Yes, I understand that.
I haven´t taken any decision yet, I am researching, however hearing aids can´t help me, so what options do I have?
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I live in USA, and so I need English for almost everything, if it wasn´t because my daughters help my life would be very miserable.
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Your audiogram is virtually the same as mine was pre CI. I would suggest you go for the 2 hour CI evaluation. They thoroughly test your hearing in all aspects quiet & noise. Once you have had that done, you can choose to continue on with getting a CI or just put it on hold until you feel you are ready to move on. Just don’t leave it until you can’t hear. You will get a far better response from the CI doing it sooner rather than later.
Your audiogram doesn’t mean an awful lot, its just a guideline to the Drs. IMO it’s how you cope in the real world that’s important. Think about your work place, how well do you hear your colleagues? Can you hold down a conversation with family? In meetings? Can you hear when your on the phone? When socializing with a group of people? In a restaurant? Have you isolated yourself from friends because you can’t hear what they are saying? Can you hear the cashier when talking? All these real life situations are what’s important.
It’s a very hard decision to make to go ahead and have the CI op. Just keep in mind, it’s a big commitment to make as you will have a lot of rehab to do daily after the op. That’s if you want to get the best outcome from the CI.
Whatever you decide please keep wearing your hearing aids regardless of how helpful they are. It means you are stimulating the nerves so they remember what speech sounds you can hear. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand what your hearing. Just keep wearing them.
Good luck to you which ever way you choose to go.
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Hi Deaf_ piper
Yes, your audiogram is pretty close to mine.
I have set CI evaluation already (I want to know what the outcome is regardless what I decide to do).
I still can hear many things but low volume and very little clarity (the is the main problem), so I have to read the lips and still I don´t understand if there are some backgroup noise…In most of situations that you have mentioned I can´t understand (with some exceptions), sometimes I understand 50%, others 20%, others 70%, but usually I have very hard time understanding in any noise environment.
About a job, well that is the thing, I don´t have a job because I can´t have a regular conversation at least it is face to face.
About TV, I can´t understand in any language, I listen music, but I can´t understand what they are saying (in any language). and for sure I am missing many high frequency instruments.
I don´t hear the birds chirping, the water running, forgot about understanding kids…
I haven´t used the hearing aids for the last eight years, they were anoying, but I´ll ask about it
Thanks for your thoughts.
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Yes, you are a CI candidate, yes I would suggest moving forward. It sounds to me that what you stand to gain hugely outweighs what you currently have to lose, given that you say you are withdrawaing from your life.
If you don’t move forward with cochlear implants but you think you ever MIGHT, you have to get back into hearing aids and wear them consistently. The longer you go without stimulating the auditory nerve, the worse you can expect your future CI outcomes to be. Even if no aidable hearing above 1 kHz means that benefit fromt he hearing aids will be limited.
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Please get back into wearing your hearing aids all day every day ASAP. You need to be stimulating the nerves so you can get a better CI outcome.
You could be asked to wear the hearing aids for 6 months then another evaluation done. As they do prefer to do some aspects of the evaluation with hearing aids. So please see your AuD to get then adjusted as best as possible. Don’t buy new ones though.
Good luck with the evaluation, please let us know how it goes.
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Hi, My audiogram looks very similar to yours. I am using More 1 with a 100dB receiver. Only have the HA for 4 months. So far looks OK. Still trying it out and need fine tuned.
I think we all have to reach the conclusion that the op has decided that hearing aids won’t help him at all because he’s tried several. I’m not sure if the op knew what the aids would do since aids don’t return your loss to normal. I just hope that those with implants can educate the op on what to expect with implants because there’s no going back
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If they’ve been wearing hearing aids for 30 years, I’d presume they have a relatively good idea what they can and cannot do for them.
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I’ve the feeling that some of you believe that I don’t want to use hearing aids, and I’ve already decided to put cochlear implants.
That is not true, I prefer to avoid ANY surgery including CI. My problem is that HA haven´t worked with me and I don´t see any other solution than CI.
I tested 4-5 different brands of HA in 2010 and then I was told by providers and audiologists exactly the same things that some of you are saying here, and regardless I haven´t had any good test I bought a pair of HA and used them for three years just to realize that I was right since first day, I never could hear near to normal, but I was told that improved HA were in the market, then in 2015 I tested another brand for a week (US$8.000 the pair) but same thing, no improvement…
My expectations weren´t to recover my hearing, I just wanted to have some near to normal conversations over the phone or small groupos even without backround noise…but it didn´t happen.
Now, an ENT and two audiologists are saying that no HA is going to help me to take the sounds to my brain because I have lost the cochlear cells hair, and syggested that CI can do it.
They also said that results can vary from person to person but overall CI are offerering excellent results…so here I am
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My guess is that you would really like the CI’s. Someone like yourself who has had a slow steady decline in hearing seems to benefit the most from CI’s. Keep doing research and make up your mind when ready. Brands are all similar, so whatever you get should work. (I based my selection primarily on which CI manufacture had the most market share)
Kind regards,
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I can only speak for my experience, but if you look back in my history here you’ll see me asking about stronger and stronger hearing aids years ago… and then my hearing aid dispenser said “you need to look into CIs”, and referred me.
It changed my life for the better in the two years since I started the CI journey. I now don’t struggle to hear everything and get mentally spent by the end of the day. Hearing is just “natural” again. I could go on and on, but if you are a candidate, take the tests and confirm if its right for you with an audiologist. If i could give myself advice 5, 10 years ago I would have say “dont be scared about the downsides, the upside potential far outweighs it”.
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Thank you for sharing your personal experience with CI
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Sadly on this forum a lot of people who are very negative towards people looking into getting a CI. Just because they don’t think it’s right for them. I had the same experience when I was asking questions 4-5 years ago. For me my results speak for them selves my WRS went from bilateral 33% to 12 months post CI WRS 94%. For me it’s been a life changer. As long as you are prepared to do the rehab that is requires you will do well. I have a Cochlear N7, it connects to my phone and streams directly to my ears.
Do your research on what company you think would suit you best. Speak to your CI ENT surgeon on what devise he implants, and prefers to use. Contact all 3 company representative and ask if you can have an appointment to speak with them. Have a hands on session with the representative… This way you can see what devise you want. Do all this soon before you go back to your surgeon after your evaluation… This way you have got some knowledge of the devices when you speak to your surgeon.
Good luck on your new hearing journey.
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I mean, the risks are big and scary for all that they are not common. I see so many patients with really stellar outcomes, but it doesn’t really soften the pain and the regret when a patient goes through the process on my recommendation and then, say, has a post-op infection and the implant fails and they lose all hearing on that side. So much easier to accept the potential risks of surgeries when you would literally die without them. Much harder when it’s elective.
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Thank you Deaf_piper
I appreciate your comments, on fact I only consider comments from people who actually have CI (good or bad experiences, all are welcome), but I am not interested to know what people who don’t have implants think about it…because what could they talk about?
Regarding your other comments, yes, this Wednesday I already have a video conference appointment with an Advanced Bionics specialist. I plan to do same with Nuclear and Med-El. My ENT gave me brochures and contact information of the three, so I assume he can implant any of them, but I’ll ask his preferences and why as well.
My CI evaluation is on November 15th, so I am doing my homework 
Do you have some personal opinion about the three companies, and why did you pick “X”?
Thanks again!
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I appreciate your honest opinion, however I can read statistics about risks, complications, etc. of CI surgeries in Google.
I want to know what people with CI have undergone in the process, how good or bad the rehab has been, what accomplishments the reached, all the pros and cons…
I hate surgeries, I am against plastic or cosmetic surgeries because they are risky and the outcome doesn’t worth the risk for me (except when there is a medical reason like an accident, morbid obesity or an obvious deformity…).
But, I don’t consider CI as an election when your hearing loss is so serious that you have to give up to most of your social life including getting a decent job, and there is not other option to get your “normal” life back. It is like @Deaf_piper said a life changer…I want that!
Of course I am pondering and weighing all the facts, risks, benefits, etc.
There is only ONE question that I have to make and answer to myself “should I give up the opportunity of having a “normal’ish” life or should I take the chances? And I’ll have to live with that decision for the rest if my life
That’s the only reason that I posted my message in this forum.
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Remember I’m Australian and our health systems are very different.
I personally looked into both Cochlear and AB. I liked the AB, I did prefer the AB. But I had to fly to Sydney for the surgery, mappings and all the Drs appointments. So that added $$$ for hotel and return flights & accommodations each visit. As I’m retired the extra cost was not in our budget. Mappings are frequent in the first 12 months.
The 2nd thing I didn’t like about AB was all the recalls they have had on the internal parts. They have had several over the last 10 years.
Cochlear Nucleus system hasn’t had a recall since 2011 I think. When I got to see my ENT CI surgeon he wanted to use Cochlear, so that was that. I was OK with that I liked the thought of direct streaming for phone calls. And I will say it’s brilliant. Being able to control my CI from my iPhone was another benefit to me. It meant I didn’t have to carry around a remote control as well. In fact the remote is still in the box. The N8 processor is being released in November, it’s meant to have improved BT functionality. As well as improved sound. Time will tell. And all the mappings were bulk billed to my health insurance, therefore I had no out of pocket expenses for mappings. Cochlear overnight supplies to us when we need replacement pieces.
Some of the US surgeons have a Cochlear 2 device policy, check with your surgeon what he offers. If he does offer the 2 devices you would be able to get the K2 and the N8. @Raudrive has both. I’m not sure which device he prefers to use or if the magnet strength is still a problem for him. I have the N7 coupled with the Resound Enzo, I enjoy being bimodal, my hearing is great this way. Ask your surgeon about the complications that can occur post operatively. While I personally didn’t experience any of them, you still need to be aware they can and do happen sometimes.
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Great post!
Thank you so much.
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I am not a hearing care professional, but we do have some here. I’d hope their voices would count for you, too.
WH