I'm curious about all CI user.

I have bilateral Advanced Bionics cochlear implants. Each person is different. The color does not matter to me, as I wore beige hearing aids my whole life. I picked AB for the tech features and rechargable batteries. It has it own rechargeable batteries and charger. I love it. The 12 hour battery is so comfortable and light.

Hearing - Hearing Aids are not even in the same league. The quality, sound, and just everything is different. I am still hearing new sounds even a year later. BUT not everyone has the same comprehension with CIs as another person. For some reason speech comprehension was easier for me, I'm up to around 95% total ears. I worked very hard on my auditory therapy. CIs are not plug in and go tools. It takes time and hard work. There is a group of CI users that do not gain speech comprehension no matter how much therapy they have. So talk to your doctor and audie about realistic expectations. Please do not go into this without understanding that no two CI users have the same experience. That is why it is a personal journey and personal expectations.
 
Thank you for sharing with me. I have to wait until audiologist tell me to do re-test for my hearing. I will figure it out what is going on. I am still wear HA for now. I have to talk with Specialist ENT doctor when I will able to get CI. My mom really want me to have CI because of my vision problem. I am looking forward to get CI. I want to be happy to hear a sound in the world. I think I would like to get a black device to match on my dark brown hair. I am not sure yet. I want to make a decide what I pick a color. I can understand that speech is frustrate and it take a long time to learn for many years. I have to deal with it and be patient. My third cousin has 2 ci. He will be 6. I haven't see him since he got second CI. I will see him on Thanksgiving. I heard that he can speak on phone very well. I was feeling envy. My mom said, "Please dont be jealous. Just be happy for him to hear". I wish I would take CI in first place. Ohh well. Of course, I will get CI anyways. Thank you for sharing of your experience. :)

vallee said:
I have bilateral Advanced Bionics cochlear implants. Each person is different. The color does not matter to me, as I wore beige hearing aids my whole life. I picked AB for the tech features and rechargable batteries. It has it own rechargeable batteries and charger. I love it. The 12 hour battery is so comfortable and light.

Hearing - Hearing Aids are not even in the same league. The quality, sound, and just everything is different. I am still hearing new sounds even a year later. BUT not everyone has the same comprehension with CIs as another person. For some reason speech comprehension was easier for me, I'm up to around 95% total ears. I worked very hard on my auditory therapy. CIs are not plug in and go tools. It takes time and hard work. There is a group of CI users that do not gain speech comprehension no matter how much therapy they have. So talk to your doctor and audie about realistic expectations. Please do not go into this without understanding that no two CI users have the same experience. That is why it is a personal journey and personal expectations.
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Really? Med El isn't good? I didn't know that. I want to choice color whatever I want. But I will have to wait and see. I has a dark brown hair. How about dark chocolate or black? I will ask Skullchick about it. I saw her picture of hot pink BTE. I like it. I haven't decide what color do I want. I heard AB is great! I will keep posts about my plan. I will figure it out about audiologist tell me to do re-test hearing. My both ears are bad since I lost about 110 db from 90db when I was born.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I am looking forward to get it.

overthepond said:
Hi Pinky,

I had CI by choices, I had 3 to choose from... med el no way... didn't fit suggly over my ear, unattractive. I chose Cochlear over AB due to its comfort and more programs as i work outside all the time so i would like to have 2 settings one for outside and another for inside so i can get better clairty for both and another 2 for what ever comes. I thought AB was way cool with it's colours but i chose practiality over the colours. I will have chocolate brown to match my hair. In the box there's 8 different colour microphone covers (one of them is PINK!) I think you can get pink processor (skullchick have those i think) But it's only for mini BTE i think... best to ask Skullchick.

What ever you choose you can always paint it with pink nail varnish! :)
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At first, I too wanted a bright colored BTE (visible processor). But having a BTE that blends in with my hair has a lot more benefits...
Deaf pride and all, but sometimes I just want to be invisible and blend in.
 
TheIronQueen said:
At first, I too wanted a bright colored BTE (visible processor). But having a BTE that blends in with my hair has a lot more benefits...
Deaf pride and all, but sometimes I just want to be invisible and blend in.
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I agree with you. That what I want to be invisible and blend in my hair. I thought the dark chocolate or brown are for black people but not. Do you think my dark brown hair will be match on dark chocolate or black?
 
I'm not black... My chocolate brown processor blends in perfectly with my hair. You can talk to a CI audiologist about this.
As far as CI's go, colors are not the most important decision!
 
TheIronQueen said:
I'm not black... My chocolate brown processor blends in perfectly with my hair. You can talk to a CI audiologist about this.
As far as CI's go, colors are not the most important decision!
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That's true. By the way, I love design a fashion for fun. I don't mean to be kiddish. LoL How about can I add a rhinestones bling?
 
I've never heard of "bling" but I suppose it can be done... I guess you would have to get rhinestone stickers... I wouldn't put glue or anything strong on my processor though... 50,000+ was too much money to play with! Really, talk to your audiologist! =)
 
TheIronQueen said:
I've never heard of "bling" but I suppose it can be done... I guess you would have to get rhinestone stickers... I wouldn't put glue or anything strong on my processor though... 50,000+ was too much money to play with! Really, talk to your audiologist! =)
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How did I know about bling rhinestone on coil? It coming from internet with a picture of girl have rhinestones. They will not use a glue to stick on processor. It's stickers and removable. That what I saw the pictures. I will ask to my future CI audiologist. I haven't meet audiologist for CI yet. I have to wait until get call from my HA audiologist about hearing re-test.

Yeah it's expensive to get CI. Is your parent paid you a CI? or Insurance paid for it?
 
My family and generous friends all pitched in together to pay for my surgery and post-op care. Like my of those who want CI's, my insurance refused to cover me.
Fight for your insurance to cover you though... the only reason we went ahead was because time was an issue. If I waited, I would have to forgo college for a year or two.
 
That's nice of your family help you to got CI . They love and support you! I am sure they are happy for you to hear. My family do support and love me so much! They can't wait for me to hear. :)
 
Hi Pinky, I am sure that your insurance would take you for advantage as you have vision problems so should be okay.

I am having chocolate brown CI, i have dirty brown/dark blonde hair. When i get switched on in 3/4 weeks time (i am in UK u see!) I will take pictures and post on here.

Scar.jpg


in the mean time here's my scar! (i had it done 3 days ago) the Operation was fab, no pain, no dizziness, no sickness.
 
TheIronQueen said:
My family and generous friends all pitched in together to pay for my surgery and post-op care. Like my of those who want CI's, my insurance refused to cover me.
Fight for your insurance to cover you though... the only reason we went ahead was because time was an issue. If I waited, I would have to forgo college for a year or two.
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Thats really nice of your family / friends.
 
Pinky678 said:
That's true. By the way, I love design a fashion for fun. I don't mean to be kiddish. LoL How about can I add a rhinestones bling?
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Do you have Claire's accessorizes in USA? it's bit of bling kids jewellery/hair shop, they do loads of stickers of all sorts and other thing is nail rhinestones (for nails) they are small and good as i think...Or Google Rhinestone stickers.. I am 30 and I am big kid at heart!
 
overthepond said:
Hi Pinky, I am sure that your insurance would take you for advantage as you have vision problems so should be okay.

I am having chocolate brown CI, i have dirty brown/dark blonde hair. When i get switched on in 3/4 weeks time (i am in UK u see!) I will take pictures and post on here.

in the mean time here's my scar! (i had it done 3 days ago) the Operation was fab, no pain, no dizziness, no sickness.
Click to expand...

That's great! Are you coming from UK? I saw your picture. It alike a pain. You don't have any pain, dizziness or sick. You're so lucky! I don't have to be panic if It's pain real bad. I will be worry free during operation.

Congratulation on your new CI! Good luck!
 
No I am true londoner and lived in UK all my life. But do love to come to States for holidays, been to LA, San Fran, New York, Boston, and Canada (toronto, Banff) Might be back sometime in 2009 not sure yet.

thank you for Good lucks.
 
I had a lot of pain following my surgery, but mine was because the surgeon discovered scar tissue from a reconstructive inner ear surgery 15 years ago covering my cochlea. He had to cut it, and in the process, he cut my ear canal. That's really the only reason I felt pain. I got narcotics to lessen my pain though... I had codeine and tylenol at first, because thats what they usually give... So really, the biggest thing is getting rest and NOT MOVING your head after the surgery.
 
Ouch! I prefer to put me a sleep IV during operation. I heard the doctor use a small drill through the little hole on bone to cochlea. That's interesting!
 
Pinky - Here's Freedom Color choices if you're curious:

Full BTE and Mini BTE - Beige, Brown, Black, Silver, Pink, Blue

The Difference between a Mini and Full is the Mini does not handle External Accessories (that is if you don't listen to iPod or TV or whatever) - however, you may have a choice of having ONE mini bte, and the other full BTE.

The Mini BTE has 12 Controller Panel colors - Black, Purple, Yellow, blue, red, beige, silver, brown, light green, dark green

On top of that, you can get quite a lot of different color microphone protectors if you want to stick with just brown processor, but change the mirophone protector when you want.

As for AB - you can change to a lot of different colors as well.

As between AB, Mel-El, and Cochlear - you really have to do a lot of research on this. In some places in Europe, only Mel-El and Cochlear is available. Some surgeons only do strictly one company same goes for the CI audiologist. My CI audiologist only does Cochlear, and my surgeon only does Cochlear. I love them to death, and I will not choose otherwise. I personally feel that there is really no BIG/HUGE difference between Cochlear and AB. They both are good companies. Both of their processors have pros and cons. They BOTH have success stories and not so successful stories. It's you. It's your head, your ears. You need to make it work for yourself, not for anyone else.

They will put you under anesthesia. TheIronQueen was talking about post operation pain. Pretty much everyone who had CI have to bear pain for a little while.

Good luck with your Journey!
 
Hi!

LadySekhmet, Thank you FYI! I want to listen with Ipod and tv on CI. I found it out Ipod will work for CI. That's great! I always want to listen my dad's playing band. I never hear any music. My dad passed away last 11 years ago. When I was born with profound deaf. My dad had a heartbroken because I am deaf. I'm not able to hear anymore. I wore a hearing aids. It's not help enough for me. I decide to get CI for sure. I don't care what other deaf people think about me. That's my choice to hear! I read everyone with CI user blog and youtube. It's very interesting. I am still research all kind of CI through google.

My husband will be happy for me to hear. If I hear a word. I would be cry and happy! I will keep post when I hear from audiologist.

Thank you again! :D
 
Hi Pinky. Getting a CI doesn't really have anything to do with improving one's english grammars. There are plenty of Deaf people, many who has hearing aids, many who ha Cochlear Implants, and many who doesn't wear HA's or CI's and their English grammar skills are good. It depends on the education you received, how well you understand English, and how much you practice to get good at it.

As for hearing with Cochlear Implants, in my experience it is a lot better than hearing with hearing aids. I've worn hearing aids all my life until I got my 1st CI last May '07 then got my 2nd this past May. Now, I can't imagine my life without CI's. I wish I had gotten it shortly after my oldest daughter was born then I maybe wouldn't of had to go thru a year of 24/7 tinnitus hell!!! It was awful! Sooo glad that it went away as I got activated.

There are 3 brands to choose from, Cochlear Americas, Advanced Bionics, and Med-El. I was interested in the first two, but not the Med-El because the shape didn't seem like it would be comfortable. Then I found out that my surgeon and hospital only works with Cochlear and Med-El. So, I obviously went with Cochlear and I couldn't be happier. Their customer service is fantastic! They may not make many awesome colors like Advanced Bionics does right now but I'm hopeful that one day in the future they'll start adding more colors. At this time, I don't care about the colors. I just want Cochlear [and the other two brands] to come up with a way to make our processors less bulky. Maybe fit everything into that one little circle. Wouldn't that be fantastic? Nothing to put on our ears? No cords to mess around with. No nothing? Just simply turn it on and put it right where it goes. For now that's only in my dreams tho! :)

Good luck on your CI journey and finding out if you're a good candidate then going from there. Remember to do lotsa research and don't let the negative stuff scare you. I, myself was freaking out when I was reading some of the negative stuff right here on AD shortly before surgery and I was like "Ackkkk!" but decided not to let words on the net bother me and let me see for myself & I'm so glad I did.

Sorry this was long.
 
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