I might be getting the Cochlear Implant and have questions

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RonJaxon

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Hi everyone.

Well, I have an appointment on June 8 to see if I'm a candidate for the implant.

I've always been HOH but my hearing decreased to deafness between 15 and 20 years ago. During that 5 year period is when it slowly went away. Right now I can only hear very loud and low pitch sounds in my left ear. My right ear can't hear anything. If I'm in a place with a live band I can hear the drums and sometimes the hum of the bass. But I haven't heard speech in about 15 years.

Now for my questions. What Therapy should I look into for this? I'm basically looking for information on what kinds of things I should ask about if they do tell me I could get the implant. I've talked to some people and found out that some have very emotional responses. For example finding out my speech is much worse then I thought it was. I know my speech isn't perfect but to actually hear it I imagine will be emotional. Do they generally take this into consideration during the therapy after the activation? Is "Speech therapy" usually expected to be provided?

I've also read some say that some doctors really don't understand this emotional aspect of it all. Some just think, "I can make your hear again" but don't take into consideration what that actually does to a person. So I want to know what to ask to make sure this isn't one of those doctors. :)

Any advice and information would be appreciated.

Ron
 
My condolences for the loss of your residual hearing. You probably will be a candidate in the right ear, it's a question about accepting the risks, including of the surgery itself. Save the left ear for various reasons. They will train you to hear again with CI. It's not a cure but youll hear differently than with HAs and this takes time getting used to.

How well do you hear unaided and aided? They may(and really should) give you a 30 day trial of the best HAs first to determine what benefit you will get from them.
 
Ron,

I would highly recommend that you join various e-mail lists for CI users such a CIHear to get a better idea of the experiences people have with their CIs. They can also share with you experiences as they relate to their own personal adjustment/decision to get a CI as well as what kind of factors played a role in their decision making.
 
deafdude1 said:
My condolences for the loss of your residual hearing. You probably will be a candidate in the right ear, it's a question about accepting the risks, including of the surgery itself. Save the left ear for various reasons. They will train you to hear again with CI. It's not a cure but youll hear differently than with HAs and this takes time getting used to.

How well do you hear unaided and aided? They may(and really should) give you a 30 day trial of the best HAs first to determine what benefit you will get from them.
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No offense, but let's allow Ron's CI center to determine whether or not he is a candidate. There may be other issues we don't know about which would necessitate one or the other ear being implanted.
 
Of course, he has to go there and find out. He did ask here and im just saying the odds are good that he will be a candidate but again he will find out for sure at a CI center.
 
deafdude1 said:
Of course, he has to go there and find out. He did ask here and im just saying the odds are good that he will be a candidate but again he will find out for sure at a CI center.
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You aren't a CI audi, so therefore you do not know whether or not he is a candidate. You also do not know of any extenuating medical conditions that may or may not impact his candidacy. Please leave that up to his CI center to determine.

If Ron wants to be evaluated for a CI, he has every right to do that without being told which ear may be implanted or whether or not he should try stronger hearing aids. That is for him, his CI audi and CI surgeon to decide.
 
Then there was no point in him posting here if none of us can offer any advice except wish him luck.
 
deafdude1 said:
Then there was no point in him posting here if none of us can offer any advice except wish him luck.
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Speculating which ear may or may not qualify for a CI is not offering advice.

As far as "advising" him to try the latest hearing aids, I'm sure his CI audi will discuss that with Ron further provided he is not wearing the strongest hearing aids available on the market at this time.

Offering advice means sharing one's experiences with their CI evaluation, surgery, activation, etc. and making recommendations as to how Ron can make the experience of being evaluated for a CI and going through the entire CI process easier.
 
Ron,

I apologize if I'm derailing your thread, but I felt it was necessary to point out that telling someone which ear may or may not qualify for a CI will not help you since your audi and surgeon are the only ones who can determine that.
 
I would have to agree with Hear Again and should emphasize it as well. We can offer all the advice/guidance in the world, but it still won't replace the sound advice (no pun intended of course) and professional diagnosis that your audie will provide you in determining the viability of a Cochlear Implant for your hearing.

Of course, Ron, I should apologize as well as I hope I'm not derailing your thread. Just wanted to make sure that you and anyone else who reads this follows the same advice and consults their audiologist regarding what can help. :)
 
Phi4Sius said:
I would have to agree with Hear Again and should emphasize it as well. We can offer all the advice/guidance in the world, but it still won't replace the sound advice (no pun intended of course) and professional diagnosis that your audie will provide you in determining the viability of a Cochlear Implant for your hearing.

Of course, Ron, I should apologize as well as I hope I'm not derailing your thread. Just wanted to make sure that you and anyone else who reads this follows the same advice and consults their audiologist regarding what can help. :)
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:gpost:
 
Hear Again said:
Speculating which ear may or may not qualify for a CI is not offering advice.

As far as "advising" him to try the latest hearing aids, I'm sure his CI audi will discuss that with Ron further provided he is not wearing the strongest hearing aids available on the market at this time.

Offering advice means sharing one's experiences with their CI evaluation, surgery, activation, etc. and making recommendations as to how Ron can make the experience of being evaluated for a CI and going through the entire CI process easier.
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Ok, if his audie and surgeon says either ear qualifies and he can choose himself which ear then it's logical to choose the worse ear to implant. If for some reason his worse ear doesn't qualify, he should find out why. I don't know why, none of us know why but im just saying he should find out why.

If only his better ear qualifies, I need to tell him that he won't have the advantage of bimodel(one HA and one CI) and if for any reason the CI doesn't work, he won't have a 2nd ear to fall back on with HA. It's risky to implant the only good ear. I know it's his choice but he needs to be aware of the risks.

If his audie fails to mention him trying the latest HAs, he should find out why. I know people who never got the chance to try the latest HAs and I know it's standard procedure to first find out how much benefit a person gets with newer HAs, provided he has residual hearing. I can say that if I wanted to get a CI, you can bet ill surely be trying all the best HAs from different brands because there's a chance I could hear drastically better with one of their HAs. I know a guy who went from 20% speech comphrension to 80% just by trying a different brand and better HA.
 
deafdude1 said:
If only his better ear qualifies, I need to tell him that he won't have the advantage of bimodel(one HA and one CI) and if for any reason the CI doesn't work, he won't have a 2nd ear to fall back on with HA. It's risky to implant the only good ear.
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Again, none of us can determine this until he has a proper evaluation by means of a hearing test, CT scan, etc.
 
deafdude1 said:
If his audie fails to mention him trying the latest HAs, he should find out why. I know people who never got the chance to try the latest HAs and I know it's standard procedure to first find out how much benefit a person gets with newer HAs, provided he has residual hearing. I can say that if I wanted to get a CI, you can bet ill surely be trying all the best HAs from different brands because there's a chance I could hear drastically better with one of their HAs. I know a guy who went from 20% speech comphrension to 80% just by trying a different brand and better HA.
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Just because you know someone whose speech discrimination increased 60% doesn't mean it happens to everyone.

Why not let Ron complete his evaluation and take things from there? The issue does not need to be complicated by advising him to try the latest hearing aids or speculating which ear may be implanted since all of this will be determined by his CI team.
 
I did think about the fact that I think I'd want it in my right ear because I can't hear anything in that ear anyway so I don't have to worry about loosing what little hearing I have in my left ear. But that's something I'll discuss when I'm there.

I haven't worn a hearing aid in about 10 years. That is something else I'm thinking about. Possibly CI in my right ear and HA in my left. Is that common?

Thanks again.
 
There are alot of people who use a bimodal approach (CI/HA). I used to be one of them. I had my left ear implanted and continued to wear a HA in my right ear for 6 months following my CI activation. Eventually my hearing reached the point where I could no longer tell whether my hearing aid was on or off. My audi and I tried every programming strategy possible to improve what I heard with my hearing aid to no avail. This is when my CI surgeon recommended I have my right ear implanted. That being said, there are many people who continue wearing a HA in their nonimplanted ear and are quite happy with how well they are able to hear.
 
And this is exactly why he's agreeing that it's a good idea to implant the dead right ear. Of course he's going to discuss it, let us know what the CI team says when you return from the appointment. You will find out everything and then we can offer further advice.
 
RonJaxon said:
I did think about the fact that I think I'd want it in my right ear because I can't hear anything in that ear anyway so I don't have to worry about loosing what little hearing I have in my left ear.
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Some people have their better ear implanted and have had very good results -- especially when their poorer ear hasn't been stimulated for many, many years.

That being said, I can understand why you wish to have your right ear implanted. Like you, I chose to have my worse ear implanted as well even though I was given the choice as to which ear I wanted to have the CI in.
 
RonJaxon said:
Hi everyone.

Well, I have an appointment on June 8 to see if I'm a candidate for the implant.

I've always been HOH but my hearing decreased to deafness between 15 and 20 years ago. During that 5 year period is when it slowly went away. Right now I can only hear very loud and low pitch sounds in my left ear. My right ear can't hear anything. If I'm in a place with a live band I can hear the drums and sometimes the hum of the bass. But I haven't heard speech in about 15 years.

Now for my questions. What Therapy should I look into for this? I'm basically looking for information on what kinds of things I should ask about if they do tell me I could get the implant. I've talked to some people and found out that some have very emotional responses. For example finding out my speech is much worse then I thought it was. I know my speech isn't perfect but to actually hear it I imagine will be emotional. Do they generally take this into consideration during the therapy after the activation? Is "Speech therapy" usually expected to be provided?

I've also read some say that some doctors really don't understand this emotional aspect of it all. Some just think, "I can make your hear again" but don't take into consideration what that actually does to a person. So I want to know what to ask to make sure this isn't one of those doctors. :)

Any advice and information would be appreciated.

Ron
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Good luck on your candidacy and hope everything goes well for you! :) You can read my thread, someone in my thread posted a list of good questions that you can ask your CI surgeon.

DeafDude - RonJaxon can make his own decisions regarding HAs/CIs as they are his ears, not yours. He only wants to find out what questions to ask his CI surgeon. his CI audiologist, and his CI center. He is simply doing his homework.
 
I'd like to ask anyone who is similar to me in that I could once hear, became deaf then got the implant. How much of a shock was your own speech to you? I'd just like to talk to someone who has gone through what I might go through soon.
 
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