Surgeon's report

jillio said:
But, you were aware of those possibilities prior to consenting to surgery, were you not?
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I had always thought the residual hearing was lost from the use of the high speed drill so close to the esr itself, or from the laying of the electrode array, not from the removal of ear pieces! I knew in my head it would happen, I guess I never really thought about how I would feel about it.
I just think I still think of her as hoh sometimes. She had such great residual hearing for so ong that it is hard to really think that she is profoundly Deaf. It's still tough for me to say or type that.
 
faire_jour said:
I had always thought the residual hearing was lost from the use of the high speed drill so close to the esr itself, or from the laying of the electrode array, not from the removal of ear pieces! I knew in my head it would happen, I guess I never really thought about how I would feel about it.
I just think I still think of her as hoh sometimes. She had such great residual hearing for so ong that it is hard to really think that she is profoundly Deaf. It's still tough for me to say or type that.
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It will take time for you to revise your expectation of who and what she is. In reality and actual consequence,though, nothing has really changed for her. It is a change in what you believed was her.
 
jillio said:
It will take time for you to revise your expectation of who and what she is. In reality and actual consequence,though, nothing has really changed for her. It is a change in what you believed was her.
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Yeah, I know. What kind of issue is it really to lose residual hearing of 90-100 db? Not exactly a huge loss!
 
faire_jour said:
Yeah, I know. What kind of issue is it really to lose residual hearing of 90-100 db? Not exactly a huge loss!
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that's true, faire_jour. i was going to say that, but didn't want to minimize your feelings. besides, i don't have a profoundly deaf child of my own, so i have no idea what it's like to experience what you are feeling.
 
faire_jour said:
It's just rather upseting to know that it impossible for her to hear anything now. She was a borderline audiological canidate, but a lousy hearing aid user, so we figured we should go for it. Now I feel like I would probably never give her another implant. I don't want her to lose all possibilty of hearing naturally. She used to be able to turn if I clapped, without aids.
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faire_jour said:
I had always thought the residual hearing was lost from the use of the high speed drill so close to the esr itself, or from the laying of the electrode array, not from the removal of ear pieces! I knew in my head it would happen, I guess I never really thought about how I would feel about it.
I just think I still think of her as hoh sometimes. She had such great residual hearing for so ong that it is hard to really think that she is profoundly Deaf. It's still tough for me to say or type that.
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This is why I think it's a good idea to have a psychiatric evaluation as part of the CI candidacy process. I think CI candidates or their parents should be given a psychiatric evaluation or it be made mandatory to meet with a psychologist before candidacy is determined. It is absolutely important to be emotionally able to handle anything that may happen during surgery. If you're not able to do that, then you shouldn't consider the CI for yourself or your child.
 
Oceanbreeze said:
This is why I think it's a good idea to have a psychiatric evaluation as part of the CI candidacy process. I think CI candidates or their parents should be given a psychiatric evaluation or it be made mandatory to meet with a psychologist before candidacy is determined. It is absolutely important to be emotionally able to handle anything that may happen during surgery. If you're not able to do that, then you shouldn't consider the CI for yourself or your child.
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Also, to find out from a cold written report, so much later, was less than ideal. I think the surgeon should have, when he came out over the surgery to talk to us, just mentioned it. Maybe other parents wouldn't have cared. I'm just the type who wants to know every detail. I'm a reader and a researcher. I want to know it all, when it comes to my baby.
 
faire_jour said:
Also, to find out from a cold written report, so much later, was less than ideal. I think the surgeon should have, when he came out over the surgery to talk to us, just mentioned it. Maybe other parents wouldn't have cared. I'm just the type who wants to know every detail. I'm a reader and a researcher. I want to know it all, when it comes to my baby.
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i know exactly how you feel, faire_jour. when my sister spoke to my ci surgeon following my first surgery, she was told that i lost all of my residual hearing. she was surprised by this (because she didn't know it could happen), but quickly came to accept my total deafness. as for myself, both my ci audi and surgeon explained the possibility (they described it as "very likely") that i would lose my residual hearing, so i was prepared.
 
Oceanbreeze said:
This is why I think it's a good idea to have a psychiatric evaluation as part of the CI candidacy process. I think CI candidates or their parents should be given a psychiatric evaluation or it be made mandatory to meet with a psychologist before candidacy is determined. It is absolutely important to be emotionally able to handle anything that may happen during surgery. If you're not able to do that, then you shouldn't consider the CI for yourself or your child.
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i agree. while i didn't have a psychiatric evaluation, the ci audi who saw me both times (for my initial ci evaluation and bilateral ci evaluation) asked me what my expectations of an implant/bilateral implants were and what i would do if those expectations weren't met. i think at most ci centers, the ci audi takes the place of a psychologist and/or psychiatrist.
 
Hear Again said:
i agree. while i didn't have a psychiatric evaluation, the ci audi who saw me both times (for my initial ci evaluation and bilateral ci evaluation) asked me what my expectations of an implant/bilateral implants were and what i would do if those expectations weren't met. i think at most ci centers, the ci audi takes the place of a psychologist and/or psychiatrist.
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I personally think this can be detrimental, as audis are not trained to recognize or deal with issues that may be hidden under the surface.
 
jillio said:
I personally think this can be detrimental, as audis are not trained to recognize or deal with issues that may be hidden under the surface.
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Agreed. I think they should have onboard a certified psychologist or psychiatrist as part of the CI candidacy team.
 
Hear Again said:
i agree. while i didn't have a psychiatric evaluation, the ci audi who saw me both times (for my initial ci evaluation and bilateral ci evaluation) asked me what my expectations of an implant/bilateral implants were and what i would do if those expectations weren't met. i think at most ci centers, the ci audi takes the place of a psychologist and/or psychiatrist.
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I have problems with this approach. Firstly, it's already been mentioned. The CI audi isn't trained to spot underlying problems. Secondly, the CI audi could be biased.
 
I barely spoke to my CI audi. All she did was run the mandatory tests. My real discussions were with my ENT's. The first one, from the military base, that I have gotten to know from seeing him often over the past two years and then the ENT surgeon that I was referred to. Since the subject of CI was brought up a year and a half ago, along with pros and cons, I was already aware of many of the things that could happen, both good and bad.
I think Miss Kat's surgeon should have met with you after the surgery to fill you in. Something that you are not expecting to happen is something you should be informed about as soon as possible.
With me, they had to stop the surgery to do x-rays due to ossification. The surgeon went out and talked to my husband while they were taking x-rays so that he was aware of what was happening and knew why the surgery was taking longer than it was scheduled to.
I sometimes think the surgeon forgets to put a name and a life with the patient on the operating table. Perhaps you could say something to him so that he might try to be more informative with the next patient/family. I know that won't help you, but it might help make him a better doctor.
 
Hear Again said:
some ci centers do. however, a majority of them don't.
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Exactly. From what I understand, there is no uniformity in the criterion for CI candidacy. Each CI center does things a little bit differently and I disagree with this. There needs to be uniformity of the criterior they use to determine CI candidacy.
 
Oceanbreeze said:
Exactly. From what I understand, there is no uniformity in the criterion for CI candidacy. Each CI center does things a little bit differently and I disagree with this. There needs to be uniformity of the criterior they use to determine CI candidacy.
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i agree. if all ci centers had some conformity when it comes to ci criteria, people wouldn't have to hop from one ci center to another for candidacy acceptance.

then again, i also think ALL ci centers should accept or deny the SAME candidates.

for example, i attended a ci center in 2001. at the time, my speech discrimination was 30-40% and my hearing loss profound in my left ear and severe-profound in my right. however, the surgeon told me that he wouldn't accept me as a candidate because there was no guarantee that i would do well with a ci.

when i was evaluated for my first ci at a different ci center, my hearing continued to decline and so did my speech discrimination. it dropped from 30-40% bilaterally to 8% in my left ear and 22% in my right ear. i was immediately accepted as a candidate.

just goes to show how different each ci center is.
 
Hear Again said:
i agree. if all ci centers had some conformity when it comes to ci criteria, people wouldn't have to hop from one ci center to another for candidacy acceptance.
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There might also be fewer recipients, but that might not be a bad thing.
 
Oceanbreeze said:
There might also be fewer recipients, but that might not be a bad thing.
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that's true. my ci center happens to be the largest in the midwest yet they only implant 7 people per year. i was really surprised to hear this given the fact that they are a large teaching hospital. however, as my audi explained, they are also *very* selective as to whom they choose as ci candidates.
as it turned out, i was the first deafblind person to receive a ci.
 
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