My understanding is that it is rare. The surgery for one is two to three hours, so you roughly double that for two, that is a lot of time under general anesthesia. Also if something goes wrong on the first you still have options for the other ear. Usually it tends only to be done after meningitis when the cochlear might calcify and make implantation impossible. Of course I am sure there are surgeons that will both at once but I don’t think it is common.
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When I had my first done, my surgeon said he could have done both at the same time but most people space them out to make sure it works.
Something I found out today, the farther they put the electrode into the cochlea the more you lose any residual hearing. In my case it was best to lose all of my hearing to get the most out of the CI. So in my case I am completely deaf without the CI.
Something I know you have been concerned about is tinnitus after implantation. I still have some tinnitus from time to time but I don’t hear it as much now as I used to before the surgery. Granted this is a person by person basis.
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So I finally made it to my delayed second appointment with the audiologist.
She is very happy, apparently I am well ahead of the curve. I don’t recall if I mentioned it before but I have been able to watch some professionally recorded lectures with the captions turned off especially if I use the Mini Microphone to stream them.
Then came more counting the number of beeps so that adjustments could be made. I have a lot more volume now, which is good because one problem I have had is that my hearing aid was so much louder then the implant that I don’t think I was getting all the info I could have.
She also turned on forward focus, maybe I will try taking my wife to a restaurant for our anniversary next week and see how that works.
Then into the booth for some testing. I forgot to grab a copy, but with the implant my hearing is now around 10 to 20 dB across the board and my word recognition score has gone from 44% with the aid to 64% with the implant. And that is after only one month.
And lastly, I finally got my phone clip (there had been a paperwork screw up and it was delayed) and boy does that make a difference. I used a Bluetooth device before with my hearing aids but I can’t say that it worked any better then using the t-coil (which remind me, I need to get that turned on at the next appointment) or using speaker phone while holding it next to my ear. But this, I was able to talk to my wife with only a small number of questions.
So all in all yesterday was a good day.
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Last night my wife and I went out to a local restaurant for our anniversary. I decided this would be a good opportunity to test the forward focus feature, although I did bring the mini mic along as a back up. Well the CI with the forward focus worked great, it worked even better when I turned down my hearing aid in the other ear to remove more background. I could understand my wife better then she could understand me.
So far so good.
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Pat, thanks very much for your insights. I’ve always wondered, “at what level of hearing loss do people see a marked improvement in word recognition with implants”. Given that your unaided hearing is ~20 dB better than mine, your posts have given me the encouragement I need to set up an appointment with a CI specialist.
-Edward
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I really think it is much less about the dB loss level then the word recognition. I know there are people out there with worse hearing levels then mine that do fine with amplification, but it didn’t work for me.
But an evaluation is the first step, they should be able to give you a reasonable idea of what to expect if you decide to go forward.
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So I work in what would be the rough equivalent to our state’s Fire Marshal’s Office and so COVID is keeping us busy. This has meant a lot of conference calls, so far one streamed implant beats two streamed hearing aids.
Now if I could just convince people not to use their damned speaker phones.
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in the interest of full disclosure I want to say that I am now a Cochlear Volunteer. This will make basically no difference in what I am saying here. Mostly it means I have easier access to the materials Cochlear puts on their site, some times you really have to hunt for things.
It is the interaction with people here that persuaded me to do this. To take my experience to help others understand how implantation works and what it means.
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good for you!!! (I’ll be ready to ask you once my mom is ready to be a candidate one day too)
I know I am a little late to this post but my advice is not guess at the words. There is a good chance you will guess correct.
Omg is that crazy? Good for your is working! I can’t talk on anything BUT a speaker phone so my transcribing device can pick it up and write it out for me! God bless Google translate!! Stay safe! Good luck! Don’t hate on people who need to use speakerphone!
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So, I had my three month follow up last week, meant to get back here sooner but my wife had a medical issue that kept me tied up.
Things are going well enough that my audi decided that I didn’t need another mapping but I did get the sensitivity feature and t coil turned on. I also got my hearing aid for my other ear back, it had been out for repairs since the warranty is about to expire and it had some microphone problems, it was bad enough that I actually understood better with just the CI. It is a first generation Starkey Muse and they have a flaw that lets too much crap get into the microphones, my left one was replaced twice under warranty. They have changed the design since so obviously they know it was a problem.
So now I am using both ears again and know that I need to get my wife in to get tested once COVID lets up, she has the TV on too loud.
I had been streaming stuff through the mini mic 2+ and phone clip and understanding very well with them, but with the t coil on I was able to try something else. Back before I was implanted, the office got me a Roger Pen and MyLink to help me at meetings and such. Yesterday I tried watching some videos using it so that I could stream to both ears, and the result was amazing. Not only did it balance properly (something I never quite achieved with two hearing aids) but my brain seemed to be able to combine the clarity from the implant with the tone from the hearing aid so that everything sounded normal while still being completely understandable. My guess is that it probably helps that the t coil makes it so that things are mono so each ear is getting the same information. I have a set of stereo ear hooks around somewhere I will need to find them and give it I try.
So, so far so good.
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That excellent news for you Pat. I’m happy for you that you are hearing well at 3 month mark. Keep up the great effort you have been putting in.
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So the weather finally improved and I had to mow the lawn, and that was different. I take the hearing aid out of my right ear and put earplugs in both, but with the CI I am still able to talk to my wife with no problem. When I go to actually start mowing, I adjust the CI so the microphone volume is minimized and I stream a local radio station from my phone through the phone clip (Bluetooth). Barley notice the mower and can hear the radio loud and clear. Even when the Bluetooth cut out the mower remained muted.
I get to try again today with weed wacking but so far I like this method.
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Hello Pat. Congratulations on the success of your CI journey and thank you for sharing your story.
I have a dB loss level that is similar to yours, but my speech recognition is almost at 0%. I can hear sound but have trouble understanding speech especially with masks as well as in noisy environments. Both of my ears have been approved for CI and just recently got my right one implanted (2 weeks ago). My activation is 2 weeks away. Although your story brings me hope and positivity, I’m still keeping my expectations low. Hopefully CI will work for me. I’m prepared for the intense rehab journey. Cheers.
Charlie
Why do you put an ear plug in your CI ear unless you can hear without your CI as well? The CI implant takes over your hairs in your cochlear so it wouldn’t matter.
I was also surprised. because oendengaran I was much worse darinpada it ,but muse i1000 is enough to help after that I replace the muse i2000. very helpful
indeed , if the hearing aids are not the settings , they will not provide benefits.
I just get benefit after over 100 times to program them.
Resound one with Ultra Power or paradise phonak, for your loss
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So, I have been away for far too long, all I can say is it was 2020, and I just left all social media (okay it is half way though 2021, my point stands).
Nothing much happened for a while until I went in for my 6 month follow up with the surgeon. Everything was good and as he was ready to leave he asked if I had any questions, so I just sort of threw out, “So, when can we do the other ear?”. Which is how I got my right ear implanted in the beginning of October. This one didn’t go quite as smoothly as the first, but no major problems, and once it was activated things went much faster then last time.
So now I hear with both ears, and I know it is different from what I had when I was young, but it is so much better then the hearing aids that I don’t care.
I am going to try to be around a little more, we will see how that plan works.
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I stil have some residual hearing, enough to make a lawn mower loud. Also there is no guarantee that loud noises won’t damage the nerve itself instead of just the hairs, so why take chances.
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