What has a CI allowed you to do that before you couldn't

sr171soars

sr171soars

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Hello everybody,

This is to all CI users...

As a new CI user (March '05 - Cochlear Freedom), I've found tremendous benefits from my CI that I didn't have with my HA previously. It is unbelievable to me what I'm able to do now with my CI and with confidence at that. The following is a list of things I have noticed so far...

1) Talk and listen "around" corners without seeing the person (same with up and down the stairs).

2) Use the phone (doesn't matter what kind) without stress and carry on normal conversations.

3) Use the speaker phone. That used to be impossible before.

4) Listen in the dark (this one is really sweet for me). {With my HA I used to tell everybody to turn on the lights...I couldn't hear them}

5) Watch the TV at the normal volume that a normal hearing person listens at and catch the whole thing.

6) Listen to the radio whether in a quiet room or in the car with the windows down. I'll have to admit it is hard to hear it when you are going 65 with the windows down ;)

7) Hear what people are saying some distance from you. To stretch this further, I find that I hear what others are saying a couple of 'cubes away at work. Truthfully, this can be irritating as sometimes you don't really want to know... :mrgreen:

8) Hear all kinds of environmental sounds you never really heard before. I think of the water running from the faucet upstairs and you are downstairs.

9) Really enjoy music and catch those softer sounds and unusual sounds that got lost before.

There are others but that is all I can think of for now...but that gives you an idea what it has meant to me.
 
have been implanted with freedom in april 05

i could hear pretty much that i used to not to be able to hear...

i can hear water running, microwave beeps, forklift moving up and down its fork, turn signals clicking, auto warning that i left my keys in, all those cool tones and ringtones on my SK :D, and many more that i can't hear with a HA.

yet i'm still not able to understand speech.. since i'm been deaf for more than 10 years. but CI has been a dramitally improvement since and i think its a great benitiful.

its getting better each mappings.. hopefully more mappings and audio/verbal therpy gives a boost.
 
Thats not what the doctor told me! He told me environmental sounds are not the same as you heard them before. My doctor says TV & Radio are much differant as you heard them before and get this,..Music is much uncomfortable and will sound very strange.So dont tell me a CI can give you back your hearing as you heard them before.
 
Deafscuba98,

Congratulations! Keep working at it. Hopefully, speech will get easier and more understandable for you. I had the benefit if hearing (with a HA) right to the point I got my CI and that probably had a lot to do with my success overall. The fact you can hear the environmental sounds pretty good is a good indication that speech will probably come.

Ravensteve1961,

You definitely have some problems with people being successful with their CIs. Just because a doctor told you this and that doesn't mean he knows what he is talking about. Did he get one? All he has to go on is what others that had CIs said. When I say that it sounds just like before with my HA, I mean it. I have a basis to compare what sounds sounded like before and I can compare the two. I have already made the adjustment and will continue to do adjustments in my brain over time so that everything sounds "like" it did before. You seem to forget that the brain is a fantastic device that has abilities far beyond we give it credit for. I may not be hearing like a normal hearing person if I instantly heard like they do, I'm sure I would be adjusting again. What you label as normal is based on what you were accustomed to and hearing with a CI is no different. I realize no two people hear exactly alike (regardless if they are deaf or normal in hearing) and how one responds to a CI depends on many factors. My brain has taken to the mappings very well and using what I heard before, it has admirably made that adjustment so I can hear like I did before. It has extended my world far beyond when I had my HA and I'm not looking back but moving forward. I can do all those things I enumerated when I started this thread and more. Don't attempt to deny or belittle my accomplishments or others who have made measurable strides. My interest is to encourage people who decide to make the leap and work at it. Some will do better than others but the most important thing is how you run the race not who gets to the finish line.
 
Hey hearing can make you crazy if it distorted. It can drive you nuts but normal hearing doesnt drive you nuts.Hearing aids can drive you nuts if theyre not working right.So i know from personal experance.
 
ravensteve1961 said:
Hey hearing can make you crazy if it distorted. It can drive you nuts but normal hearing doesnt drive you nuts.Hearing aids can drive you nuts if theyre not working right.So i know from personal experance.
Click to expand...

I'm not denying what you say and I know for some people it is true. I can tell you that for me that it is not an issue at all. I also know that many with a hearing loss don't really have a problem with distortion "per se" but a variety of other issues that may make hearing a difficult endeavor for them. I also know that there are many with a hearing loss and all they need is a HA and they got something that works for them. I'm sorry to hear that hearing aids have driven you crazy due the "distortion" issues you mentioned. My beef is that you imply that what you have experienced with hearing is true for all which is totally not true. The bottom line is everybody is different and their needs will be different than the person standing next to them. For me a HA worked for years for me until I became "legally deaf" and then I had to go to the CI which again worked for me as well. I count my blessings every day...
 
Hey Ravensteve? You are jealous cuz they can hear and stuff with cochlear implant and you are too afraid to even try.. Like i said in another post, get a life, you're deaf accept it or try to do something about it instead of dancing in the fence screaming at those who are successful with cochlear implants and whining because you are deaf.. G.A.L!
 
ravensteve: CIs aren't for everyone, but given the feelings you express on the board about your deafness, why won't you consider a CI? Don't you want to hear again? Hearing is hearing whether it is through electronic means or not.

Thanks to my CI, I can do the following:

1. Converse easily with others in noisy and quiet environments. For the past 2-3 years I have been relying exclusively on captioning and tactile interpreters. It's great being able to communicate with whomever I want without a third person facilitating communication.

2. Talk on the phone (cell phones, cordless phones and landline). Before my CI I used relay with TeleBraille. It has been 10 years since I've used the phone. Now that I have a CI, my phone never stops ringing! LOL! :)

3. Enjoy music. It has been 10 years since I've enjoyed music the way I do now with my CI. Each person is different, but for me, music sounds natural and very similar to the way I remember with hearing aids. Before my CI I could only hear drum beats and male vocals if they had no other instruments overlapping them. With my CI I'm now able to hear the different layers of a song including harmony, melody, rhythm and pitch. I can also identify various instruments such as a guitar, saxophone, flute and piano.

4. Watch TV. Before my CI I couldn't hear or understand most television programs -- especially if they contained overlapping background noise/music. Now I'm able to watch and understand a variety of TV programs without any difficulty.

5. Hear voices and environmental sounds from a distance. Before my CI I could only hear someone talking loudly into my right HA. I could also hear loud environmental sounds aided, but they were barely audible and had to be in close proximity to me.

6. I'm deafblind (totally blind/profoundly deaf) and used to rely on assistance from others in order to cross the street. Now that I have my CI, I can hear traffic and cross streets safely. I can also hear environmental sounds from a distance making it easier for me to know where I am.

Having a CI has improved my life 100%. If I had to do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat. Thanks to my CI, I no longer feel limited by my own deafblindness. I now feel like "a blind person who can hear." :)
 
I was implanted shortly before I started my senior year in high school in 2001. It took me about 6 months to get to the level where I could start noticing things and hearing things clearly.

1) i can hear the freezer making ice and dropping the ice into the bin. It still scares me every once in awhile ahaha.
2) I can hear environmental things like birds and so on. Birds are annoying to me now.
3) I can talk to a person from a farther distance and I don't have to concentrate so hard to the point by the end of the day i would have a headache or be extremely tired like I used to with just hearing aids and lip reading. This is really the biggest difference for me.
4) I enjoy music much more and will probably have a easier time of learning dance routines when I go back to dancing.
5) It gave me a opportunity to be able to communicate better with my father when he was so sick with cancer and could not use his hands to sign with what little sign he did know. We ended up having a much better relationship for the little time he had left before he died. That was another thing that I was extremely grateful for.

It's different for each person in what they experience and their surroundings.

I keep meaning to go back for a mapping session since I haven't done one in close to two years and I just started college again so I really need to do it now. Like an above poster said, the more you go back for mappings the better your capabilites will be.
 
I was implanted with the N24 back in April 2000 in Melbourne, Australia. I can say it's very different from hearing aids! Very clear in receiving sounds and identifying them, etc. It also filters out the background and spoken speech and can separate them unlike hearing aids.
I get to hear the softest sounds I never heard with my hearing aids such as the hum from the fridge and the clicking when the gas stovetop is turned on.

I was born profoundly deaf and had over 10 years worth of speech and auditory therapy throughout primary and secondary schools.
 
WOW! That's interesting...I will see my primary doctor next Thursday and have him to referring me to see Audiogoilst and see if I am candidate or not. I know it does take times with all processing. I was born deaf and been using HA on both ears till 91 (I think) and got in car accident and left my left ear dead deaf. So I rely on right ear. So I am not quite sure if I will able to hear again on my left ear. Wait and see how are the processing going. :)
 
Good lucky - just go through the assessment tests the clinic gives you, that'll give them and you an idea on how much of a candidate you could be for the C.I. They test your balance, the health of the cochlea (ensure there's no ossification of the bones in the ear canal, etc).
 
I've had my cochlear Implant since for about 15 years now. It has definately given me alot of advantages over some of my deaf friends because It has helped me form a good level of speaking skills and it definately has given me a sense of freedom as opposed to my husband who doesnt have a cochlear implant. he expresses fustration that he cant communicate with hearing people without writing on paper or trying really hard to understand. BUT there are some cons like back then, they cut you open and you had a HUGE scar afterwards.. NOW, the scars are tiny and that's amazing.
 
and left my left ear dead deaf. So I rely on right ear. So I am not quite sure if I will able to hear again on my left ear. Wait and see how are the processing going
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You might....I mean Heather Whitestone McCallum got hers, and she was hoh in one ear, but got CId in her other ear b/c it was "dead"......Definitly investigate CI if your other ear isn't functional even with wicked powerful hearing aids!
 
Deafscuba,

I'm very much the same as you. I was (and still am) totally deaf without the CI. For more than 20 years (became deaf at age 8 from meningitis). I wore hearing aids briefly til age 15 then stopped because they were useless to me. Probably the only thing I could "Hear" before my CI was MAYBE a jackhammer if I was standing right next to it with my ear pressed against it... to make a long story short.... deaf as a doorknob lol.

Now with the CI I can hear tons of tiny sounds.. clocks ticking, my dogs panting, the sound of the furnace running... I can even make out some sounds that my husband can't hear, or has learned to "tune out". Music is very enjoyable. Watching movies is a blast now, being able to hear all the cool sound effects and character voices. And it's so nice now to KNOW when I've dropped something on the floor. Before, I'd just keep on walking blissfully ignorant about the fact that half of my stuff just fell out of my pockets or purse.

Socializing or conversing with hearing people that I did not know was a source of huge anxiety for me, because although I lipread really well, I knew that most of the time I would have to struggle to understand what I was lipreading. My friend (who also got her ci the same time as me) and I used to joke about being afraid of the Pizza Man, meaning that if we ordered pizza to be delivered to our homes, we would force our husbands to go and deal with the pizza guy, make the payment, etc... because we knew that if the pizza guy started talking to us (And they ALWAYS DO, ya know) we would panic due to lipreading difficulties. Then of course, communication would come to a total breakdown with the Pizza guy usually just grabbing the money and fleeing back to his car and me standing there flummoxed without the faintest idea of what he was trying to say.

I guess my point is, with the CI the strain of lipreading is gone. I still cannot understand speech without looking at a person (due to having been totally deaf for so long!), but the anxiety and fear is gone, lipreading is SOOOO much easier, and now if I have to ask a person to repeat something, I can usually feel confident that I will understand what they said the 2nd time.

No longer afraid of the PIZZA MAN!!!!!!!!!
 
Superfroggy......I think I know who you are.....glad to see you over here instead of at SHHH.....they banned me! Honestly....can we say CLOSED minded?
 
superfroggy--

yeah i too got menigits. when i was 2 years old.. but as time goes by my hearing goes down. i stopped wearing hearing aid when i'm in 6th grade

I agree watching movie is a blast with it..

those captions sure didn't tell the full background noise.. i noticed that background noise makes the movie more realist.

hmm i can't wait to hear the furance running.. havn't heard it yet.. since the heat isn't on and its not that cold yet.
 
DeafSCUBA98 said:
...
hmm i can't wait to hear the furance running.. havn't heard it yet.. since the heat isn't on and its not that cold yet.
Click to expand...

LOL...it is an interesting noise to say the least. I say the refrigerator is more annoying as you notice it lots more.
 
What has the CI allowed me to do, that I couldn't before? (imitates a SHHH/HE poster) It let me hear my poop plop in the toilet.....could NEVER have done that with hearing aids! (/end SHHH/HE poster)
 
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