Lady scores 52% speech, is told will need CI in 10 years.

deafdude1

New Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2009
Messages
1,268
Reaction score
0
Let?s get borgerised! - Wellsphere

Good article. I like the fact that this CI center's candidacy requirements calls for 0% speech. They point out that some people are disappointed with their CI because they had very high expectations. A CI does not replace hearing, it is just a very powerful hearing aid and works in a different way to a traditional hearing aid which utilises your residual hearing. It’s not a magic cure, and you can only work with what you’ve got.

I also read that.......Last week I went to see the consultant surgeon. Just prior to that appointment, I found an audiogram at home, dated 1997. It showed quite a different hearing loss. I hadn’t realised that I had lost so much hearing since then, I’ve lost 30 decibels. I took this audiogram with me and gave it to the surgeon (some dumbass hospital somewhere had lost all my medical records). His opinion was that I am certain to need a cochlear implant in ten years time as my hearing is deteriorating so much. I’ve barely noticed, but then I don’t listen, I don’t use the phone, I look and lip read all the time. So the question has now become one of when, not if. I don’t really have much choice. It’s going to be total deafness or a cochlear implant – forget the hearing aid.
This has suddenly become a lot more scary.

I respect her choice to get a CI in ten years(although stem cells would be another likley choice by then) when she becomes totally deaf and gets a CI, there won't be any residual hearing to lose and her expectations shall be realistic because any sounds/speech a CI gives is better than 0%!

---------------------------------------------

A Sound Decision

On another note, this guy has worse hearing than me, his audiogram is:

my_audiogram.jpg


He has 30db worse hearing than me at 250Hz, that's a huge difference! It explains why he scores only 4% speech. I am impressed by the amount of gain he is getting at 1000Hz. However with a 120db loss at that frequency, the quality must be very poor. Even with my amount of hearing loss, any gain above 500-600Hz makes no difference to speech. But max gains in the lows does improve my speech as well as letting me hear more sounds. For him, the odds were great of a CI giving him a big improvement.

He stated his reasons for a CI, including wanting to hear his children better. Even reading lips isn't perfect. He also wanted to hear the phone and got lucky that he is able to. Less than 10% of CI wearers can hear the phone. He got 30db across the audiogram with CI which is within average result for CI. I am happy for him that he's a success! However I am waiting for stem cells which should improve my hearing down to 80db pure tone average and ill be getting down to 10db aided with HAs and expect to hear speech and sounds as well as Phi4sius who has this much residual hearing.
 
DO you see the difference between the aided hearing and the CI hearing? Why would you NOT want that??
 
This article is fascinating. I fortunately do not have such a large hearing loss that I need to get a cochlear implant. I can understand her high hopes I remember when I first read about cochlear impants I was so excited but even though it is gradually improving, it is still no cure all. But it is still far better than nothing at all.
 
I didn't have high expectation with my CI. I was quite annoyed with my hearing aids. Especially it wasn't powerful enough for me. I keep wanting the volume up, up, up. And the feedback get worst when I do . They say I am a volume junkie, but I don't think so, I keep it up because I am trying to hear the softer sounds and can't get it.

With my CI, it is actually overpowering than my hearing aids to the point that I can't use hearing aids for my unimplanted ears. I found it useless now so I don't wear my hearing aid anymore.

CI is a relief for me. No feedbacks and no annoying soft sounds. Now if they would just manage to give me a program that will NOT filter background noise such as concert and churches, I will be happy, but they still haven't been able to do that even though they say can.
 
You don't need to be scared. You will make the best decision for yourself based on your individual needs at the time. Who knows what that will be? That's ten years away. Do whatever you need to cope with your current situation and keep your spirits up. Making decisions out of fear is always a bad idea. Give yourself some time to adjust and sort it all out.
 
Good article. I can relate because I was also shocked when I looked at some old audiograms and saw how much hearing I had lost over a period of 6 years. I am a post lingual adult and I am not sure if I would have made the same choice if I had been born deaf.
 
Good article. I can relate because I was also shocked when I looked at some old audiograms and saw how much hearing I had lost over a period of 6 years. I am a post lingual adult and I am not sure if I would have made the same choice if I had been born deaf.

I couldn't agree more. I'm also late deafened and lost my hearing at age 24. Even when I had severe-profound hearing loss, my audi never mentioned CIs and even the audi who fitted me with my first pair of HAs in 1985 saw me in 2004 and said "With a 90+ dB loss, they could implant you. You have very, very little residual hearing, but you use it better than some of my clients who have milder losses." (For example, using my Comtek to hear my voice and environmental sounds better)

Having said that, I was born blind and would not consider a retinal implant or anything else that comes along. I'm quite happy being blind and as the saying goes, "You can't miss what you never had."
 
I didn't have high expectation with my CI. I was quite annoyed with my hearing aids. Especially it wasn't powerful enough for me. I keep wanting the volume up, up, up. And the feedback get worst when I do . They say I am a volume junkie, but I don't think so, I keep it up because I am trying to hear the softer sounds and can't get it.

With my CI, it is actually overpowering than my hearing aids to the point that I can't use hearing aids for my unimplanted ears. I found it useless now so I don't wear my hearing aid anymore.

CI is a relief for me. No feedbacks and no annoying soft sounds. Now if they would just manage to give me a program that will NOT filter background noise such as concert and churches, I will be happy, but they still haven't been able to do that even though they say can.

I don't know what CI you have, but with the Cochlear 3G and Freedom processors, they can create what is known as an "open" program. All this means is that it doesn't contain any features that impact the amount of background noise you hear. In my case, I have 3 programs on my Freedom. Program 1 has autosensitivity which makes loud sounds more comfortable. Program 2 is a much, much softer map which I use whenever I'm overly sensitive to sound. Program 3 is an "open" program which I use for listening to music or waking up to my talking alarm clock radio (I keep both of my CIs on at night) if I have an important appointment the next day. I've already tried several vibrating alarm clocks, but they always seem to stop working several months after they are purchased. It's also difficult if I have a power outage because I can't see to set the time.
 
No offense to the person that wrote that article, but it contains several statements that are somewhat inaccurate.

"Hearing with a CI will mean that everything will be very loud to a person who hasn’t heard for a long time, like coming out of a week in a dark room into bright sunlight. It hurts and it’s overwhelming."

This statement is partially true. Hearing things that you haven't heard in a while may be overwhelming for some people, but you will adjust over time. However your audiologist will work with you to ensure that it never hurts. Cochlear implants are medical devices, that are in effect directly stimulating your brain, therefore any non-acoustic responses to the electrical stimulation involved are removed immediately during programming. Your body is given plenty of time to heal before switch-on to ensure that it is in a good state of repair for this very reason.

It appears the program the author was being assessed at feels that speech perception should be near zero before proceeding with implantation, however research is suggesting that earlier implantation with a combined use of acoustic and electric hearing yields far more beneficial outcomes for speech recognition in quiet and noise and music perception. I know in many implant programmes implantation is recommended if sentence recognition scores using sound alone are poorer than 50% binaurally and 60% in the better hearing ear. Normally the poorer hearing ear is implanted to allow the use of additional acoustic information via a hearing aid in the better hearing ear.

Finally, for the author's information, the Nucleus 5 implant system from Cochlear Limited has just been released. It's doesn't use the technology in the article she linked, but who knows when that will be used in commercial implants. Yes, it still kind of looks like a big hearing aid, but that shape is chosen because the microphones need to be placed at ear level to provide the best sound.
 
Back
Top