Question for people who had their left ear implanted first.

[contradica]

No way!! Don't let them destroy the better ear. If they do then you won't be able to hear it again if CI isnt success!! Please don't. My audiologist told me don't let the best ear destroy, use the weak one!

My doctor said the same thing. He suggested that my right ear would most likely do better since it has been stimulated more then my left. However, it really doesn't matter at this point. My hearing in my right ear is heading downhill pretty fast.

 

[RedheadGrrl]

My doctor said the same thing. He suggested that my right ear would most likely do better since it has been stimulated more then my left. However, it really doesn't matter at this point. My hearing in my right ear is heading downhill pretty fast.

Yea.. I see that!! Some told them to use the better ear for CI.. its so wrong

 

[R2D2]

My doctor said the same thing. He suggested that my right ear would most likely do better since it has been stimulated more then my left. However, it really doesn't matter at this point. My hearing in my right ear is heading downhill pretty fast.

When I was talking about this to my surgeon recently, he felt that the results between ears with more/less stimulation shouldn't be that different because the auditory processing part of the brain serves both ears ie.we don't have one for the left ear and one for the right ear. As long as the brain got decent stimulation from sound in the early years, it should not really be a huge difference as far as the CI is concerned.

I was a bit surprised to hear that as I thought the auditory nerve was like a muscle that needed to be exercised as well. I look forward to testing out his thoughts because the ear that I am getting implanted wasn't stimulated with hearing aids until several years after my currently implanted ear, even though I actually had better residual hearing in that ear. I never felt it was quite as good.

 

[deafskeptic]

No way!! Don't let them destroy the better ear. If they do then you won't be able to hear it again if CI isnt success!! Please don't. My audiologist told me don't let the best ear destroy, use the weak one!

Too late. I have an implant in my left ear and I've had it since April. My implant is a success and I have no regrets. Failures are rare so I thought it worth the risk.

 

[R2D2]

You will be following me shortly afterwards. My activation date is set for September 17th! How are you feeling with the upcoming surgery?

I'm feeling a bit stunned that it's so soon LOL! First time around I was going crazy but this time around I feel a bit more laid back about it all as I know what to expect. Next week, I'm going to stock up on library books, pre-cook meals, get lots of chocolate and have a holiday

 

[deafskeptic]

When I was talking about this to my surgeon recently, he felt that the results between ears with more/less stimulation shouldn't be that different because the auditory processing part of the brain serves both ears ie.we don't have one for the left ear and one for the right ear. As long as the brain got decent stimulation from sound in the early years, it should not really be a huge difference as far as the CI is concerned.

I was a bit surprised to hear that as I thought the auditory nerve was like a muscle that needed to be exercised as well. I look forward to testing out his thoughts because the ear that I am getting implanted wasn't stimulated with hearing aids until several years after my currently implanted ear, even though I actually had better residual hearing in that ear. I never felt it was quite as good.

That's reassuring as I had wondered if Id do well with an implant in my right ear.

 

[sr171soars]

Biologically, assuning things are normal (no illness, hearing loss), there is no difference in performance with either the left or right ear since the nerve processing centers within the brain are independent from other sites, regardless of side location. Although, both hearing centers are connected with other areas of the brain for further interpretation.

Er...actually that is not quite true. They have recently discovered and realized that there are differences in how the left/right ear process sounds. It was thought that the differences started in the brain itself (with the hemispheric issues). Now, they realize that it starts with the ear themselves. The left ear does better on tonal aspects of sound (i.e., music) and the right ear does better on discrete aspects of sound (i.e., speech).

Furthermore, there are slight hemispheric differences in how sounds are processed in the brain. The right ear/left brain deals with the details while the left ear/right brain deals with the general ("big picture"). The thing to remember is that they work together to give the harmony of understanding what one hears.

Having said all this...the brain is a marvelous device and it compensates for the lack of input from either ear pretty well. So to answer Contradica, one might have a slight advantage with a HA/Implant for the right ear but in the scheme of things...I wouldn't lose sleep over it. I see there are quite a few satisfied CI left side implantees and doing well. Quibbling over which side is better is probably counterproductive.

To clarify...I'm a right side implantee...who heard and understood speech on day one. Is this because it was on my right side? Perhaps a little bit but overall I suspect it is simply the way I'm "wired" as a one ear bandit all my life. In other words, I'm probably simply very well "wired" for speech.

 

[R2D2]

You will be following me shortly afterwards. My activation date is set for September 17th! How are you feeling with the upcoming surgery?

I just noticed on your blog that you do Sudoku, I love it! We'll have to save up a pile of puzzles to do while we are waiting activation. I find those puzzles a great way of releasing mental energy.

BTW my audiologist contacted me yesterday and she wants to move the activation appointment forward to 18th September at 9.30am so it will probably be just a few hours after yours (we are a day ahead of you here in Oz). I will still go in again on 24th September to remap the first cochlear implant and probably remap the second one too.

 

[jillio]

Biologically, assuning things are normal (no illness, hearing loss), there is no difference in performance with either the left or right ear since the nerve processing centers within the brain are independent from other sites, regardless of side location. Although, both hearing centers are connected with other areas of the brain for further interpretation.

Very good!

 

[contradica]

Sudoku!!!

I just noticed on your blog that you do Sudoku, I love it! We'll have to save up a pile of puzzles to do while we are waiting activation. I find those puzzles a great way of releasing mental energy.

BTW my audiologist contacted me yesterday and she wants to move the activation appointment forward to 18th September at 9.30am so it will probably be just a few hours after yours (we are a day ahead of you here in Oz). I will still go in again on 24th September to remap the first cochlear implant and probably remap the second one too.

Oh man! I love Sudoku. I got a huge book of them that I'm going to attack while I am recovering. Now I know who I can go to if I get stuck I might even try to do some anagrams. I am a sucker for a challenge.

That is great news!! You will be right behind me! *clapping* That was actually my original activation date and time until I got it changed. Do you know if you have to take off the left processor while your right side is getting use to sounds? My audiologist told me I have to remove my hearing aid on my right for a couple months. I think in a couple months time my hearing in my right will be kaput the way that it is going. I have maxed out the volume

 

[R2D2]

That was actually my original activation date and time until I got it changed. Do you know if you have to take off the left processor while your right side is getting use to sounds? My audiologist told me I have to remove my hearing aid on my right for a couple months. I think in a couple months time my hearing in my right will be kaput the way that it is going. I have maxed out the volume

LOL! I'm glad I took the activation spot that you left behind!

Last time around, my audiologist had me turn off the hearing aid in the other ear for 2 hours a day, so that the implanted ear could get a chance to get use to sounds without playing second fiddle, so to speak, to the other ear. So, you have to remove your hearing aid completely for 2 months? Wow.

It's funny though, right from the word go I felt I liked my implanted ear more and depended on it more than than the ear with the hearing aid. I was surprised then when my audiologist did some test on me after 3 months that showed that the brain's response to sound from my hearing aid ear was greater than the implanted ear. I think it would be different now.

 

[contradica]

LOL! I'm glad I took the activation spot that you left behind!

Last time around, my audiologist had me turn off the hearing aid in the other ear for 2 hours a day, so that the implanted ear could get a chance to get use to sounds without playing second fiddle, so to speak, to the other ear. So, you have to remove your hearing aid completely for 2 months? Wow.

It's funny though, right from the word go I felt I liked my implanted ear more and depended on it more than than the ear with the hearing aid. I was surprised then when my audiologist did some test on me after 3 months that showed that the brain's response to sound from my hearing aid ear was greater than the implanted ear. I think it would be different now.

I just checked my calendar and realized that my 2nd mapping session is on the 24th! Yet another coincidence

Yeah, she told me 2 months. She said I could wear it but keep it off until I need to use it for the phone (ha that is a joke). I do not think it would be that hard for me to not to wear it once I get over the initial reaching for it in the morning.

How are you feeling about this surgery this time around? I have a spectrum of different emotions starting this morning since I just realized I can count the days down on one hand.

 

[SCBassist]

Er...actually that is not quite true. They have recently discovered and realized that there are differences in how the left/right ear process sounds. It was thought that the differences started in the brain itself (with the hemispheric issues). Now, they realize that it starts with the ear themselves. The left ear does better on tonal aspects of sound (i.e., music) and the right ear does better on discrete aspects of sound (i.e., speech).

Furthermore, there are slight hemispheric differences in how sounds are processed in the brain. The right ear/left brain deals with the details while the left ear/right brain deals with the general ("big picture"). The thing to remember is that they work together to give the harmony of understanding what one hears.

Having said all this...the brain is a marvelous device and it compensates for the lack of input from either ear pretty well. So to answer Contradica, one might have a slight advantage with a HA/Implant for the right ear but in the scheme of things...I wouldn't lose sleep over it. I see there are quite a few satisfied CI left side implantees and doing well. Quibbling over which side is better is probably counterproductive.

To clarify...I'm a right side implantee...who heard and understood speech on day one. Is this because it was on my right side? Perhaps a little bit but overall I suspect it is simply the way I'm "wired" as a one ear bandit all my life. In other words, I'm probably simply very well "wired" for speech.

Sorry, but not in this case. People develop "learned" preferences, so it's understandable they perceive a certain side to hear from, but all in all, there are no hemispheric influences within the auditory nerve pathway.

 

[R2D2]

I just checked my calendar and realized that my 2nd mapping session is on the 24th! Yet another coincidence

Yeah, she told me 2 months. She said I could wear it but keep it off until I need to use it for the phone (ha that is a joke). I do not think it would be that hard for me to not to wear it once I get over the initial reaching for it in the morning.

How are you feeling about this surgery this time around? I have a spectrum of different emotions starting this morning since I just realized I can count the days down on one hand.

Wow, we are well synchronized!

Yes, I have a range of feelings about the surgery too. On one hand I'm happy to move forward and on the other I'm not looking forward to the first few days of recovery again! At least I'll get to moan and groan with you though LOL!

 

[Hear Again]

contradica and R2D2,

I'll be looking forward to following the progress of both of you. I also had mixed feelings regarding my second surgery. On the one hand, I was extremely excited, but on the other I knew what was just around the corner in terms of recovery. However, if truth be told, knowing what to expect made the recovery that must easier.

 

[Hear Again]

Originally Posted by contradica
That was actually my original activation date and time until I got it changed. Do you know if you have to take off the left processor while your right side is getting use to sounds? My audiologist told me I have to remove my hearing aid on my right for a couple months. I think in a couple months time my hearing in my right will be kaput the way that it is going. I have maxed out the volume

In my case, my audi did not give me any special instructions as to when to wear either processor (or when I wore a HA -- my HA and CI) -- although I found it helpful to practice only with the right CI only for 1-2 hours per day to help develop speech comprehension. The rest of the time I wore both processors together and interestingly enough I found that my right CI caught up with my left CI in a matter of months. When I wore my CI/HA, I found that it took approximately 6 months before I noticed a true sense of binaural sound.

 

[sr171soars]

Sorry, but not in this case. People develop "learned" preferences, so it's understandable they perceive a certain side to hear from, but all in all, there are no hemispheric influences within the auditory nerve pathway.

There are specializations for left ear/right brain and vice versa that aren't open to interpretation. If these articles doesn't mean hemispheric influences, I don't know what does...

See these links...
Newborns Have Ear Preferences, Too. Processing speech and tone sounds

Functional Asymmetry for Auditory Processing in Human Primary Auditory Cortex -- Devlin et al. 23 (37): 11516 -- Journal of Neuroscience

Left-Brain Processing, January 29, 2004 Press Release - National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Asymmetric Cochlear Processing Mimics Hemispheric Specialization

Now, perhaps it doesn't matter in the scheme of things which ear one prefers to listen. I can agree with that and I never said otherwise. All things being equal, one does best with two ears to handle the tonal and the discrete together. However, those who just have one functional ear (which one doesn't matter) are at a slight disadvantage as I can well attest over the years.

 

[SCBassist]

There are specializations for left ear/right brain and vice versa that aren't open to interpretation. If these articles doesn't mean hemispheric influences, I don't know what does...

See these links...
Newborns Have Ear Preferences, Too. Processing speech and tone sounds

Functional Asymmetry for Auditory Processing in Human Primary Auditory Cortex -- Devlin et al. 23 (37): 11516 -- Journal of Neuroscience

Left-Brain Processing, January 29, 2004 Press Release - National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Asymmetric Cochlear Processing Mimics Hemispheric Specialization

Now, perhaps it doesn't matter in the scheme of things which ear one prefers to listen. I can agree with that and I never said otherwise. All things being equal, one does best with two ears to handle the tonal and the discrete together. However, those who just have one functional ear (which one doesn't matter) are at a slight disadvantage as I can well attest over the years.

Yes, just like I mentioned earlier, within the interpretation-emotion-what you will sites, thats where preferences happen - good resorces though.

 

[Carver]

This is interested about the left ear, my ENT specialist recommend for me to have an implanted on my good left ear, my right hear never had any hearing stimulation. I want him to do my right but he indicated I would be better off to have it done on my left.
PS I am new hear today and I am candidate for an implant but I decided to wait for a year.

 

[R2D2]

This is interested about the left ear, my ENT specialist recommend for me to have an implanted on my good left ear, my right hear never had any hearing stimulation. I want him to do my right but he indicated I would be better off to have it done on my left.
PS I am new hear today and I am candidate for an implant but I decided to wait for a year.

Welcome Carver! I had the opposite of you. I wanted to do my left ear, which was well stimulated although always with the bigger loss. My surgeon initially wanted to do my right ear, which had a better audiogram but which hadn't been as well stimulated as the left ear. I didn't get a hearing aid in the right ear until I was 10. Anyway, I got my wish and had the left ear implanted.

He argued that since the auditory processing system is just in one part of the brain, that it could be transferred to the poorer stimulated ears.

Shows how much they disagree among themselves LOL!