contact sport, sky diving and cochlear implants?

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dreama

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I've just been looking online again about information about CI's. It seems you can't do sky diving, scuba diving or contact sports. Although some sources say you can do scuba diving. So that's rather a contradition.

One of my characters with CI does parachute jumping. (although she has problems with her landings so much so that she has to give it up eventually).

How dangerous are all these things on the list of restrictions for CI users anyway?
 
dreama said:
I've just been looking online again about information about CI's. It seems you can't do sky diving, scuba diving or contact sports. Although some sources say you can do scuba diving. So that's rather a contradition.

One of my characters with CI does parachute jumping. (although she has problems with her landings so much so that she has to give it up eventually).

How dangerous are all these things on the list of restrictions for CI users anyway?
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You can do whatever you want to do. :) Skydiving? No problem. I believe Skydiving is less height than being on an airplane, and I have *never* heard anyone have a problem with CI on the planes and such.

Scuba Diving? No problem. Cochlear says up to 99 feet, which majority of leisure scuba diving is less than that...usually around 80 feet? However, the WORSE thing could happen to the implant is that it could crack under pressure. It's not going to explode or do any other problems. I would think they can tolerate much deeper dive, but the companies don't want people to "rely" on that.

Any contact sports - the head simply needs to be protected. It would be recommended not to wear CI processors during those type of sports. Extreme sports where it requires a lot of head butting or head involvement (maybe wrestling or something like that), should be avoided. People can still ski, dive, swim, etc etc....
 
LadySekhmet said:
You can do whatever you want to do. :) Skydiving? No problem. I believe Skydiving is less height than being on an airplane, and I have *never* heard anyone have a problem with CI on the planes and such.

Scuba Diving? No problem. Cochlear says up to 99 feet, which majority of leisure scuba diving is less than that...usually around 80 feet? However, the WORSE thing could happen to the implant is that it could crack under pressure. It's not going to explode or do any other problems. I would think they can tolerate much deeper dive, but the companies don't want people to "rely" on that.

Any contact sports - the head simply needs to be protected. It would be recommended not to wear CI processors during those type of sports. Extreme sports where it requires a lot of head butting or head involvement (maybe wrestling or something like that), should be avoided. People can still ski, dive, swim, etc etc....
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Thanks very much for your response.
 
I go downhill skiing, but never have had any problems with my CIs. I simply wear a ski helmet which keeps my processors in place.
 
Dream Your Dream and Grab Life and Shake It!

Dear dreama:

I was moved to sign up to respond to your query about skydiving and scuba diving with a CI.

Having worked extensively with the deaf population at CSUN, and spending too much time in medicine. . .

. . .please let me offer, your CI is hearty, and will take a beating. It is the attorneys coupled with the doctors that limit you. Grab life by the cahones and be the best you can possibly be.

As far as scuba diving, you can dive as deep as you possibly want. if you dont want water in your outer ear canal you can wear ear plugs. If you can remember Boyles Law (Pressure is inversely proportional to Volume) as you descend you will equalize all of your airspaces. So even at 4 atm at 99 feet of seawater, you have equalized your airspaces all the way down so you are at 1 atm in your sinuses, you just have 4 times the squeezed molecules within that airspace.

I am here for all of you. Please dont hesitate to call me via TTY at 818 982 2652 or email me at admin@k2scuba.com.

We need to get the Kool Kids in diving. . .this is such an old curmudgeons sport.

Blessings to all,

Tevis
Chief cook and bottle washer,
Scuba Diving Gear | Snorkeling Gear | Discount Equipment-K2 Scuba
K2 Scuba Online Team Diving Blog :wave:
 
Dreama:

Just to add, my son plays football. He uses a special padded helmet to protect the area,but he plays, along with his 4 other cousins who are implanted. The CI has not restricted his activities at all. I hope this helps.
 
Having CI certainly haven't stopped me from racing on yachts, skiing, horseriding, rough'n'tumble with deaf kids (ci or not) at volunteer organistion.

Sky diving is 10,000 feet thats before you can't breathe without oxygen (15,000) Airplanes are much higher (35,000ft) and the pressures are much higher hence regulated with oxygen on board and pressures regulated. I don't think it will stop anybody with CI from jumping off the plane!

I'd be more concerned having the bends than my CI if I dive any further than recommended level. I'd stick with leisure dive.
 
It's almost to the point where the CI wearer has no more risks involved with such activities than someone that doesn't wear one.
 
Scuba diving involves much more pressures than skydiving, and scuba diving isn't even a concern (within recreational limits). The reason why there are conflicting information is because apparently not too many deaf people go scuba diving (I will never understand why!!!!! You can sign underwater!) so there isn't a pressing need for intensive studies. They (Cochlear) have already tested the pressures that it can withstand (beyond 4atm, which is 99 feet, but 99 feet is the safety maximum depth) but I think the companies are reluctant to say that it's safe to dive with it because there aren't many reported cases of real life CI user diving with it.

Besides, if you dive more than 60 feet, believe me, your biggest concern is nitrogen narcosis, not the CI!!
 
overthepond said:
Having CI certainly haven't stopped me from racing on yachts, skiing, horseriding, rough'n'tumble with deaf kids (ci or not) at volunteer organistion.

Sky diving is 10,000 feet thats before you can't breathe without oxygen (15,000) Airplanes are much higher (35,000ft) and the pressures are much higher hence regulated with oxygen on board and pressures regulated. I don't think it will stop anybody with CI from jumping off the plane!

I'd be more concerned having the bends than my CI if I dive any further than recommended level. I'd stick with leisure dive.
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Dang that would freak me out so bad to do that stuff. just with cost of HA's and CI, I play it safe and play it deaf. I don't even do softball with any HA.
 
Daredevel7 said:
Besides, if you dive more than 60 feet, believe me, your biggest concern is nitrogen narcosis, not the CI!!
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Exactly...


By the way ALOT of Uk deaf loves diving, we had diving club at Deaf school which I love!
It's very popular here. There is deaf british man setting up diving business in cayman islands from his boat. There is deaf diving holiday in thailand.
 
overthepond said:
Exactly...


By the way ALOT of Uk deaf loves diving, we had diving club at Deaf school which I used to love to go!
It's very popular here. There is deaf british man setting up diving business in cayman islands from his boat. There is deaf diving holiday in thailand.
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I heard about the thailand one! Doesn't seem to be as popular in America...? I am SURE there are other deaf divers but I would have thought that it would be more popular for them.
 
The thailand one is hard as there is only one choice of dates (recently they added another date/place but still difficult dates)... wish they have more dates (they do but not just for the deaf) and the "hearing" dives have more choice of places they wish to dive and the deaf one is fixed to particular area, that what put me off.

Hope the cayman island is good, my friend knows him so hopefully one day we'll go there. (£££££££ permitting!!)
 
Thanks very much for all your responses.

I really wanted to know since the CI character that I was writing about is very physically active and goes sky diving.

So the list of limitations is just mainly for insurance purposes? Meaning you can do it but it would be hard to get cover? Do CI users generally take it with a grain of salt.

I think the big list mainly includes rough contact sports such as Icehocky, rugby, martial arts scuba diving and skydiving.

Something else on the nono list was white knuckle funfair rides too. I mean the big scary ones. Has any CI users gone on the more fast fair rides without their CI breaking down?

Thanks again for your information. Although it's a fantasy novel their is so much fiction already out there about CI's that I do really want to tell it as it is.
 
Honestly, I would get this answer from a certified CI specialist, just to be 100% sure.
 
I know someone with CI that does Karate.

To your previous post, yes i am very interested in reading your story. Thanks for remembering... Pm'ing you my email address.
 
deafbajagal said:
Honestly, I would get this answer from a certified CI specialist, just to be 100% sure.
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I could try that, but what I'm looking for isn't so much about a risk as having a CI is inself a risk. What I really wanted to know how great this risk was. Wether one or two jumps would land you in hospital. Or wether it was just something that might happen?
 
hohDougRN said:
Hey its your story Dreama- Anything can happen :)
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Thanks hohdoug. Things definately Do happen too? (smile)
I would want to avoid any further CI myths if that can be avoided because contradiction and fiction seems to be all over the place both Pro CI and Anti CI. So I really want to research well on this subject. Why I'm having both a success and a failure. The successful implantee is very active.
 
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