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DeafWarrior20

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Hello, My name is Mallory. I am 23 years old and I was born deaf into an all hearing family. I have worn hearing aids since I was 3 years old and I can talk and read lips just fine. I know how to sign, but I don't sign often at all. I talk way more than I sign considering I know more hearing people than deaf people.

I just went to the doctor to get a new hearing aid and I took hearing tests and they have found out that I have dramatically lost a whole lot of hearing and scored very low on the understanding portion. They have strongly suggested that I get Cochlear Implants, but at the time being they have me on the strongest hearing aids available and they said that it won't last long. I only have a hearing aid in one ear and the other is completely deaf and won't work with a hearing aid at all. I was very upset when I found this out and I know that I do need to consider getting the Cochlear Implants because I am so dependable on hearing at least SOMETHING.

Is there anyone out there that is like me that wore hearing aids their whole life then got cochlear implants that can help me and give me some advice? Or any advice on Cochlear implants would be helpful.

Thank y'all very much and I'm looking forward to y'alls responses.
 
DeafWarrior20 said:
Hello, My name is Mallory. I am 23 years old and I was born deaf into an all hearing family. I have worn hearing aids since I was 3 years old and I can talk and read lips just fine. I know how to sign, but I don't sign often at all. I talk way more than I sign considering I know more hearing people than deaf people.

I just went to the doctor to get a new hearing aid and I took hearing tests and they have found out that I have dramatically lost a whole lot of hearing and scored very low on the understanding portion. They have strongly suggested that I get Cochlear Implants, but at the time being they have me on the strongest hearing aids available and they said that it won't last long. I only have a hearing aid in one ear and the other is completely deaf and won't work with a hearing aid at all. I was very upset when I found this out and I know that I do need to consider getting the Cochlear Implants because I am so dependable on hearing at least SOMETHING.

Is there anyone out there that is like me that wore hearing aids their whole life then got cochlear implants that can help me and give me some advice? Or any advice on Cochlear implants would be helpful.

Thank y'all very much and I'm looking forward to y'alls responses.
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Hi there! I was 7 years old when my hearing first started to go, so I'm not sure I fit the profile you are searching for. However, I do understand your situation and how you interact with everyone in your life. Honestly, going through with getting a CI (or two) will have you wishing you had done it sooner. You won't miss those hearing aids in the least. I faced the same fears as you 7 years ago....in hindsight it was a blessing in that it was a push to move on to something much better. There is some misconception that because you must be profoundly deaf to receive a CI that: hearing aid < CI. This is very wrong. Even here you will find hearing aid users that claim benefit simply because they hear at all with one. Hearing a blurry mess with no speech discrimination (hearing vowels is not speech discrimination) is not benefitting from a HA.

You will find others like yourself at the forums run by the CI manufacturers to help you get started. Results do vary, but you can at a minimum count on a CI making it much easier and less taxing to lipread. My own lipreading skills went south because my hearing improved that much. Your brain is able to allocate resources into other areas instead of using it all on speech reading.

Good luck.. you have an exciting adventure ahead!
 
DeafWarrior20 said:
Hello, My name is Mallory. I am 23 years old and I was born deaf into an all hearing family. I have worn hearing aids since I was 3 years old and I can talk and read lips just fine. I know how to sign, but I don't sign often at all. I talk way more than I sign considering I know more hearing people than deaf people.

I just went to the doctor to get a new hearing aid and I took hearing tests and they have found out that I have dramatically lost a whole lot of hearing and scored very low on the understanding portion. They have strongly suggested that I get Cochlear Implants, but at the time being they have me on the strongest hearing aids available and they said that it won't last long. I only have a hearing aid in one ear and the other is completely deaf and won't work with a hearing aid at all. I was very upset when I found this out and I know that I do need to consider getting the Cochlear Implants because I am so dependable on hearing at least SOMETHING.

Is there anyone out there that is like me that wore hearing aids their whole life then got cochlear implants that can help me and give me some advice? Or any advice on Cochlear implants would be helpful.

Thank y'all very much and I'm looking forward to y'alls responses.
Click to expand...

Hi there! I was 7 years old when my hearing first started to go, so I'm not sure I fit the profile you are searching for. However, I do understand your situation and how you interact with everyone in your life. Honestly, going through with getting a CI (or two) will have you wishing you had done it sooner. You won't miss those hearing aids in the least. I faced the same fears as you 7 years ago....in hindsight it was a blessing in that it was a push to move on to something much better. There is some misconception that because you must be profoundly deaf to receive a CI that: hearing aid > CI. This is very wrong. Even here you will find hearing aid users that claim benefit simply because they hear at all with one. Hearing a blurry mess with no speech discrimination (hearing vowels is not speech discrimination) is not benefiting from a HA.

You will find others like yourself at the forums run by the CI manufacturers to help you get started. Results do vary, but you can at a minimum count on a CI making it much easier and less taxing to lipread. My own lipreading skills went south because my hearing improved that much. Your brain is able to allocate resources into other areas instead of using it all on speech reading.

Good luck.. you have an exciting adventure ahead!
 
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DeafWarrior20 said:
Hello, My name is Mallory. I am 23 years old and I was born deaf into an all hearing family. I have worn hearing aids since I was 3 years old and I can talk and read lips just fine. I know how to sign, but I don't sign often at all. I talk way more than I sign considering I know more hearing people than deaf people.

I just went to the doctor to get a new hearing aid and I took hearing tests and they have found out that I have dramatically lost a whole lot of hearing and scored very low on the understanding portion. They have strongly suggested that I get Cochlear Implants, but at the time being they have me on the strongest hearing aids available and they said that it won't last long. I only have a hearing aid in one ear and the other is completely deaf and won't work with a hearing aid at all. I was very upset when I found this out and I know that I do need to consider getting the Cochlear Implants because I am so dependable on hearing at least SOMETHING.

Is there anyone out there that is like me that wore hearing aids their whole life then got cochlear implants that can help me and give me some advice? Or any advice on Cochlear implants would be helpful.

Thank y'all very much and I'm looking forward to y'alls responses.
Click to expand...

Hey Mallory! If I were you I'd opt for getting your totally unresponsive ear implanted. Progressive losses aren't that unusual......There are quite a few people on here who maxed out on HAs.
 
BleedingPurist, Thank you for your advice. That was exactly what I was looking for and it makes me feel much better looking into CIs. Did you have a hard time with the transistion at all? I know it sounds computer like for the first few months right? Was that hard on you or did it bother you at all? I think thats the part that i'm most worried/scared about since I am so used to HAs. After hearing your advice, I am much more excited about it and it will indeed be an adventure! I am hoping to hear back from them today to move on to the next step.

Deafdyke, Thank you for that, I have thought about that. Do you have an implant in just one ear or know anybody that has an implant and a hearing aid? I thought about just getting it in that ear, but then if my hearing runs out with HAs i'm going to get it done anyway so i'm not sure if I should just go ahead and get both done?
 
There are a good number here who have just one CI and wear nothing else in the other ear, or an HA. I don't think we have a lot of deaf adults here who have 2 CIs (obtained as adults, not as children), but there are a couple that are planning on getting a 2nd one.
 
AlleyCat said:
There are a good number here who have just one CI and wear nothing else in the other ear, or an HA. I don't think we have a lot of deaf adults here who have 2 CIs (obtained as adults, not as children), but there are a couple that are planning on getting a 2nd one.
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Thanks AlleyCat! I don't know much about CIs since i'm still researching, but would it matter if it's done on a complete deaf ear that i've never used compared to my ear that has been using a HA?
 
If you do the implant on the ear that hasn't heard anything in a really long time, it could take even longer to even understand speech with that ear as compared to implanting the ear that's heard things. You can talk this over with the CI surgeon and audiologist and get feedback from them, but in the end you get to decide which ear you want done. It is possible to get sound in a "dead" ear though. I've spoken with different folks online who haven't heard anything with their dead ear, and are doing well with their implants. Everyone will have their own results with the implants.
 
There's excellent information here in AllDeaf...

Also, some great books (well, I thought so) have been written about it..
* "Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human" by Michael Chorost - 2006
* "Wired for Sound: A Journey into Hearing" by Beverly Biderman - 1999

Both lost their hearing and started to hear with CI..

Good luck..
 
cdmeggers said:
If you do the implant on the ear that hasn't heard anything in a really long time, it could take even longer to even understand speech with that ear as compared to implanting the ear that's heard things. You can talk this over with the CI surgeon and audiologist and get feedback from them, but in the end you get to decide which ear you want done. It is possible to get sound in a "dead" ear though. I've spoken with different folks online who haven't heard anything with their dead ear, and are doing well with their implants. Everyone will have their own results with the implants.
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This.

We are not medical experts here, but we can tell you what worked/did not work for us. Just remember that everyone has a different result.

Your background is very similar to mine, and the CI worked out well for me. I got the second CI in my "bad" ear recently, and it is not as good as the one in my better ear, but still a huge improvement over the hearing aid.

If you decide to go for the CI, just keep your expectations reasonable.

I have other posts of my experience in this section, don't remember where they are tho....
 
I'm one of those people with a CI and am planning to get a second CI soon. But I'm not one to jump up and down like some others proclaiming that the CI is the greatest thing since the wheel (the iPad is the greatest thing since the wheel!!!).

I was implanted in my weaker ear and used a CI with a hearing aid for a couple of years to great benefit. It did however take me a good year to learn to hear speech in my implanted ear (my dominate ear was not implanted). If you decide to get a CI, just get one to start with. You can expect to really work hard to get that ear working at it's best. Also don't expect to have "normal" hearing. The CI is really just a glorified hearing aid. Its like suddenly needing a less powerful hearing aid. You can hear everything and the full frequency range but the quality is still much less that I used to have with my HA.

You need a realistic expectation going into surgery. Be prepared to work hard the first year, and you should also notice improvement up to 3 years after implanting.

I'm only now getting a second CI because my unimplemented ear no longer has any residual hearing left. so destroying my residual hearing in that ear is no longer an issue. I also admit that I often take my CI off at work just because it's less stressful that way.
 
Jane B. said:
What did that "work" consist of?
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At the beginning, the work is just getting used to an influx of stimulation. Later it becomes learning what everything sounds like. Because the stimulation is electronic, it takes a while for the brain to see the input as normal. Then your brain has to start matching the patterns with what it remembers sounds to sound like. You are not actually starting from scratch, more like you are learning to match a whole new set of words with existing pictures. Especially if you lost your high frequency range a long time ago, it takes a while for your brain to stop hearing high frequency sounds as beeps and instead hear them as part of the normal speech.

This was how it was for me. In another year I'm sure I can tell you how it is for my second ear. I'm expecting some of the same stuff, but to progress through it faster this time. I will probably set my expectations too high once again. grrrrrr.......
 
one additional comment... I used books on CD to learn to tune into speech. I would get both the book and the audio cd and follow along listening and reading at the same time. I would look away from the book to "test" myself sometimes. I now can listen to an audio book without needing to read anything. But it was a lot of work and I did get tired often. I had setbacks, I did get angry that I did not get as far as I wanted. I finally accepted that a CI is not a fix for becoming hearing (I was in a weird place at the time I guess).

Best thing that ever happened to me was to fully accept that I am deaf with a CI.
 
Yeah, a lot of CI users I've spoken with online used audio books for auditory training, and I plan on doing the same. My local library has access to an online audio books library so I signed up with my library card so I can "check out" audio books for free.
 
DeafWarrior20 said:
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Deafdyke, Thank you for that, I have thought about that. Do you have an implant in just one ear or know anybody that has an implant and a hearing aid? I thought about just getting it in that ear, but then if my hearing runs out with HAs i'm going to get it done anyway so i'm not sure if I should just go ahead and get both done?
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Nope, but again if you have some speech perception in your aided ear, I think it would be a good idea to see how the two work together, before opting for an implant in that ear. Like, if you have speech perception, it would work together with the input from your implant....make sense? Of course if you have something like 15% and below speech perception with HA, it might be a good idea to upgrade.
 
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