The CI Evaluation Begins...

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Phi4Sius

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Well, I saw the insurance audie today. Sorry if this post seems like a complete copy/paste from another community (for those who are a part of it), but it is!! Can't really figure out another way to talk about the result of my visit today. :D

Well, it's confirmed!!!

I'm being evaluated for a Cochlear Implant. They've scheduled the CT scan for Saturday, and I'm being referred to a CI clinic in Beverly Hills shortly afterwards.

Also, due to three movies in a row this weekend my right ear is 20 dB worse across the board (a little bit more in some frequencies than others).

I've been ordered no more movies (but I wanna see Star Trek again, Taking of Pelham 123 again, Transformers when it comes out, Harry Potter when it comes out, GI Joe when it comes out...*grrr*)

Oh, well. Gotta give my right ear time to recover I guess.


- Brian

P.S. I'm also told the analog hearing aid I got for my right ear needs to be exchanged for another one because it's not the right aid for my loss because it's too powerful. *sigh*...I really hope that's not the cause of my 20 dB loss since February (my last audiogram).
 
Thanks for the update. I will have to be very careful when getting my HA reprogrammed or when buying a new HA. Did you experience any discomfort with your analog HA? Maybe it was overamplifying the low frequencies(125Hz and 250Hz) since analogs aren't programmable and have linear gain and SPL. You might benefit great from a two channel analog where the low frequency gains/SPL can be reduced a bit.

What's your current audiogram now factoring in the 20db additional loss? Do you have any scans of that audiogram? If not, type it here and also update your sig. Did they perform additional speech tests?

How do they know movies are the curlpit? Could you just reduce the volume on your HA for movies to be safe? On another note, a sudden loss of hearing can sometimes be recoverable with steriod treatment but you must act quick!

Give us more details on your CI evaluation. How much of the CI expenses is insurance willing to pay? Are you able to afford whatever out of pocket expenses youll incur?

read carefully:

I have more information on stem cells to treat/improve deafness. I asked a bunch of questions and my friend is forwarding it to the experts. I will have the answers sometime next week including when, where, how, why, etc. Ill post it here for you and everyone else to read. Your good ear will benefit from stem cells when human clinical trials begin, I am finding out when that will be planned, the experts will provide answers. I also plan to enroll in those clinical trials.
 
I also plan to enroll in those clinical trials
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hmm you would.

deafdude1 said:
I have more information on stem cells to treat/improve deafness. I asked a bunch of questions and my friend is forwarding it to the experts. I will have the answers sometime next week including when, where, how, why, etc. Ill post it here for you and everyone else to read. Your good ear will benefit from stem cells when human clinical trials begin, I am finding out when that will be planned, the experts will provide answers. I also plan to enroll in those clinical trials.
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I am pretty sure the OP didn't say he was ineterested in stem cell but CI, stick to the topic



TO THE OP

Glad you are getting the process done quickly..some ppl have to wait months for MRI's/CT scans! Hopefully everything gets approved for you...I can't really see the movies being THAT much of a problem this is where noise cancellation would work great but I am sure they don't have that on analog ha's...anywho GOODLUCK with your evaluations..hope u fail with flying colors :giggle:
 
@deafdude1: New audiogram of my right ear:

70 / 250
70 / 500
80 / 1000
85 / 2000
105 / 4000

My insurance will cover the CI nearly 100%, as long as it's deemed medically necessary. Of course I'll be able to afford the out of pocket expenses. They're only, what...$20 co-pay per visit/test/implant/surgery/etc. once surgery/implant is approved? :)

No discomfort experienced, but sometimes sensations (such as when my car alarm sounds when I hit the "open" button on my key, or in a supermarket when the bar code scanner beeped I would get an annoying sensation in my ear, but it would only happen during those two times).

I'd also like more information about that stem cell research you were talking about.

Alicia- It's okay. I was interested in stem cells before and he's just keeping me updated. Although, deafdude, I would agree to please stick to the topic of this thread. :)

I've already FAILED the hearing test with flying colors (LOL)...so I just need to fail some more. :)
 
Did your audiologist explain how you could suddenly lose as much as 20db hearing? Did you notice you hearing worse unaided/aided? This is unusual to suddenly lose hearing and most progressive hearing loss is limited to the high frequencies at first and when the highs are gone, the mids are next to go and the lows go last.

We can talk about stem cells more on instant messenger instead of in your thread, if you don't have it yet then you can download AIM, Yahoo or MSN. I prefer AIM though. PM me with your instant messenger screename.
 
When someone loses more than 5-10 dB of hearing, it is considered worrisome. I don't mention that to scare Phi, but audis do take it seriously and if this has happened to him, I'm surprised they didn't begin immediate treatment with a steroid. When I started losing my hearing in 1995, they wanted to put me on Prednisone, but I refused due to problems I had at the time with severe depression. The last thing I wanted was to sink into an even worse depression than the one I was currently experiencing.
 
My audi did the same...she wanted to put me on prednisone for my sudden 10-20 db loss and the ENT said it wasn't necessary..ironically a week later i had a really bad asthma attack and was taken to the ER by ambulance he dr put me on prednisone for a week and my hearing didnt change
 
I was the first to mention his sudden hearing loss and others have chimed in. If his audiologist won't do anything, he needs to seek a 2nd opinion quick! The longer one waits, the less hearing can be recovered then the loss becomes permanent.
 
deafdude1 said:
I was the first to mention his sudden hearing loss and others have chimed in. If his audiologist won't do anything, he needs to seek a 2nd opinion quick! The longer one waits, the less hearing can be recovered then the loss becomes permanent.
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what difference does it make deafdude? do you want an award for mentioning it first? i'm sorry, but i haven't been able to read *every* single post in this thread, so if you brought it up first, fine. it makes no difference to me. as alicia said, who cares?
 
Okay, okay - what's important is that it was brought up. Thank you to all of you for your concern. :)

I've emailed my regular audie to get an opinion from him. We'll see what he says about my audiogram and we'll go from there.

My thoughts? It's a combination of the movies and differences with equipment and not much more. Although, the 20 dB loss in the lows all of a sudden does have me slightly worried. I'll find out what my regular audie says and we can go from there. For now I'm playing it by ear.
 
Did your audiologist explain how you could suddenly lose as much as 20db hearing? Did you notice you hearing worse unaided/aided? This is unusual to suddenly lose hearing and most progressive hearing loss is limited to the high frequencies at first and when the highs are gone, the mids are next to go and the lows go last.

We can talk about stem cells more on instant messenger instead of in your thread, if you don't have it yet then you can download AIM, Yahoo or MSN. I prefer AIM though. PM me with your instant messenger screename.

I replied to you above

I also wanted to ask if you personally noticed you hearing worse or was the first time you found out was from the audiometer test? a 20db loss would be very noticable!
 
deafdude1- The new audie believes it's from the movies and is only temporary. I'm going to see what my regular audie says given the same conditions.

I have personally noticed a few things that are missing that were not missing several months ago (but that were also not there before I saw the movies and after...which makes me believe that it's not a result of the movies). I won't know yet until I speak to my regular audie about this.

Since I got the new hearing aid, I've noticed a steady decline that wasn't noticeable or I wasn't noticing MUCH until I saw the results in person. I'm still trying to compare things from now from before I got the new hearing aid but being that I had digital before that never really worked well for me I don't even know if what I had before was accurate! Gah. So frustrating.

I should add as well that my speech recognition has gone down to 72% unaided.

I'll pm my AIM to you shortly.
 
72% speech discrimination unaided is still quite good. With the proper hearing aid, you have the potential to raise that to 80% or better.
 
20 db loss in a weekend after watching 3 movies? Really? That is certainly odd and I'm glad you're getting that checked out - I've never heard of this. I watch movies at an unbelievably loud level :lol:
 
Phi,

How loud are you listening to these movies? Are you using a home theater system with subwoofers or headphones?
 
People, are you for real? I lost 50 plus decibels overnight when I was 17, if I knew back then and they offer steroid I'd declined it because, tell me is there any case that you know personally (not news article, more like blog, friend, etc) which steroid miraclously restored the recent loss to where it was before?
So you lost 20 db phi, big deal, it happens. sorry deafdude he's not your superstar now wah wah
How is this possible, having severe/profound loss and that hearing aid is "too powerful"? I think that's bull, and drop in hearing from movie? No way you need to have constant loud exposure above 90 db for long time with normal hearing (20 db) to have noticeably drop in hearing. I think you just have progressive hearing loss like majority of us does. I had 50 db all across board for first 17 years of my life it was so steady and stable not any slight change in audiogram until one fateful day I went to bed taking hearing aid off remembering I hear fine and same as usual, waking up not able to hear my own scream with hearing aid on. It can be unexpected progressive loss. AliciaM had normal hearing until some while ago (age 17?) and its dropping quickly. Anything can happen.
Jason (my fiance) have normal hearing since birth in left ear until spring he lost his hearing to mild/moderate and other ear (right) was moderate (30-40 lows, 50-60 highs across board) since his age 12 (from botched ear operation broke little bit off one of his bones in ear) and progressed to severe profound (70 lows -100 highs) at age 22 for no known reason except possibly genetic since his grandma have moderate hearing loss in both ear at age 50 (80 now) its steady not progressive like jason though who know.
 
You do bring up alot of great points SkullChick -- especially about having severe-profound loss and a hearing aid being "too powerful." That equation does not make sense. I also don't understand how it's possible to lose 20 dB of hearing by watching movies. I used to listen to music on my Walkman at a very loud volume yet I don't think I ended up losing that much hearing at once. :dunno:
 
Thank you SkullChick and HearAgain.

HearAgain- The movies were in a real movie theater.

That makes much more sense. I'm surprised that a professional audie that does hearing tests all day would attribute going to three movies as a cause of this loss considering the other factors that the both of you mentioned.

So it's turning into a progressive loss. Okay.

Hmmmm...perhaps bi-lateral CIs are not too far off for me.
 
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