What do you expect?

gnarlydorkette

gnarlydorkette

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With more and more people turning to CIs-- and many of them have different reasons.

So I wonder-- what is YOUR expectation out of having a CI implant?

You will be able to listen and understand your favorite song that you barely can hear wiht your HA's?

You just want to able to hear your children's voices?

Your English will improve?

What result will you see by having a CI implant?

This thought has arisen when I made an observation-- I haven't seen one Deaf adult that has been implanted that has been able to be "fully mainstreamed" wiht the hearing world. Hearing people always emphasized that by having a CI implant, one wil be able to speak and hear everything 100%.
Well with that case-- that myth has been busted. I even have an Oralist HoH friend who has an implant who still cannot relay on her hearing only to understand people-- she still uses her old tool of lipreading.

So why is the myth of having a CI will enable you to be a fully-functional hearing adult so persistent? Is this your desire?



I am just trying to figure out how you all got the CI bug.
 
With the senstivity set at high, I was not out to prod people about having a CI implant. I was drawing up an observation and will like to have some insights shared as well.

So forget about trying to argue with me. I am not seeking a fight. This forum is, after all, a place of thoughts to be discussed, not to be bullied around. So discuss. Not fight. No "bad words". I think I have stated simple enough for everybody to understand the intention of this thread.
 
Due to my hearing background, I only expected to hear environmental sounds and just the sounds of other people's voices (I lost my hearing at about 2 years old due to recurrent ear infections - and also my grandma recently said that chicken pox caused me to lose my hearing as well). I wore my hearing aids regularly until I was about 6 years old, then on and off until I was 10 when I had NO usable hearing left and then I retired them. I was able to hear environmental sounds and sounds of other people's voices right off the bat when I was activated.

I still cannot understand speech yet because I only have had my CI since Oct 11, 2006 (4 months) and I just recently started speech therapy. But...my speech therapist said today that my speech is improving and that I am making progress. We start on speech discrimination next week.

I am able to enjoy a lot of rock music with my CI, even though I cannot understand the lyrics.
 
gnarlydorkette said:
With more and more people turning to CIs-- and many of them have different reasons.

So I wonder-- what is YOUR expectation out of having a CI implant?

You will be able to listen and understand your favorite song that you barely can hear wiht your HA's?

You just want to able to hear your children's voices?

Your English will improve?

What result will you see by having a CI implant?

This thought has arisen when I made an observation-- I haven't seen one Deaf adult that has been implanted that has been able to be "fully mainstreamed" wiht the hearing world. Hearing people always emphasized that by having a CI implant, one wil be able to speak and hear everything 100%.
Well with that case-- that myth has been busted. I even have an Oralist HoH friend who has an implant who still cannot relay on her hearing only to understand people-- she still uses her old tool of lipreading.

So why is the myth of having a CI will enable you to be a fully-functional hearing adult so persistent? Is this your desire?



I am just trying to figure out how you all got the CI bug.
Click to expand...


Just for your information, I'm one of "those" oralist HOH types (I'm not one of those late deafened types). Unlike your friend, I am able to hear and understand speech without lipreading and even understand people in the dark, use the phone everyday like like a regular "joe", do pretty much all the things that the hearing do. Even listening to music is no problem and it sounds really good! It is very refreshing to be able to do all this now with my CI. Whereas when I had my HA, I couldn't do this nowhere near as well. Heck, my lipreading skills have basically gone "south" since I received my CI (my wife will attest to this fact). This is not to say I hear as well as the hearing all around...don't get me wrong but it has been a very pleasant surprise.

So, in the context of your questions...I did it to do exactly what I can do now with my CI. It gives me enough "hearing" I need to function fully in the hearing world. It is not a "pipe dream" for somebody to achieve this level of functionality but not all will get this kind of benefit for a variety of reasons. Therein lies the rub...and all the misunderstandings about the expectations when getting a CI.
 
Hi gnarlydorkette,

For me I wanted to get back to where I was with hearing aids before I lost my residual hearing suddenly in 2005. That was achieved within probably 2 or 3 months after switch on of my CI. Now I am slightly ahead in that I can use the phone much more easily. Before with my hearing aids it was a big struggle and I barely used the phone as a result.

I also wanted my independence back. I really hate relying on others and having to wait around at their convenience. I just want to do things immediately and not have to struggle at the shops or use a pen and paper which is time consuming. I didn't want to have to avoid hearing people because I was afraid that I would not understand them. So it has been good to have my confidence back :)

Among deaf adults results with a CI will vary considerably because we vary considerably. CIs aren't a cure for deafness but another way to hear when we do not benefit from hearing aids.
 
Even though I grew up hard of hearing, I had absolutely no expectations on the day of my activation. In other words, I didn't expect that I would be able to understand speech or interpret environmental sounds. Not surprisingly, I was unable to understand speech, but could hear a myriad of environmental sounds. Speech discrimination took 3 weeks to develop and by 2 months post activation (1st CI), I was able to use the phone independently.

Some of the goals I had after obtaining a CI include:

* Being able to talk on the phone (after being unable to do so for the past 11 years).

* Being able to understand speech in quiet and in noise.

* Being able to hear (and make sense of) environmental sounds for safe and independent travel as a deafblind person.

* Being able to function independently in a college lecture/class discussion setting without the need for a tactile interpreter or captionist.

* Being able to enjoy music.

Am I happy with the results I've had since my first CI was activated? Yes! I attribute this to my having "high hopes and low expectations." Instead of assuming that I would have the ability to understand speech, I went into my activation expecting to understand absolutely nothing. Because of my low expectations, I was able to look at how much I *could* hear (environmental sounds) and use that as a basis towards developing speech understanding with my CI(s).
 
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