear implant. Only there is quite enough myths about the CI so I want to get my facts straight first. I would very much apreciate any CI wearers or anyone who work closly with those wearing CI's to answer my questions?

How would working in intense heat affect the CI? Would attaching icepacks to the side of the head help?
What about fast jolty movement? Would that affect the CI?
What about dust? The story is set in the desert. So there will be a lot of dust around.
If the external part of a coclear implant was to go missing how easy/difficult would it be to get it replaced. Would you need to go through your whole mapping again? How much would it likely to cost?
If the internal CI componant needed removing in an emergency would it be possible for an unspecialized surgeon to do the job or would they need someone specifically aware of CI's? What would the survival rate be if an unspecialized surgeon tried removing it? Say if they were in a country that simply didn't have CI specialists when the accident happened?
Click to expand...

Hmm interesting - I hope the character wearing the CI isn't evil :giggle:

Seriously though:

1. Intense heat - same as for HA wearers, you'd need to worry about the sweat affecting the external processor. I don't think the internal part would be affected and if it was, then non CI wearers would also be affected in some way by the heat.

2. Fast jolty movement - you'd have to be careful about losing the external processor, same as for a HA. Internal implant I don't think would be affected.

3. Dust - same issue as for a HA I imagine.

4. If the external part of the CI went missing then my audie would probably give me a loaner until I could buy another one on insurance. My audie keeps copies of maps on her computer so I would not have to be remapped.

5. Removal of internal CI - It depends. If the magnet only is being removed, I think that an unspecialised surgeon could do this, as it simply involves incising the tissue outside the skull and removing it. But if the electrodes are being removed then this is microsurgery and would require special skill.
I think the survival rate (not including the normal risks of surgery) for a person vaccinated with the meningitis vaccine would be close to 100%. An unvaccinated person may increase their risk of meningitis if they have their CI removed. The worst that would happen with an unspecialised surgeon would be damage to the inner ear structure - not life threatening.

Good luck with your fantasy story. I used to write fiction myself just for pleasure but I don't the time anymore with children! :)
 
CI's tend to be a bit more sweat resistant than hearing aids - at least, that's been my experience.

To add to what R2 said about removing the implant ... I suspect if the magnet is all that's being removed, a non-specialist surgeon might not know initially how to do it, but could probably have the procedure explained over the phone. It's not a very complicated procedure, AFAIK. And it's more comparable to dermatologic surgery than having the implant put in - it's not that far off from having a skin cyst removed, for instance. So you don't actually use general anesthesia, just a local injection.
 
Thanks for your help Over the Pond, R2D2, and Ismi.

No the character is definately not evil. She's got a bit of a short fuse though. And can be quick to jump to conclusions. She spends a lot of her life pretending to be male as that's what her mother wanted: A hearing sighted boy. She has a cataract removed as well which make her see again. They are expecting the same sort of thing to happen from the CI. As they do not realise that the CI's won't cure her deafness.

When I did a goggle search of CI's you will would be amazed how often terms are used that could be missinterpreted. Like 'hearing again' which is used frequantly. Of course they usually mean to a partial level but I think it would be very easy for someone who didn't know much to assume it meant full or even superhuman hearing. In fact I've had to correct that assumsion from some people. Also people assuming that it was just a case of fitting in the CI and the previously deaf person gets up after the surgery with full hearing. It's one of the reason's I want to write about a CI user. To give more of an insight into what really happens.

Anyway Her parents pay for the CI themselves. They risk their lives doing a lot of black marketting with forbidden goods to raise some of the money and also get heavily into dept. Since you don't have insurance or med care in Nazdonia or CI's either for that matter. (In fact all modern items are forbidden but it doesn't stop people using them in secret) Nadia's parents have her cochlear implant done abroad in a country called Darthrilia. Only they later have problems with the Authorities in Darthrilia. Nadia's mother is imprisoned there. The external bit is confiscated by the Darthrillian police because her father is wanted by them and they are hoping it will bring him back, but he orders another external part from Poln instead.

When I was talking about ice to help with heat, I meant without the external bit anyway. It would be very unwise to use it when slaying Dragons anyway.

If you were living in a differant country when your external bit got damaged would you have to apply to your country of origin or could you get another transmitter from a differant country? Would it have your map on it?

If you wanted to do something really daring like ride across the Sahara desert on a motorcycle with a CI would that be possible? If you fell off or had a crash would a local doctor be able to handle it or would you have to be flown home? Obviously the survival rate would be quite poor in any case but if the internal CI bit got hit would that make it less so if a local doctor attempted surgery?

I've never worn a hearing aid in the desert. I went on a Sinai desert trek but we were warned about sand getting into electronic items so to avoid using them if possible. Since I wasn't really wearing my hearing aid at the time anyway It didnt come with me.

Another thing I was wondering? With hearing aids a noise such as slamming of doors can be painfully loud? I found that to be the case with my hearing aid? Would that also be the case with a CI? I know one CI user who became really hyper sensitive after getting implanted. It's what really put me off CI's. Although come to think of it, it's possible this was done because she does not communicate well and they may have got her mapping wrong.
 
From my experince that slamming doors unexpectally can be quite startling and bit painful, As an newly implantee i have no idea yet but am willing to tell you that (give me 4 weeks though!) to give you an idea, I am bilateral profound deaf since birth (120db left 100db right), I have good lipreading and speaking skills (very involved in hearing world but do have deaf friends and signs to them) so probably would have good mapping done.

Re mapping... i am not quite sure but the place where we get our CI from (audiology) is the only place to record them i think. If i am moving to another place it would have to be "refered"

I would be very interested to read this book...

if you don't mind me asking, Where abouts are you? PM me if you don't want say online...
 
Hi Dreama,

I did have hypersensitivity with hearing aids, but that was due to the damage in the inner ear. I don't have the same problem anymore with a CI, because the CI bypasses the area of the ear causing the hypersensitivity - it is artificial hearing remember. It's possible that you might have either recruitment or hyperacusis.

If someone gave me the chance to go for a trek on the Sahara I would definitely go but would take precautions such as wearing a head covering that would cover the CI processors and keep the dust out. It looks as if most trekkers do that anyway as they don't want to get sand in their eyes/face.

When I travel overseas, I take a copy of my map with me on a USB stick. If I experienced a problem, I would have gone to a local clinic in the country I was visiting and get the map reloaded onto the processor. For example, Cochlear, which is one of the manufacturers of CIs, has a presence in many countries of the world and so the clinics in each of those countries use the same technology and mapping programs. I'm not sure how that would work in the countries of Nazdonia or Darthrilia though!
 
dreama said:
Since you don't have insurance or med care in Nazdonia or CI's either for that matter. (In fact all modern items are forbidden but it doesn't stop people using them in secret)
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So, uh ... the Nazdonian police won't see the external processor and confiscate it? At the very least, Nadia would have to be *really* careful with her hair ...

When I was talking about ice to help with heat, I meant without the external bit anyway. It would be very unwise to use it when slaying Dragons anyway.
Click to expand...

The internal bit isn't heat-sensitive. If you were exposed to that much heat, you'd have more important things to worry about - like frying the rest of your head!

If you were living in a differant country when your external bit got damaged would you have to apply to your country of origin or could you get another transmitter from a differant country? Would it have your map on it?
Click to expand...

You'd have to order one in the mail, and have it sent to your audiologist, who could program it and send it to you (I've done this with hearing aids, but it's also possible with a CI). Or you could have the programming done by a local audiologist, if you had a copy of your programs.

If you wanted to do something really daring like ride across the Sahara desert on a motorcycle with a CI would that be possible? If you fell off or had a crash would a local doctor be able to handle it or would you have to be flown home? Obviously the survival rate would be quite poor in any case but if the internal CI bit got hit would that make it less so if a local doctor attempted surgery?
Click to expand...

The CI would mostly be irrelevant in the case of an accident, I think. It might be necessary to get an otolaryngologist or a neurologist in to make sure it all got removed (or replaced, if that's what you were going to do), but your skull would break before the CI. In which case (speaking here of skull fractures without CIs), the survival rate is very much dependent on the extent of the fracture.
 
Overthepond: I live in Birmingham, England. Very near to the airport. What about you?

My friend Kerry was also profoundly deaf. Her dad was very keen on using the Oral only approach but it is much easier to communicate to Kerry using deafblind manual and she preferes that. When I talk about communication skills I'm refering to any commuication method including sign language and literacy.
What teaching methods were you brought up with? Do you have any useful hearing at all? Do you wear hearing aids? I had quite a lot of useful hearing. I was just hard of hearing infact but I miss never learning sign language. It would be very difficult now as I'm also blind.
 
Hi Ismi. Thanks for your responses. It wouldn't be safe for Nadia to wear her transmitter at all in Nazdonia without a concielment charm. It's something that her parents overlooked because they didn't know enough about CI's. They just assumed that it would be a simple matter of regaining hearing. You do get some people who are very ignorant about CI's. I have to explain to a friend that you don't just wake up hearing straight after surgery.
 
dreama said:
Overthepond: I live in Birmingham, England. Very near to the airport. What about you?

My friend Kerry was also profoundly deaf. Her dad was very keen on using the Oral only approach but it is much easier to communicate to Kerry using deafblind manual and she preferes that. When I talk about communication skills I'm refering to any commuication method including sign language and literacy.
What teaching methods were you brought up with? Do you have any useful hearing at all? Do you wear hearing aids? I had quite a lot of useful hearing. I was just hard of hearing infact but I miss never learning sign language. It would be very difficult now as I'm also blind.
Click to expand...

I am in Sunny Southampton. Not too far. Ah, i didn't know Kerry was also deafblind.. gosh that must be so hard for both of you. I had the oral upbringing and were mainstreamed from 2 to 11 then to Deaf oral school in Newbury for secondary years.
I had hearing aids all my life but they were too quiet or not clear enough. It was in the last year after trying 4 different aids that i was refered for Cochlear implant.
 
Hi Overpond. It was hard for Kerry as she is born deafblind and her dad was very big on the oral only aproach for her. She can speak, but her communication skills are not that good. She had a CI and became very neurotic after. Like I said it put me off CI's completely. I wonder if it was the CI or the mapping at fault. I should think with her dad's atitude that she would have been introduced to speach and she also did have some useful hearing but not much. When we met at QA everyone communicated with her using the deafblind manual and she was very happy with that. But her dad wasn't. So I think having a dad with that kind of attitude was probably Kerry's major problem rather then being deaf.

As for me, I was just born hard of hearing. Didn't go blind or completely deaf until later on.

The character in my story decides to give up wearing a CI.
 
Kerry was probably completely unprepared for it and was rushed/pressurised into it and didn't know what to expect, she probably did this to please her dad...

Hope you are writing hard on that book and i would be very interested to read the completed story if you don't mind... ;-)
 
overthepond said:
Kerry was probably completely unprepared for it and was rushed/pressurised into it and didn't know what to expect, she probably did this to please her dad...

Hope you are writing hard on that book and i would be very interested to read the completed story if you don't mind... ;-)
Click to expand...

I'm I'm writing lots but will take a break as I am going to spend 2 weeks at vegan camp them come back, hopefully with a lot of new ideas. You are probably right about Kerry. I do see a pattern amergining though. That all CI successes have been good communicators. A lot of CI failures have been bad communicators. I'm not talking oral communication here. I'm thinking of the overal picture. ie literacy, signing, etc... It does make sense though. If you can't tell the Audiologists if your Mapping is too high you would definately experiance more problems with the machine then someone who could pinpoint exactly what they needed and didn't need to hear.
 
dreama said:
I'm I'm writing lots but will take a break as I am going to spend 2 weeks at vegan camp them come back, hopefully with a lot of new ideas. You are probably right about Kerry. I do see a pattern amergining though. That all CI successes have been good communicators. A lot of CI failures have been bad communicators. I'm not talking oral communication here. I'm thinking of the overal picture. ie literacy, signing, etc... It does make sense though. If you can't tell the Audiologists if your Mapping is too high you would definately experiance more problems with the machine then someone who could pinpoint exactly what they needed and didn't need to hear.
Click to expand...

I have a friend who has a ci and only hears enivonmental sounds. He can't understand speech, but to him it is a success not a failure. The goal was to hear. Success and failure is an individual goal. I define my success as having a conversation with my daughter. That is success to me. I get to enjoy music, but that is the topping.

So keep in mind that yes good mapping is important, there are limitations to everything. A good audie can map even if you can't pinpoint what you need. My audie found a way around my limitations. I have a great map.
 
Hi, I've been working quite a lot on my book that is now called "Demon decendants".

I'd like to update on plot regarding CI characters.

Nadia has CI age 18 months. CI themselves work but she hates the device due to all the side issues such as oral only approach, dislike of noise, her father having to go heavily into dept. She stops wearing them eventually. She has several signing deaf and deafblind relatives who she only gets to see later after parents split up since her mother is very Audist. She wants a hearing magically able son wheras Nadia is a deaf non magical daughter. So she disapoints her mother on all 3 accouts.

Mona: Older Deafblind adult. (Nadia's grandmother). CI a success as born hearing although she is quite old when she gets it done. Does anyone actually know the success rate in older born hearing adults? (over 50)

Chaitra: Deafblind teenager (born deafblind) but has speech and uses HA as well as tactile sign language too. Wants CI but her family are dead against it. Should accept being deaf, Too expensive (if you have to pay yourself), and it didn't work for Nadia (Chaitra's cousin) There are other reason's too.
 
dreama,

Just a quick comment about your character Chaitra. If a person opts for a CI, it doesn't mean that they don't accept their deafness. A CI is simply a tool -- not a cure for deafness.

Could you state the other reasons why Chaitra is against CIs? I'd be curious to know what they are.
 
dreama said:
I'm I'm writing lots but will take a break as I am going to spend 2 weeks at vegan camp them come back, hopefully with a lot of new ideas. You are probably right about Kerry. I do see a pattern amergining though. That all CI successes have been good communicators. A lot of CI failures have been bad communicators. I'm not talking oral communication here. I'm thinking of the overal picture. ie literacy, signing, etc... It does make sense though. If you can't tell the Audiologists if your Mapping is too high you would definately experiance more problems with the machine then someone who could pinpoint exactly what they needed and didn't need to hear.
Click to expand...

I don't know about Med-El or Advanced Bionics, but Cochlear has a mapping program that automatically sets T (the softest sound that can be heard) and C (the loudest sound that can heard without experiencing discomfort) levels for those who are unable to give feedback about what they are hearing.
 
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