The road begins to hear once again!!!

The process wasn't all that quick for me either. There were alot of phone calls as well.
 
Update!!

I have been wearing my HA's alot since I began the implant program. Monday they did more testing to see if my speech listening has improved. and sadly to say it didn't. So they sched me for an apointment today to look at the implants that they offerd. I picked the nucleous 5. She let me try it on and i simply love how it feels.. so much more comfortable. I chose my right ear to be implanted as its been bad all my life . and i want to save what lil hearing i have in my left ear for the future.. I thank all of you on this site for the information on the implants. It helped me alot to understand how this whole process works.. and what to expect when I will be activated. This is a great support website.
 
Deaffy, you have done exactly what I did. Same ear and almost same reasons. It is working out real well for me. If you don't expect too much to soon you will be surprised. We are all different so impossible to say exactly what will happen or how it will come out but if you keep open mind and don't expect too much like turning on a light switch you will do well. I have been fortunate in that I had warn h.a.'s for over 50 years so was used to what things sounded like to me. Not necessarily what they sound like to "normal" hearing. I have no idea what "Normal" hearing is anymore. For me surgery was piece of cake, did not even need/use Tylenol afterwords. A bit of discomfort but nothing I could not live with. Activation was an interesting procedure and had me on pins and needles for a while. I did not hear anything for at least 5 min. and was getting very concerned that it was not going to work. Finally heard a very week tone and it was great to know I was going to hear something. I think they were just being very careful to make sure they did not excite the nerves too much and make things too loud? Anyway had 3 one week mappings, 2 two week and now next one is 3 months. I'm able to use phone some what and even that is improving as time goes one. I do find that I feel I go backward occasionally or that I'm not comprehending as well some times and other times doing what I feel is quite well. There is a sticky on this site somewhere by I think it RonJaxon and it is a must read. Very well done and very informative. Anyway good luck and keep us all up to day with the process.
 
Deaffy, did you notice any benifit at all (ie enviromental awareness of sounds) from hearing aids? It does sound like you're pretty much a shoo-in for bilateral CI......but just wondering if you're thinking about trying a bimodal approach, just for sound localization.
 
yes i am a shooin ( sp) for bi laterals. but unfortunately at the moment my insurance only covers one. so what im planning on doing is implant right since i cant hear much from my HA but i can comprehend some speech in closed enviroment. so im hoping that since my brain remembers how to listen and speak that ill be good with the implant . but time will tell eh?:hmm:

Edit: those who dont know me. I am late deafend. I lost my hearing at age 21. i am now 33
 
o what im planning on doing is implant right since i cant hear much from my HA but i can comprehend some speech in closed enviroment.
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Is your right ear your worse one? You should do well with the CI since you're late deafened.
Are you going to experiment with CI and HA combo? Although you can't hear too much, it might help with sound localization. Then again, I'm not an audi or a CI specialist.....May want to check with your CI specialist about that. I vaguely remember someone saying that it was common for prelingal deaf folks to like a CI/HA combo, whereas postlingal/late deafend folks liked bilaterals.
It's probaly a very indivdual thing.
 
Ci

I'm interested to read all your comments.

I'm currently awaiting my assessment for CI. If its approved does anyone know what the waiting time is here in Perth, Australia? Also, if I have CI in my left ear (whereby my understanding is that sounds are quite robotic) and continue with my HA in my right ear (where sounds are natural) is there a conflict of sounds?

Thanks in advance
Tracy
 
@ Tracy, Us cochlear implant users do not hear sounds as robotic. It only sounds like that during the first following weeks of activation, you may hear Donald Duck, a lot of people say they hear R2D2(whoever that is)
To me, sound is very normal, it does not sound robotic at all
 
Tracy,

I find that things sound pretty normal with my implant. Things do sound strange at first but the brain figures things out pretty fast. My implant provides me with much more hearing than the hearing aid in my unimplanted ear and is dominant. I mentioned in a post on another thread that I actually did better in noise with just the implant. I will have to ask my audi if this is due to the two different signals.
 
Yea I was born deaf in right ear. and left ear had good hearing. up till that fatefull day 10 yrs ago when everything began to echo and then tinnitus ran rampant. I am planning on going with implant in right ear since its the least stable ear I have . I do hear with it with HA but its soo minimal I cant make out anything im really hearing with it. I also told my audi I would like to go with a HA in the left ear since I seem to be able to hear and understand speech with it in a closed enviroment with no other sounds emiting. To be honest I have only had HA for the past 6 months ( loners for being in the implant program) and it was great to realise i do have some hearing. but its negligable to how life was before. enviromental sounds are pretty crisp and clear with the HA in left ear. But speech is soo bloody hard. I can maybe get 2 words correct out of 15 min convo in enclosed room with no one else about. so I am praying that the implant can boost it a lil more than what i have now. But im not expecting it to be a overnight whoopdedooo connect me right after surgery.. Im excited to go on this path. I swore I was going to never hear again when i lost it. Depression can do some horrible things to the mind.Im actually thankfull me and my ex wife have divorced. IT has prompted me to better myself and got me on this path to regain what i had once lost. man life sure is screwy sometimes how it plays out.
 
TSleat said:
I'm interested to read all your comments.

I'm currently awaiting my assessment for CI. If its approved does anyone know what the waiting time is here in Perth, Australia? Also, if I have CI in my left ear (whereby my understanding is that sounds are quite robotic) and continue with my HA in my right ear (where sounds are natural) is there a conflict of sounds?

Thanks in advance
Tracy
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for me in canberra. waiting time is one year. during one year i had several appointments for MRI scans and balance testings.. etc etc
 
So this friday the clinic called my dad. unfortunately he was unable to answer the call. So he called them today to see what it was about. The dept that he called back was the dept that sched surgerys. It looks like my insurance didnt put up a fight and will cover my implant. Im soo stoked monday he will call them to sched my surgery. I will post back as soon as I find out when my surgery date will be.
 
Well the clinic called back.. My surgery date will be july 16th of 2010. WOW now that i have a day I am soo extremely nervous. I soo hope this was a good decision to go through with it. Medicare had no issues with paying for this surgery. Im glad about that atleast. Well I will let you all know how surgery goes when I have it done.. Wish me luck!!!
 
Deaffy said:
Well the clinic called back.. My surgery date will be july 16th of 2010. WOW now that i have a day I am soo extremely nervous. I soo hope this was a good decision to go through with it. Medicare had no issues with paying for this surgery. Im glad about that atleast. Well I will let you all know how surgery goes when I have it done.. Wish me luck!!!
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Wow, thats excatly 2 years after mine!! Congrats and good luck.
 
48 hours to go till surgery. I went for preop testing last week and the dr seen that I have high potassium in blood so now im on high blood pressure meds to help lower my potassium. Im certaintly glad i took this route to gain some hearing and also found the root to my high blood pressure in the process. I will post as soon as i can after surgery on friday, take care all:D
 
Deaffy, I thought about you today funny enough, since you will be implanted 2 years to the day from mine. I wish you all the best in recovery and look forward to read your "post op" story!
I won't be in UK for my 2 year anniversary, I will be spending it with my parents at home in Austria (trying to keep them in the loop). There will be cakes and I will light one for you.
 
I finally got courage to walk upstairs after surgery and can post my results ..... Im one day into healing from surgery, the head band and all wrapping are removed. its a tiny lil bugger og a incision.I have a slight metallic " blood taste" in my mouth that comes and goes. and a slight popping going on in my ear when i lay down that poping is a lil painfull but not too bad.. tinnitus was friggen horrible last night but seems to be leveling out at a low hum right now. which is even better than it was before surgery. activation is 2 weeks away. I opted for the nucleus 5. Will post pics soon.... WEll gonna go back to bed as im a lil doped up still.. take care all.
 
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