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%!
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A Sound Decision
On another note, this guy has worse hearing than me, his audiogram is:
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.
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:
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.