Profound hearing loss + hearing aid questions

Phi4Sius said:
deafdyke - How is she doing now with the new HA? And, how is her speech/sound understanding? And yes, my audi is experienced with just about every type of hearing loss imaginable, including mine (been going to him for at least 10 years that I remember - he's basically 10 minutes away from me). Also, for me, he's been the best audiologist I've ever had.

This is pretty exciting that other people with similar hearing losses are getting some benefit from the new HAs!! I know that it could be the same situation as I've always been - that I can't benefit at all - but at the very least there seems to be a chance and I want to take it. It's better knowing I have no chance at all than always going "What if..."

WHAT the...?! The Phonak Naida III and V Ultra Power have 90 dB full on gain and 144 dB output SPL?! I almost can't believe that. I'll be asking my audi about these on Thursday for sure.
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I think it depends on what you are hoping to get get from that ear. If you want sound awareness than a hearing aid would work great and you have gotten great advice on that.
On the other hand, if you are hoping for help with speech and lipreading, you might need to get a CI.
Yes, I love the CI and I am blantently advertising for it! I just really never thought it worked as well as it does, and I have been proven wrong! It has been the change from not understanding speech to picking it up with ease and without direct instruction for my daughter. I can't say enough good things!!
 
faire jour - I have a couple of expectations when it comes to the new HAs:

1. No sound awareness at all (which is a big possibility considering that my left ear has been profoundly deaf for 27 years now).

2. Extremely muddy, no discriminatory ability whatsoever very quiet type sound.

3. Extremely muddy, no discriminatory ability whatsoever very LOUD type of sound.

4. Very mild discriminatory ability with speech and other very limited sounds.

I find #4 to be a very distant possibility, #s 1-3 being the most realistic. Quite honestly I'm not expecting much. With the new HAs, I want to satisfy my curiosity more than anything else and see if, perhaps, the ones who have been telling me all along that HAs won't help are right. Plus, who knows what will happen with technology over the next five years? They may come out with double the full-on gain and output SPL with perfect speech discrimination abilities. Haha. Oh, well. At least with this, I'll know for sure for the next five years anyways. Plus, I'll have obtained a killer HA for my right ear out of this too. :)

re: CI - I am quite amazed with the results your daughter is experiencing. I can't believe she's hearing up to 15 dB...I have never in my life been close to that (well, perhaps at 1 and 2 years old I was). Going from a profound loss to 15 dB is a miracle in itself. I'll certainly be investigating CIs if the new HAs don't work out.
 
Phi4Sius said:
faire jour - I have a couple of expectations when it comes to the new HAs:

1. No sound awareness at all (which is a big possibility considering that my left ear has been profoundly deaf for 27 years now).

2. Extremely muddy, no discriminatory ability whatsoever very quiet type sound.

3. Extremely muddy, no discriminatory ability whatsoever very LOUD type of sound.

4. Very mild discriminatory ability with speech and other very limited sounds.

I find #4 to be a very distant possibility, #s 1-3 being the most realistic. Quite honestly I'm not expecting much. With the new HAs, I want to satisfy my curiosity more than anything else and see if, perhaps, the ones who have been telling me all along that HAs won't help are right. Plus, who knows what will happen with technology over the next five years? They may come out with double the full-on gain and output SPL with perfect speech discrimination abilities. Haha. Oh, well. At least with this, I'll know for sure for the next five years anyways. Plus, I'll have obtained a killer HA for my right ear out of this too. :)

re: CI - I am quite amazed with the results your daughter is experiencing. I can't believe she's hearing up to 15 dB...I have never in my life been close to that (well, perhaps at 1 and 2 years old I was). Going from a profound loss to 15 dB is a miracle in itself. I'll certainly be investigating CIs if the new HAs don't work out.
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And to tell the truth, Miss Kat's results aren't terrible unusual for kids. Adults, I don't know about, but for kids, it's not uncommon.
 
adults tend to hear in the 20-30 db range with a ci. chilren usaully hear around 15 db. after having severe-profound haring loss for 10 yers prior to receiving my first ci, i'm able to hear between 15 and 30 db.
 
HearAgain - How is your speech perception/understanding with the CI? How are other sounds such as music, etc.?
 
i think i do need a better hearing aid but im going for a hearing test in may and they will tell me then if im doing on or not.


what db can my type of hearing aid go up to? because they turned my hearing aid up to the top range and im just wonderin
 
With my intense research over the last couple days, for my hearing loss I've narrowed it down to the Oticon Sumo and the Phonak Naida III or V UltraPower. I'll discuss both of these in depth with my audi on Thursday. It appears the Oticon Sumo may actually help my left ear with its profound hearing loss, but of course I won't know for sure until I see what my audi says then. And I won't know anything even then...gotta try it on my left ear first.

Can anyone provide feedback about their experience with the Oticon Sumo along with details about their hearing loss (type of loss, dB range, bilateral or unilateral, etc.)?

Also, does the Oticon sumo really use those odd looking cords with the very small earpiece on the end rather than a real earmold? Since my ears have stopped growing since my last aid and I haven't had to get a new earmold for several years, that looks like a very very nice option to have.

Thanks a bunch for everyone's feedback and info!!!! :D
 
Oh, so you would be satisfied with just some hearing in that ear? Excellent!
 
deafdyke- Yup. Still, I won't find out until Thursday so I'm kind of shooting myself in the foot by speculating. We'll see what my audi says then. The wait until then sucks, though. LOL
 
Phi4Sius said:
HearAgain - How is your speech perception/understanding with the CI? How are other sounds such as music, etc.?
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hi there,

my speech percption with my ci's is quitegood in quiet on-one-one situtions: 98%. in backgrund noi se, it's 90%, but i do havemore difficlty haring with background noiseand use tactile terps ad other commnication methds for thedeafblind, music sounds wonderful with my ci's -- altuough tis wasn't alwayss the case. until recntly, high frequencies sunded off-key but ever since 12 hihg feuquncy elecrrortrodes were turned off, they soud natureal now and very, vrty clear. no complnaints at all.
 
Phi4Sius said:
With my intense research over the last couple days, for my hearing loss I've narrowed it down to the Oticon Sumo and the Phonak Naida III or V UltraPower. I'll discuss both of these in depth with my audi on Thursday. It appears the Oticon Sumo may actually help my left ear with its profound hearing loss, but of course I won't know for sure until I see what my audi says then. And I won't know anything even then...gotta try it on my left ear first.

Can anyone provide feedback about their experience with the Oticon Sumo along with details about their hearing loss (type of loss, dB range, bilateral or unilateral, etc.)?

Also, does the Oticon sumo really use those odd looking cords with the very small earpiece on the end rather than a real earmold? Since my ears have stopped growing since my last aid and I haven't had to get a new earmold for several years, that looks like a very very nice option to have.

Thanks a bunch for everyone's feedback and info!!!! :D
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Those open fit not for profound loss.
 
Phi4Sius said:
deafdyke- Yeah, my speech perception is just fine. I function so well with my right ear that people don't even know I have a hearing aid unless I tell them. I believe the whole concern was that having my left ear with a hearing aid would have detracted from the good hearing in my right ear. I still don't see how that could be possible, especially with the new HA technology and once I've gotten used to it and had some additional training under my belt. I'm sure I'll need some additional speech training to get my ears working together properly like they're supposed to. I don't care...I just want to see if something finally works.

I'm certainly not against CI either...I'm just uncomfortable with something like that being performed on my ears until I know exactly what I can and can't do. If I find out that I literally can't use my left ear at all with an HA (even with the new aids reaching profound hearing loss levels) like they've been saying all these years then more than likely I'll end up getting a CI. At least I won't have lost anything if they screw something up with my left ear during surgery. :lol: :lol: j/k I know that the chance of something going wrong with surgery is nill, but I still want to make sure of my options before I do something like that, you know?
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If you can get ok speech perception from your right ear, I doubt anybody would approve you for CI. Plus why take that risk of the invasive surgery. At this point I wouldn't say the benefits don't outweigh the risks. The risk of complications of CI surgery are a little bit higher than 'nill'.
 
catually, the rsk of ci surgery is quiet small given thefact that it is suc a safe, outpatient surgery. in fact. it hapens to be one o f the qafest types of surgery thers is and only taks 2 or 3 hours to cpmplete. i'm not trying to say the op shld have ci srugery -- i'm only corectng streetypes that ci srugery is rsky.
 
the pticon sumo dos not use open fit earmlds since it is degined for severe to prfound or profiund losses.
 
Phi4Sius said:
deafdyke- Yeah, my speech perception is just fine. I function so well with my right ear that people don't even know I have a hearing aid unless I tell them. I believe the whole concern was that having my left ear with a hearing aid would have detracted from the good hearing in my right ear. I still don't see how that could be possible, especially with the new HA technology and once I've gotten used to it and had some additional training under my belt. I'm sure I'll need some additional speech training to get my ears working together properly like they're supposed to. I don't care...I just want to see if something finally works.
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The only way I can see it detracting is if your speech perception is "off" in that ear. I had that problem which is why I never wore a hearing aid in the left ear. I did try a loaner, but the sound was so garbled and mixed with the "good" ear (at the time) made things harder to understand.
 
hohDougRN said:
If you can get ok speech perception from your right ear, I doubt anybody would approve you for CI. Plus why take that risk of the invasive surgery. At this point I wouldn't say the benefits don't outweigh the risks. The risk of complications of CI surgery are a little bit higher than 'nill'.
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Miss Kat had "speech perception" and she is approved (by the audiologist, looking for insurance now) for bilateral CI's. In a closed set test of very different words, (hot dog vs. toothbrush vs. airplane) with listening only she could get 80%. She got a CI with ZERO trouble, and now she has GREAT results with the CI.
 
Hear Again said:
kat was ble to her 80%of words correctyl with hearing aids before ci?
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Just very different words that she was introduced to before hand. And it had to be a closed set (like with pictures) of 6 or less. But yes, given those circumstances, she could get 80%.
Now she is getting open set words and only vowel differences. It is a HUGE improvement in 2 months. She also went from 30 db to 15, and the clarity difference is amazing.
 
Hear Again said:
catually, the rsk of ci surgery is quiet small given thefact that it is suc a safe, outpatient surgery. in fact. it hapens to be one o f the qafest types of surgery thers is and only taks 2 or 3 hours to cpmplete. i'm not trying to say the op shld have ci srugery -- i'm only corectng streetypes that ci srugery is rsky.
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But there is always a risk with any surgery, regardless of what anyone says. I scored too well on my CI audi tests that I felt I could not take on the risks of surgery for any benefit of a CI (see my other threads regarding my scores.) This is just MY opinion. The CI audi outlined all the risks, as she should have. This is not a light decision to be made. I am not knocking getting a CI because I was very interested in it myself (and may re-visit it at a later time.)
 
No, please, don't tell me Im wrong! I don't wanna be wrong, I can't be wrong, I won't be wrong. Oh shite Im wrong.

That was doug's satire, ok, don't nobody freak out :D

If I could get 15db perception with CI guaranteed- I'd do it tomorrow. But I have an illness called fear, and though Im a healthcare professional, it doesn't necessarily mean I trust them. (yes, I've seen CI audi and verified candidacy already) I have 70% perception aided and 60% in other ear, Aided. Almost nothing with noise.

Faire Jour, maybe I need to have interview with your family to alleviate my hesitancies. Im not trying to be weird, mabye wanting that last little thing to convince me. I often do contemplate the difficulties in my career and possible logical obtainable solutions. I am definately afraid of leaving the bubble I call my life. Could you maybe PM me?
 
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