Yes indeed that is a good point. I still find others experience useful and interesting.
1 Like
For myself, No, I do not regret losing moderate to profound loss with 10% speech recognition in the implanted ear and usable frequency range was up to 1.6 khz. Now I have full 8khz range and 80% speech recognition.
you aren’t likely to get a person who does regret it. You are in the wrong forum
3 Likes
Yes I’m bimodal HA & CI. Yes I was advised that while doing rehab exercises only to turn off my HA
I could understand speech on the day of activation. Within a fortnight I didn’t have to concentrate on people talking.
I haven’t had any trouble with my CI working per sae. For me, it’s a technology thing, technology and I don’t get in very well together. And as the technology improves yet again with the N8 I get more nervous of something going wrong.
Most definitely is better than just HA’s. I couldn’t hear people talking. Couldn’t talk on the phone. Couldn’t hear unless people were facing me.
What I like the best is if I want some peace and quiet I just unhook my magnet and turn off my HA… BLISSFUL
No I don’t regret getting my CI it’s the best thing I ever did.
3 Likes
I can only think of one person here on the forum who regrets getting a CI. From memory 2 years on they still can’t hear/understand speech.
IMO it’s their own fault they didn’t do any rehab to try to get the brain understanding the signals going to the brain. Many of the forum members told this person they must do rehab. For whatever reason they always had an excuse why they couldn’t.
It’s imperative that you do, do rehab. Some people just do rehab until they can understand speech 3-4 months. Others do a lot more and for longer. At the end of the day as long as you do enough to be able to understand speech.
Good luck on your journey.
5 Likes
Getting the CI evaluation done will answer many questions and possibly make new questions too.
The evaluation is more than your hearing loss. It’s about your mental state of mind about accepting CI and what to expect from the CI and also you.
This evaluation will follow up with medical procedures to see if you are medically a CI candidate.
Good luck
7 Likes
@boreham Completely understand wanting varied input. I did same here and on Facebook pages for all brand of CIs. My approach was that my hearing was only getting worse and if something got any worse I would be exhausted trying to keep up with conversation, phone calls, etc. If it was as good as or better than two hearing aids, it was a win in my book, because it would give me peace of mind if and when my ears degraded and I would already be adjusted to the CI. I did not retain much of my residual - hoped too. I’m OK with that.
I posted about my progress two weeks after activation here: Advanced Bionics CI Activation a Success - #23 by ssa
On the AB Facebook page there are two or three people who are very negative about their progress and how the CI sounds to them even after a good bit of time, effort and rehab. From other things they post, they sound just negative about life. I really believe a positive attitude of acceptance helps the adjustment. It will not sound like normal hearing…but we don’t have normal hearing or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Don’t apologize for asking questions and gathering input. It was an essential part my preparation for surgery. Some of us just need to process things a lot. Others who might be more technical by nature may find it unnecessary. Honestly, I find this adjustment process easier than the preparation research by far.
11 Likes
Thanks everyone for the great info and encouragement. I have moved from being somewhat doubtful and apprehensive to positive, though realise I have to assessed. Other health issues may delay.
7 Likes
Op said for this thread he only wanted negative comments. I guess I took that for what it meant.
1 Like
Well we know that’s not true. Lack of response is not an indication or proof that something is perfect. There are people on this planet who still claim the world isn’t round.
agreed a small sample size… like i said you are in the wrong forum, if you want to hear how awful CI is go to a Deaf forum (big D) … I heard so many good/bad things about it when I went to RIT… The people who saying bad thing are part of the big D community and those who are not complaining are not part of the big D community.
I have read that the briefer the hearing loss the better the results. But how does a deaf person evaluate their cochlear implant?
I didn’t really think everyone was happy. I should have said “it seems no-one HERE has any negative comments”
2 Likes
Nixon called them the silent majority.
Firstly: They don’t recommend getting CI for the profoundly Deaf with no hearing language skills. It is one of the contraindication for getting CI…
Secondly: Medical community learned to not implant people who that have no hearing language skills and those who not have realistic expectation or the willpower to go through the process of rehab…
Thirdly: we have like 50 years of experience with CI since they were introduced.
1 Like
First off I’m not sure what profoundly deaf means. Second of all have had a profound loss for 15 years and have been recommended to getting an implant more times than I can remember. Last but not least what is hearing skills?
Individuals who have been profoundly deaf since birth and have never worn hearing aids will not have good outcomes with a cochlear implant. The auditory system simply doesn’t develop and other systems in the brain start to move in and take over that area for other things.
Similarly, even for someone who is post-lingually deafened if they go for long enough without hearing aids (auditory deprivation) other systems in the brain will start to move in to make use of what was previously used for hearing. So the longer you go (years and years) without auditory input the poorer your outcomes will be.
And then. . . anyone for whom a cochlear implant actually FAILS will be unhappy with the results. This is a small but present group.
4 Likes
Speaking of doing it sooner than later My audiologist recommended me to get CI eval 1 year before I was implanted. I took the eval, my case was borderline, high chance of denial by insurance co , and I knew about the brain plasticity changes so i went ahead and did it so my odd are in my favor…
1 Like
Interesting note for hass specifically. . . your audiogram is profound but at least you have aidable hearing across a reasonable frequency bandwidth. I would expect your CI outcomes to be better than someone who has much better low frequency hearing but who had been unaidable at high frequencies for years and years.
Likewise, there are individuals who actually have reasonable hearing from a sensorineural perspective, but have an intractable conductive overlay that cannot be resolved by surgery and that limits the effectiveness of hearing aids (imagine a moderate to severe sensorineural loss but conductive component makes them severe-profound corner audiogram). My understanding is that these people typically do very well with cochlear implants.
1 Like
Not sure why you are asking these questions or being so negative.
You have been a part of this forum long enough to know the answers to your own questions. You are just stirring the pot and that doesn’t help the OP.
6 Likes