Parents' Opinion On Hearing Aids & CI

Man, I wouldn't have minded being activitated early myself. The 2 1/2 week ordeal of silence drove me crazy at the end.

Anyway, a good story...
 
neecy said:
He was activated the day after implantation? I thought you had to let the incision etc heal first?

Great story though!
Click to expand...
I know.. but his ear was intact and remember that nowaday the incision is so small than before. The incision is right next to the implant instead of right behind the earlobe.

I can't wait for nanotechnology to replace my CI! :D LOL Nanotechnology wouldn't require incision at all just injection into cochlea via ear canal since ear drum wall can heal. Well OR the way 7of9 shoot the tube into skin eh. hehe..
 
sr171soars said:
Man, I wouldn't have minded being activitated early myself. The 2 1/2 week ordeal of silence drove me crazy at the end.

Anyway, a good story...
Click to expand...
For me it was a month due to appointment.
 
sr171soars said:
Man, I wouldn't have minded being activitated early myself. The 2 1/2 week ordeal of silence drove me crazy at the end.

Anyway, a good story...
Click to expand...

I had to wait 3 months but that was because I was part of a clinical trial and all of us in the trial had to be activated the same week so that had to be coordinated.
 
sr171soars said:
Did it bother you?
Click to expand...
nah.. I worn hearing aid in other ear :) only to become useless after wearing CI for a while. few months after that, I take CI off and I can't hear anything via HA! It is like if my brian has adjusted the requirement to for volume to be set at in order to hear the sound so HA was not loud enough LOL.
 
neecy said:
I had to wait 3 months but that was because I was part of a clinical trial and all of us in the trial had to be activated the same week so that had to be coordinated.
Click to expand...

Hey! I was in the same trial but they didn't do any coordination between us participants at all. I never knew any of the others. But I will say "No Way Jose" could I have survived that long...
 
Boult said:
nah.. I worn hearing aid in other ear :) only to become useless after wearing CI for a while. few months after that, I take CI off and I can't hear anything via HA! It is like if my brian has adjusted the requirement to for volume to be set at in order to hear the sound so HA was not loud enough LOL.
Click to expand...

Yea, I heard that happens and can very well believe it. There is no comparison between my former HA and my CI now in terms what I can pick up. Sometimes I speak so softly (thinking it is loud enough) that the hearing either ask me to speak up or their gestures indicate I'm not loud enough for them!

FYI - My implant was on the same side (ear) as I used my HA.
 
Mine will be just under 3 weeks after surgery - 29th June to be precise. wahoo!
 
Boult said:
nah.. I worn hearing aid in other ear :) only to become useless after wearing CI for a while. few months after that, I take CI off and I can't hear anything via HA! It is like if my brian has adjusted the requirement to for volume to be set at in order to hear the sound so HA was not loud enough LOL.
Click to expand...

I did the same, but stopped using the HA when my CI was activated. While my audie told me some people succesfully use a HA in the non-implanted ear, along with a CI, I found it to be totally distracting so I stopped. Every once in a while, though, I put my HA on my non-implanted ear to remind me of what I "used to live with" hearing wise compared to what I have now :)
 
sr171soars said:
Hey! I was in the same trial but they didn't do any coordination between us participants at all. I never knew any of the others. But I will say "No Way Jose" could I have survived that long...
Click to expand...

I think it was simply more convenient for my audie to have everybody switched on together, as we were spread out throughout the province.
 
neecy said:
I think it was simply more convenient for my audie to have everybody switched on together, as we were spread out throughout the province.
Click to expand...

Understand.

Ah then, I can understand how you did it then as you mentioned that you could use your HA in other ear....

I didn't have that option as the CI was the same side as HA. Believe me I was stone cold deaf which is not something I was ever used to since before 3 yrs old.
 
Fragmenter said:
I think the deaf culture is now ready to welcome deaf people with CI... right?
Click to expand...
*chuckles* Still feel that way? LOL
 
hey Eve, it's gotten a LOT better in the past few years.....Just give it time....in time CIs will be accepted by the majority in the Deaf community!
 
According to their perspective, that is only because the deaf culture is being destroyed by the CI and thus there are less deaf to confer with on the matter lol
 
Hm, good point Eve! That is just fine with me as long as the deaf people keep our culture in rememberance.
 
that is only because the deaf culture is being destroyed by the CI and thus there are less deaf to confer with on the matter lol
Click to expand...
Old Deaf yeah......Like in the past Deaf culture was more for the profound and severe kids.......ALL culture changes and adapts! If not, then it becomes like the Shakers, or an old antique! (pretty to look at but not much real use in the real world)
 
deafdyke said:
Mine is a mix........Unless my child had auditory nereopathy, I would wait until they were a little older to be implanted. That's b/c I don't trust technology, giving us an accurate picture of a baby's hearing. I've heard of kids being dx as having "deaf" losses, on ABR and then they were found to have hoh losses on more traditional autotremy tests. For my child CI would be the absolute last resort.....only if they had REALLY REALLY bad losses....If I did have to implant them, then I'd make sure it was before their third birthday, so they could still benifit, but still make sure they had the correct loss.
Click to expand...


I agree with this. No technology is perfect, thus an ABR could give a mistake. Heck my mil had a perscription change for her eye glasses, she got new ones and wouldn't use them, always wore the old ones. The next year the eye dr says you know you actually would do better with your old perscription. So testing can be wrong, even with adults. :)

Waiting until there can actually be a couple of tests in which the child participates to back up the ABR wouldn't be that big of a wait, since they do start sound booth testing at 1 yr give or take a few months. Testing at 1 yr with a follow up a few months later wouldn't mean the child would lose time in learning to hear and comprehend spoken language. Many hearing children aren't talking much at that age.
 
jag said:
........Testing at 1 yr with a follow up a few months later wouldn't mean the child would lose time in learning to hear and comprehend spoken language. Many hearing children aren't talking much at that age.
Click to expand...
You're right that it wouldn't matter too much.
But your conclusion that sound is not important since "hearing children aren't talking much at that age" is not valid.
Children will start talking after they have heared speech for a while. Words have to be repeated many -many times before the child will understand it's meaning, and then it will start using it.
Remember, "normal" hearing children have had 1 to 2 years with sound and observation of speech before they will do it themself.
A deaf child is lacking all that experience. (same for a deaf adult that never heared)
We noticed it with our daughter. She first had to get used to sound (took about a month), then she needed to learn that sounds were associated with objects, then sound associated with speech, and then she started using speech herself.

But I agree with you:
waiting a couple of months until even better test can be done should not be a decisive factor for the end-result.
 
Back
Top