Cochlear Implants..

[James_UK]

Hello everybody. My name is James, I'm 18 and I have just joined this forum because I am currently thinking about getting a cochlear implant.

I am profoundly deaf and have been using hearing aids for all of my life but now am currently curious and seeking a way to improve my hearing.

I have deaf parents and a deaf sibling and we use BSL, and I went to a mainstream school where the teachers used BSL to teach deaf students.

However, I have now moved to a college where there is no other deaf students, and I have been here for 3 years now, and I have made loads of friends but still feel that I miss out on a lot of the converstations.

about half of my deaf friends use hearing aids, and the rest have cochlear implants. I feel as if getting one could benefit me greatly.

what are the things that I need to think about/consider?

I also plan on raising money for charities and things like that when I am older by doing things such as sky diving, bungee jumping, etc. Getting a cochlear implant will not affect any of that, will it? I heard that people who have a cochlear implant cannot do scuba diving. Is there anything else they are not allowed to do?

sorry for the long post! I just felt that some background information would help

 

[Hohtopics]

Hello everybody. My name is James, I'm 18 and I have just joined this forum because I am currently thinking about getting a cochlear implant.

Welcome to the Forum!

I am profoundly deaf and have been using hearing aids for all of my life but now am currently curious and seeking a way to improve my hearing.

I have deaf parents and a deaf sibling and we use BSL, and I went to a mainstream school where the teachers used BSL to teach deaf students.

However, I have now moved to a college where there is no other deaf students, and I have been here for 3 years now, and I have made loads of friends but still feel that I miss out on a lot of the converstations.

about half of my deaf friends use hearing aids, and the rest have cochlear implants. I feel as if getting one could benefit me greatly.

what are the things that I need to think about/consider?

One is that getting a cochlear implant could possibly destroy whatever residual hearing you may have in that ear. Although some sources have said that it'll be the case and others have said that it won't be.

As for myself, I got implanted in the worse ear. In the ear where I had less residual hearing to begin with, to the point that I wasn't even making a good use of an hearing aid in that ear.

I also plan on raising money for charities and things like that when I am older by doing things such as sky diving, bungee jumping, etc. Getting a cochlear implant will not affect any of that, will it? I heard that people who have a cochlear implant cannot do scuba diving. Is there anything else they are not allowed to do?

Well, I've heard of some CI users still playing sports and so forth after they got one.

As for myself, I came into the conclusion that I probably wasn't going to be doing many of those things anyway (i.e. sky diving, bungee jumping, etc). You know there are also other, perhaps less active or strenuous ways of doing charity, grin.

sorry for the long post! I just felt that some background information would help

That's okay. It wasn't that long to begin with by any standards.

You also mentioned that you also know of some deaf friends that has a CI. So, you may want to also ask for their personal input.

 

[Tousi]

Hello, James and welcome to Alldeaf. If you will do a search of the topics, there's a ton of them here, both pro and con. It can get heated....just so you know.

I'm impressed that you started college at the age of 15!

 

[Bottesini]

Hello, James and welcome to Alldeaf. If you will do a search of the topics, there's a ton of them here, both pro and con. It can get heated....just so you know.

I'm impressed that you started college at the age of 15!

Isn't college in England what we call High School here?

 

[Lissa]

Hi James, a fellow UK'er here. I was implanted at 10 1/2 years old and lost the tiniest amount of hearing I had left. Prior to the implant, I wore hearing aids for 9 1/2 years(hearing aids at 1 year)

 

[Speedy Hawk]

Hey James welcome to AllDeaf.

Isn't college in England what we call High School here?

I am not sure how old you got be in High School. In England there secondary school for up to 16 years old that you must do by law then it can go up to 18 years old if pick A Levels (that can be done at college if they wanted to). Most will go to college at aged 16 and later.