Is Cochlear Implant suitable to me?

Definitely do the worst ear.
 
On the other hand it would boost your WDS up from zero to a strong WDS... We don't know what you'd get....but it would be a LOT better then 0%....and of course since you had a progressive loss you'd probaly score pretty high.
 
deafdyke said:
On the other hand it would boost your WDS up from zero to a strong WDS... We don't know what you'd get....but it would be a LOT better then 0%....and of course since you had a progressive loss you'd probaly score pretty high.
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Thank you deafdyke. This reply gives me a strong confidence.
Can't wait to give it a try.

On the process of examination these days, hope I can do the surgery. :cool2:
 
ymhon said:
Hi everlastingstorm,

The reason why I said CI's would be of limited help with a less than 80% WDS is because about 7 years ago I have 84% WDS on my right ear and 50% WDS on my left ear,
and I still feel big trouble communicating with other people then. (Though still better than now.)

Considering about your statement, maybe my WDS testing result then is not that correct I think.

In Taiwan, CI will cause me about $700,000twd ($25,000usd) after discount (original price: $30,000usd).
Only childrens can get full insurance about this.
It is a big money in Taiwan, so if the effect is not that huge, I should consider whether to pay this money or not.
Seeing so many successful case above and otherplaces, I really want to give it a try.

There are doctors recommended to implant CI on my right ear and predict a 80% WDS after implanted.(Keep residual hearing, hybrid CI (EAS technology))
And other doctors recommended to implant CI on my left ear and predict a 50% WDS after implanted.

I'm very confused now. Though I already decided the brand of CI.

Which ear to implant is better for me?
Should I choose the doctor that have seldom surgery experiences but with the best hospital auditory center?
Or the doctor with lots of surgery experiences but with a so-so hospital auditory center?
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No one can truly predict what your outcome will be with either ear. You can exceed expectations with either ear.

You want an experienced doctor. You also want an experienced audiologist. Are you really tied to one place? Why can't you go to the experienced doctor and then switch to the experienced audiologist?

I would seriously re-consider your intent to get the hybrid. There is no guarantee you will keep your residual hearing and it's a bad approach in general to relying on something that has been fading. If you are paying out of pocket for this, you should be looking at actual technology.. not an implant that is quite basic paired with a hearing aid.
 
ymhon said:
Thank you deafdyke. This reply gives me a strong confidence.
Can't wait to give it a try.

On the process of examination these days, hope I can do the surgery. :cool2:
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Keep us posted....
 
I'm not really keen on the standard testing scores other than as a general guide or reference. Rarely do they even remotely approximate real world listening.
Basically what I'm saying is you should not base your decision heavily an any of these formal tests. Explain what your real world experiences are. What you can and cannot hear in quiet, inside, outside, noise, phone, watching tv, listening to music etc.
 
My general thought on this, after having a daughter who has severe to profound hearing loss is as follows. If you have an ear that is basically at 0%, then it will most definitely benefit from CI in most cases. If you have an ear that you still score 50%, then I would wait. They do have Hybrid CI now for the ear you have at 50%, but if your condition is degrading slowly, then the Hybrid may not be a wise choice, since the chance of losing the rest of your hearing is probable as you age. My thoughts on Hybrids ars still quite reserved, as in most cases a high end Hearing aid will usually suffice, until the loss of hearing is so bad, you might as well just bypass the Hybrid, and get the full CI.

I would highly recommend you find a very good ENT in your area, and discuss this.
 
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The hybrid is really targeted at old people with severe age or long term noise related hearing loss that affects the higher frequencies first. Most people with early onset deafness develop progressively more loss as they age that is more likely to affect the entire spectrum
 
Condor1970 said:
My general thought on this, after having a daughter who has severe to profound hearing loss is as follows. If you have an ear that is basically at 0%, then it will most definitely benefit from CI in most cases. If you have an ear that you still score 50%, then I would wait. They do have Hybrid CI now for the ear you have at 50%, but if your condition is degrading slowly, then the Hybrid may not be a wise choice, since the chance of losing the rest of your hearing is probable as you age. My thoughts on Hybrids ars still quite reserved, as in most cases a high end Hearing aid will usually suffice, until the loss of hearing is so bad, you might as well just bypass the Hybrid, and get the full CI.

I would highly recommend you find a very good neurosurgeon in your area, and discuss this.
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I would not wait if an ear scored 50%. That's right on the border. You wouldn't accept 50% to be considered good on a test, so why would you accept 50% as satisfactory on a speech evaluation? 50% means that you're still missing half of what's going on. That's a lot.

The OP does not need a neurosurgeon. Neurosurgeons handle brain surgery. A CI is not brain surgery. What the OP needs is an Otolaryngologist, or, an "Ear, Nose, & Throat" (ENT) doctor who specializes in surgeries of the ear, including cochlear implants. Neurosurgeons and Otolaryngologists are not one and the same. They are two totally different specialities.
 
everlastingstorm said:
I would not wait if an ear scored 50%. That's right on the border. You wouldn't accept 50% to be considered good on a test, so why would you accept 50% as satisfactory on a speech evaluation? 50% means that you're still missing half of what's going on. That's a lot.

The OP does not need a neurosurgeon. Neurosurgeons handle brain surgery. A CI is not brain surgery. What the OP needs is an Otolaryngologist, or, an "Ear, Nose, & Throat" (ENT) doctor who specializes in surgeries of the ear, including cochlear implants. Neurosurgeons and Otolaryngologists are not one and the same. They are two totally different specialities.
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I'm sorry. An ENT. That's what I meant. I just so happens, the ENT that did my daughetrs CI is an Otolaryngologist. My fault for the mis-type (editted)..

My point is that with 50% in one ear, and a CI in the other, I would wait on getting another CI unelss it was almost completely gone. The CI in the one ear will compensate for what is being missed in the other ear with the HA. Reason being, is because generally with Sensorineural Hearing Loss, it is a type of hearing loss that degrades over time like the OP mentioned, and not a stabilized high frequency loss of hearing in someone who is elderly. For this reason, that is why I said I would not consider something like a Hybrid, for that reason alone. I would get the CI for the fully deaf ear, and stay with an HA for the other until it was absolutely necessary. This is exactly what we did for my daughter, and is recommended by her doctor as well, because she is also fully deaf in one ear, and at 30%-50% speech recognition with an HA in the other.
 
Hi everyone, I'm the OP.

I've read and learned from all of your opinions. So much thanks.

Recently, I've did some examination.
Seems like both of my ear has the condition to do the surgery. (Still need to do the MRI and CT in the following weeks to make sure it.)

I've decided the surgeon. (The experienced one. The hospital auditory center is better than I thought before. )
BTW, In Taiwan, your surgeon and audi are in the same hospital most of the time. That means they are a team, so it is unlikely to choose your surgeon and audi in different hospitals.

Regarding of the brand, I prefer to choose AB because of the good feedback of the users on the forums. (Though I still hope a more invisible or wireless processor to wear, both of Naida and Neptune are big.)

My concern now is still which ear to implant.
Surgeon said that both of the ear will help.
Right ear(better ear) implanted will result in a better WDS like 80%.
Left ear(weaker ear) implanted will result in a so-so WDS like 50%, but will help to listen in a noisy environment and help to find the direction of the sound.
I know some of you suggested to do the left ear.(the weak ear)
But I've also found some opinions to other patient on the HearingJourney forum that suggest to implant on the better ear instead of the weak ear. Quoted like below:

"
http://www.hearingjourney.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=8&threadid=14060&enterthread=y
The OP said
i wear a h.a. in left ear completely deaf in right,,,one of my major problems is that unless the sound waves are coimng right at me i cant undersatnd whats being said...i can hear the voices but cant make out what there saying..........

follow me? so would a c.i. in right ear help that?

Opinion 1:
Don't be too surprised if they recommend a CI for your left ear(weak ear). That may sound counter intuitive, but there is a school of thought that says implanting the better ear may give you a better chance of success. If that's what they say, give it some consideration.

Opinion 2:
I agree with Nelson as well. It is far more likely that you will experience better results with your "better" ear being implanted.

How well does your better ear serve you? Do you wish to risk losing the hearing you have in your "better" ear? Those are also questions you need to ask yourself. Also, if you have the weaker ear implanted first and do not get good results quickly, will you then be more hesitant to have your "better ear" implanted in the future?

Lots to think about...
"

My surgeon let me decide it. So I do want to collect more experiences of CI users to decide to implant on right ear or on left ear.
(Not considering bilateral now, because in Taiwan we don't have insurance to pay for it. And it's a big money.)
 
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Left Ear: 100~110 DB Word Discrimination Score(WDS):0%
Right Ear: 60~70 DB Word Discrimination Score(WDS):50%
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in my case, my audi said I wouldn't be eligible for CI if my scores would be 60% an up.
but my scores are 0% for the right ear and 4% for the left ear.

I got CI for the right ear...but can't say anything yet.
 
I did my dead ear first 3 years ago. Then got my right ear done this past October, willing to give up whatever little bit of hearing I had left in that ear to gain more. That was how I saw it. Completely opposite activation experiences with both ears (left "dead" ear heard nothing for about a week or so until my brain started recognizing that the CI signals were actually sounds; right ear heard right away but sounded high-pitched/tinny which normalized over time). Took a long time to make sense of what I was hearing with the left CI, whereas with the right CI I was able to recognize different sounds in a much shorter amount of time. Still a work in progress but I'm happy thus far.
 
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