Those who decide not to get a CI

On the face of it-that Beethoven's deafness was caused/contributed by" parental abuse" seems a bit odd! How could "parental abuse" be a contributing factor deafness? Are there any other persons this has happened to?

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
drphil said:
On the face of it-that Beethoven's deafness was caused/contributed by" parental abuse" seems a bit odd! How could "parental abuse" be a contributing factor deafness? Are there any other persons this has happened to?

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
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Thomas Edison. But it was a railway employee boxing him in the ears.
 
Surely the rare occurrence of physical damage to one's head which could/may result in damage to the Cochlea is not what "normally" causes deafness. It clearly was not my experience in becoming bilateral deaf- from "genetic/sensorineural." causes.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
drphil said:
Surely the rare occurrence of physical damage to one's head which could/may result in damage to the Cochlea is not what "normally" causes deafness. It clearly was not my experience in becoming bilateral deaf- from "genetic/sensorineural." causes.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
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No. I think it cause bleeding and scarring of the tympanic membrane and could probably be treated today.

It was conductive deafness, not related to your type of sensorineural deafness.
 
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Beethoven's
On March 26th 1778, at the age of 7 1/2, Beethoven gave his first know public performance, at Cologne

1796/8: First signs of deafness

1801: Complains of buzzing in ears in letter to Wegeler; Amenda

1802: “Heiligenstadt testament” – Beethoven writes of his despair at worsening hearing

1814: Further hearing deterioration sets in. Last public appearance as pianist.

1816-18: Use of ear trumpets

1818-27: Conversation books. (Conversation had to be written)

1823: Functionally deaf writing of ninth symphony finished.

1824: First performance of the ninth symphony was on May 7 in Vienna.
It was the first time that a major composer use voices in a symphony.

1826-7: Final Illness; Chirohsis/dropsy. (5 operations to drain fluid) dead at age 57
 
deafskeptic said:
I have wondered if he had an excellent memory for sound akin to having photographic memory.
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Auditory memory was no doubt well developed. Additionally, he had a strong kinesthetic sense, and could relate vibration to the actual pitch of the sound in his memory.
 
I personally just got a CI yesterday. I got it because i wanted to have hearing back. The only reason I had for not wanting to get it was the pain that would be associated with it.

As for the technology, i'd say its great. And for the most part once you get the implant you can get different sound processors as they upgrade them. So for instance in 5 years if the come out with an upgraded sound processor (has to be by the same company) then typically I should be able to upgrade. This isn't always true, but is a great improvement. And if you did have to upgrade the implant, i don't think surgery takes nearly as long and you probably don't have as much pain afterwards as there is very little drilling involved!
 
zebadee2010 said:
I personally just got a CI yesterday. I got it because i wanted to have hearing back. The only reason I had for not wanting to get it was the pain that would be associated with it.

As for the technology, i'd say its great. And for the most part once you get the implant you can get different sound processors as they upgrade them. So for instance in 5 years if the come out with an upgraded sound processor (has to be by the same company) then typically I should be able to upgrade. This isn't always true, but is a great improvement. And if you did have to upgrade the implant, i don't think surgery takes nearly as long and you probably don't have as much pain afterwards as there is very little drilling involved!
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Yes, that's been one progress with the CI's over the years. Such that if a new and improved processor comes out, one can just change the external part of the implant.
 
It is my understand that replacing the INTERNAL PROCESSOR is a substantial procedure. which is why they are 'over built" so to speak.Apparently one's brain "works around it" so to speak. One's ENT doctor can give the exact details-if interested. I guess in part depends on the age of the person when it is Implanted. Say being 70 VS 25. The external can be upgraded much easier-thanks goodness!

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
drphil said:
On the face of it-that Beethoven's deafness was caused/contributed by" parental abuse" seems a bit odd! How could "parental abuse" be a contributing factor deafness?
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Beethoven was abused by various family members, including receiving frequent blows aimed directly to his head and ears. These beatings are stated to have caused bleeding from the ears, severe tinnitus & vertigo (with nausea) and most likely also caused ruptured ear drums & damage to the cochlea (possibly similar to the injuries that Zebadee2010 here on AD suffered from his fall) .
In addition to trauma-related hearing loss (and tinnitus) many researchers/scholars have stated that medical documentation exists indicating that Beethoven likely had Otosclerosis as well as trauma-related-hearing loss.
For more information on Beethoven's live I'd suggest "Thayer's Life of Beethoven" as a reliable and respected work to start with - there are of course many other books/texts about Beethoven's life, health, music etc.

drphil said:

Are there any other persons this has happened to?
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Yes.
Head trauma IS one of the three major causes of hearing loss (the others two being genetic and infection/disease/immune) and was much more common before the advent of highly mechanized factories, where people where doing the majority of building/construction/assembly etc by hand and before basic workplace safety regulations such as helmets/hardhats etc became mandatory. Falls and car accidents are the most "common" means of trauma-related-hearing loss (aside from blows to the head from fights including boxing, martial arts etc espeically when headgear is not worn.)

There thousands of documented cases where head trauma (falls, abuse, seizure disorder/epilepsy, "lesions/plaques" such as in MS etc) is stated to be the specific cause of one's hearing loss - ranging from minor to profound in degree & commonly accompanied by fluctuating tinnitus as well as balance issues (including vertigo). For specific cases of trauma induced hearing loss/deafness, past and present medical journals are an accessible & reliable source - many of which are available online (ie. university libraries) or via physical medical libraries or universities' sciences libraries.

Hope this helps :)


deafskeptic said:
I have wondered if he had an excellent memory for sound akin to having photographic memory.
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It's likely that Beethoven had especially accurate relative pitch (if not true "perfect pitch") as well as an eidetic memory for pitches (the sound of each note). It's not "common" exactly, but it's not "rare" either. I know a number of people (hearing, Hoh and LD) including myself who have played musical instruments from peri-lingual ages (3-4) who develop "near eidetic memories" for music or pitches (even if we don't have perfect pitch etc). My personal thought on this is that because we started playing musical instruments - learning pitches, intervals, patterns etc during a time that our language centre was developing, in many ways our brains see and "store" music as a language (not just sounds) along side English, ASL etc. Because our brain views music as a language we are able to "internalize" it in a nearly identical manner as we internalize English - complete with an "internal voice" (similar to the "voice" hearing, Hoh and LD people may hear "internally" when thinking words, reading, etc). In my case, my "internal music voice" not only functions like a 'built in music player' that lets me "play back" music and voices internally that sound IDENTICAL to listening aurally to the music, I also have what for all intends and purposes is an "internal orchestra" that allows me to CREATE original music or (with constant practice) "hear" music notation. One "quirk" of this is that it's NOT like memorization where I consciously would listen carefully to something so that I would be able to "play it back" internally at a later date (in fact I'm unable to do this) - instead it's a completely subconscious occurrence which I am only aware of once the "playback" happens, which could be weeks, months or years after the "internal recording" takes place!! For me "getting a tune stuck in my head" - means that I literally have a song PLAYING in my head on "loop", NOT that I'm internally humming a tune to myself. The sounds are SO real that it could almost be called an auditory hallucination (but it's not) - and there have been a number of times when I'm drifting off to sleep, dreaming or just starting to wake where I'll "hear" something and be woken only to discover that there isn't an external source for the sound at all!

I know a number of others who are like myself in this regard as well - in fact a number of my (former) fellow orchestra members also experience music/sound this way - EVEN though we are typically VERY visual conscious learners (I can't memorize things by listening to them - only by visual & or kinetic means). Personally - I think it's very likely that Beethoven experienced music in a similar way as myself & my orchestra-mates do ... which would allow him to continue to compose as he did ... espeically when combined with becoming intimately familiar with the vibrations associated with each pitch/note etc. For me vibration and sound are intimately and inextricably connected - to the point that if I feel a vibration my brain automatically generates a sound to accompany the vibration EVEN if there is no audible sound associated with that vibration :)
 
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That is interesting that deafness arises from 3 physical causes which seems to have "pathological repercussions". I am aware mine is genetic-"sensorineural" which is why I fit the criteria of getting an Implant at my request. The next interesting thing is the ratio of which group to the total deaf. My guess would be the Middle group with Head trauma next and infection etc decreasing due to various drugs.
No comment on music composition.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
I guess "lead poisoning" is not much a factor today in "getting deaf". Thanks goodness!

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
 
drphil said:
That is interesting that deafness arises from 3 physical causes which seems to have "pathological repercussions". I am aware mine is genetic-"sensorineural" which is why I fit the criteria of getting an Implant at my request. The next interesting thing is the ratio of which group to the total deaf. My guess would be the Middle group with Head trauma next and infection etc decreasing due to various drugs.
No comment on music composition.

Implanted Advanced Bionics-Harmony activated Aug/07
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To clarify - There are three major causes of hearing loss/deafness - where a cause can be determined (trauma, genetic and infection/disease) however there are of course additional less common causes which may not "neatly" fit into those three groups - also there are a number of people (including myself) who were born with hearing loss of un-known cause (spontaneously occurring during gestation perhaps ?).
 
zebadee2010 said:
I personally just got a CI yesterday. I got it because i wanted to have hearing back. The only reason I had for not wanting to get it was the pain that would be associated with it.

As for the technology, i'd say its great. And for the most part once you get the implant you can get different sound processors as they upgrade them. So for instance in 5 years if the come out with an upgraded sound processor (has to be by the same company) then typically I should be able to upgrade. This isn't always true, but is a great improvement. And if you did have to upgrade the implant, i don't think surgery takes nearly as long and you probably don't have as much pain afterwards as there is very little drilling involved!
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Hope all went well with you.
 
Anij said:
To clarify - There are three major causes of hearing loss/deafness - where a cause can be determined (trauma, genetic and infection/disease) however there are of course additional less common causes which may not "neatly" fit into those three groups - also there are a number of people (including myself) who were born with hearing loss of un-known cause (spontaneously occurring during gestation perhaps ?).
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RE: the bolded part: If a pregnant mother contracts CMV during pregnancy, a child can be born with deafness. Symptoms of CMV very much resemble the flu. CMV isn't life threatening, but you do carry it with you for life if you contract it. It's actually not that uncommon -- in fact, most people get infected with CMV without even knowing it. Anyways, contracting it or having an outbreak of it during pregnancy can cause deafness in an unborn child. My mom contracted the "flu" when 3 months along with me -- we wonder if it was really CMV. (It can be confirmed through blood testing but it's one thing to convince a doctor to test an already-born child for the CMV antibodies when treatment for the CMV is no longer necessary.)
 
AlleyCat said:
RE: the bolded part: If a pregnant mother contracts CMV during pregnancy, a child can be born with deafness. Symptoms of CMV very much resemble the flu. CMV isn't life threatening, but you do carry it with you for life if you contract it. It's actually not that uncommon -- in fact, most people get infected with CMV without even knowing it. Anyways, contracting it or having an outbreak of it during pregnancy can cause deafness in an unborn child. My mom contracted the "flu" when 3 months along with me -- we wonder if it was really CMV. (It can be confirmed through blood testing but it's one thing to convince a doctor to test an already-born child for the CMV antibodies when treatment for the CMV is no longer necessary.)
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Very accurrate statements. My son is CMV etiology. As your patterns and his are very similar, it is probable that you are both CMV. The patterns of CMV deafness are very consistent.

BTW: I was asymptomatic. The only way I knew that had been exposed was when a friend told me that they had been diagnosed. OB checked my titer, and it was elevated.
 
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