Getting CI- Confused not sure what to do

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Deaffy said:
I have the Nucleus 5. I implanted my right ear as it had really barely any hearing left and I felt that Implanting that ear was a good idea since I had used the ear normally for 23 years and that I would have a better chance adapting to "sounds" easier with that ear. My left has been deaf all my life. The photo in my avatar is of my implant. My sig states when I received it and what not.
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Very well done deaffy, you choice the right ear, congratulation
 
Deaffy said:
Oh it has surely been a success in my eye's. HA's distorted everything for me. Amplifying things just was'nt going to do the job for me. The CI is tenfold more clear than HA was for me. But the CI is just like HA were for me in other peoples situations. Each device suits a different person. I do consider myself lucky I thank my audi everytime in in for a new map for giving me the green light to get the CI. It has its con's too nothing is ever perfect. Ive got a piece of a computer permantly installed in my skull it's kinda a freaky thing when u really think about it. But it does have success's in peoples lives.
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Deaffy would you do it if you were in my place, 90 db both ears, communicating somehow well in group situation of 2-3 people, communicate excellent in 1-2 people, read lips perfectly, I have latest oticon hearing aids with streamer (bluetooth) for my phone & Ipod, can use the phone and can talk to people I know and strangers over the phone and can hear over 80% of the conversation I sometimes have to ask them to repeat some few things (I tell people the reception is bad, lol), I'm afraid to lose more of my hearing as I manage and operate 2 companies and have a big staff to take care off, i deal with big companies and high level of executives of all types, I don't think I can function good if my hearing go 10 db less than now, I stress so much at the end of the day because I have to be on alert status 12-16 hours a day, the resin I'm researching the CI is because I heard that people getting wonderful results (could be claims, that's why I'm here) and thought that I could do better without replying on lip reading or straining, but again, I keep worrying that the CI may not work and at the end I will lose the hearing in the CI ear and will forever have one ear, I don't know ASL and have already changed my career over 10 years back after spending 6 years in college getting my degree that I could not continue working at because of my hearing loss that started just 2 years after graduation, I don't know what else I can do beside what I'm doing now, it is scary and it is big jump and that's why I'm here.
I also like to thank everyone that posted an answer, you are all were very helpful.
What a great wonderful group here :)
 
with insurance, probably about $1,000 if I trade in my old processor (more if I don't).

without trade-in or insurance, it is around $7,000

Trade in lower the price about $5,000

I just paid the estimate of $1, 000 to fix my van this week. ugh. there were alot of parts that weren't working correctly. We are selling it to pay off the debt we spent fixing it. It's getting old anyway. And hopefully get a new car that is not a lemon.
 
no lemon, should be an apple or better this time, I have heard that there is big difference between the old processor and N5, but I could be wrong, I will ask the Cochlear people when I go this Wed to a meeting they have here in CA
 
Fl885,

Me personally if I could have done what you achieve with HA I would have kept my residual hearing for later technology. But the time was right for me to get the CI. You are right to worry about this, it is a huge question mark in your situation. " will it improve my hearing that I have now or will it make things worse." I cannot answer that for you. I do think you could possibly do well with the CI since you are able to hear with hearing aides tho. I am not a doctor so take my words as just my own opinion. I know all to well what it is like to struggle with groups. It's hard in groups for normal hearing people sometime's. I wish you the very best of luck with your decision it is not something that is easily decided upon. Back in the year 2000 I was offerd to see if I was a canidate for the CI but I had refused because it is a very serious matter. But after 10 years of silence and how it affected my personality and how hard life really was for me I decided to give it a try and it has been one of the best decision's I have ever made in my life. Just so you know the CI does not cure your deafness. You will forever be deaf. When the implant is off it will be silence ( in your case one deaf ear and the other in bad shape).
 
deaffy, I keep thinking what "IF" Ci won't work for some reason or, then I will have an ear that is gone forever, this is hard when you have 90db loss, if I at 110 or 120 db then yes I may have nothing to lose at that stage, but at this point at least I can put in the hearing aids and communicate and do my job, but again, I ask myself what "IF" Ci works way better than my HA and then if I don't do it now and do it 10 years from now and find out that I lost 10 years for not doing it.
I wish that there are some clear answers that CI will work for this and not work for that. Everything is based on variable with CI results, everything vary and depend on so many factors
 
I think what's best for you to do right now. Would be to call your Audi and discuss your concerns with them and the surgeon. They would be better at knowing what you could possibly achieve. The brain plays a huge role in how well a person does with the CI. I can sometimes see how things would not sound right to a person who has never heard before. Everyone is different. I think you need to have some testing done with your HA's in and see where you stand in speech recongition. This would help you in realizing how much you really are hearing.. and not reading lips. I could read lips rather well but when the face is blocked it was all garbled noise to me.
 
F1885,

I am a late deafened adult and I received one implant in 2007 and I am now bilateral. I have the N5 for both ears and I find it an improvement over the freedom. I have noticed a small improvement in noise and I like music better.

When I decided to get my first implant I did it because the phone was becoming almost impossible, I could not enjoy going to the movies or the car radio and group conversations were torture. My speech discrimination was about 18% and my loss in that ear averaged out to around 98. The quality of the sound I was getting was horrible.

At the time of the first implant my hearing in the other ear was about the same as yours. My speech discrimination in that ear was just a little too good for an implant but it was still poor enough that I still qualified for a unilateral implant. I continued to wear a hearing aid in that ear until this year but I lost a bit more hearing in that ear and wearing the hearing aid negatively affected the results I was getting with the CI. I am glad I did not get simultaneous implants because the HA/CI combination worked for awhile and there was no way I wanted to lose the hearing in my "good" ear. I also was
annoyed with most of my hearing coming from one ear.

When I decided to get the implants I did it because I wanted to hear better and I felt I really was not losing much but gaining a lot. I am very happy with my implants and I don't regret getting them. For me the implants have been a huge improvement over HAs. Just remember it will take time and practice to get the most from an implant. It is not an instant thing.

Sorry this is so long but I hope it helps.
 
Fl885 said:
Wow, I'm not very familiar with Cochlear implants, I have heard that N5 is the latest, is it available in US? I thought it is already out in all countries or may be I'm talking about something else.
Deafgal I hope that you get the van and the processor soon , how much do you need to pay out of your pocket for upgrades ?
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N5 had been released since mid 2009 in UK and later in US (it's FDA approved along with 2 types of batteries (disposeables and rechargeables), N5 is now more widespread.
 
set2 said:
F1885,

I am a late deafened adult and I received one implant in 2007 and I am now bilateral. I have the N5 for both ears and I find it an improvement over the freedom. I have noticed a small improvement in noise and I like music better.

When I decided to get my first implant I did it because the phone was becoming almost impossible, I could not enjoy going to the movies or the car radio and group conversations were torture. My speech discrimination was about 18% and my loss in that ear averaged out to around 98. The quality of the sound I was getting was horrible.

At the time of the first implant my hearing in the other ear was about the same as yours. My speech discrimination in that ear was just a little too good for an implant but it was still poor enough that I still qualified for a unilateral implant. I continued to wear a hearing aid in that ear until this year but I lost a bit more hearing in that ear and wearing the hearing aid negatively affected the results I was getting with the CI. I am glad I did not get simultaneous implants because the HA/CI combination worked for awhile and there was no way I wanted to lose the hearing in my "good" ear. I also was
annoyed with most of my hearing coming from one ear.

When I decided to get the implants I did it because I wanted to hear better and I felt I really was not losing much but gaining a lot. I am very happy with my implants and I don't regret getting them. For me the implants have been a huge improvement over HAs. Just remember it will take time and practice to get the most from an implant. It is not an instant thing.

Sorry this is so long but I hope it helps.
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Set2 thank you so much for taking the time and explain what happened to you, you have no idea how much you are helping people like me, I'm jealous of your courage to do one even go bilateral this is not easy to go through, the fact that your hearing loss was around 90-100 db and you have had residual hearing in first ear you did and then the 2nd one is mind blogging for me on how you had this amount of courage, it is extremely scary for me, if I was 18 then may be, but I will be 36 in 2 weeks and have changed my career already and don't know what else I can change to if my hearing loss go lower which for sure it will and if the CI won't work for me.
Were you born hard of hearing or lost your hearing through the years, I'm glad the you and deaffy have Cochlear implant as I have been to Advanced Bionic forum for quite few months and I was almost sold on their advertising, I have never thought of Cochlear until the CI audi told me it's better for me, even my own audi who I know for 10 years and who was very reluctant to take sides on brands she someone told me to check Cochlear as she saw me going for Advanced bionic and I know she likes me enough but did not want to take sides for professional reasons as they are not allowed to, I hated the fake wows and the false advertising at AB forum, you can easily spot it if you stay for few months but you can easily get sold on first few weeks, I was not alone to be discouraged by their pushy attitudes I know quite few people that I communicate by emails who felt same way, the problem is I have no seen a good number of Cochlear America users and I'm having a hard time to see if this implant is good, so far it seems as very reliable implant compared to AB, one user at AB forum claimed that he has some several Cochlear america friends and he would do much better than them, but the funny thing is I offered him to fly to whatever state he is in and invite him and his cochlear americas friends to a lunch or dinner to see how he is doing, the guy then disappeared, why is this? if I get someone asks to meet me to see how I'm doing so they can make a decision I will be happy to meet them in a coffee shop and discuss my experience, but how would someone thinks to advertise to a certain brand to get some freebies and may be some job offers from that company and not be willing to proof his theory of him doing better.
This thing keeps bothering me to know, is Cochlear America is better than Advanced Bionic or are they same or it does not matter, implant is an implant and the difference is in the software, this is very burning question that no one is answering.
 
Deaffy said:
I think what's best for you to do right now. Would be to call your Audi and discuss your concerns with them and the surgeon. They would be better at knowing what you could possibly achieve. The brain plays a huge role in how well a person does with the CI. I can sometimes see how things would not sound right to a person who has never heard before. Everyone is different. I think you need to have some testing done with your HA's in and see where you stand in speech recongition. This would help you in realizing how much you really are hearing.. and not reading lips. I could read lips rather well but when the face is blocked it was all garbled noise to me.
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Deaffy, my problem is I met one CI audi and I felt a little pushed to do the CI and I felt that my test were not complete, I wanted them to do the hearing tests with HA not that the results will let me not to do the CI but I felt it will be fair enough to do all tests, this alone let me feel a little apprehensive about this CI audi and the team in general, the surgeon who is a very famous one in Los Angeles at very famous institute saw me for a minute or may be less, he kept the door open and then rushed out to next patient, I was kind of thinking WTF, this guy is going to operate on me !!!!!!!!, even if he famous, no way!!, I started researching other surgeons and found one in MD that have a high percentage of preserving residual hearing, I'm trying to get an appointment with him and see how he communicate, I need to try to reserve my residual hearing or at least to try, I'm not giving up my hearing on a plate of silver no matter how "little" left over of it, plus I need a surgeon that will spend some time with me and not rush out and unprofessionally keep the exam room open, after all he is making his income from us, I won't let him make a dollar out of me without him/her acting professionally the way they should be, without us these surgeons will be homeless, LOL
 
Fl885 said:
Deaffy, my problem is I met one CI audi and I felt a little pushed to do the CI and I felt that my test were not complete, I wanted them to do the hearing tests with HA not that the results will let me not to do the CI but I felt it will be fair enough to do all tests, this alone let me feel a little apprehensive about this CI audi and the team in general, the surgeon who is a very famous one in Los Angeles at very famous institute saw me for a minute or may be less, he kept the door open and then rushed out to next patient, I was kind of thinking WTF, this guy is going to operate on me !!!!!!!!, even if he famous, no way!!, I started researching other surgeons and found one in MD that have a high percentage of preserving residual hearing, I'm trying to get an appointment with him and see how he communicate, I need to try to reserve my residual hearing or at least to try, I'm not giving up my hearing on a plate of silver no matter how "little" left over of it, plus I need a surgeon that will spend some time with me and not rush out and unprofessionally keep the exam room open, after all he is making his income from us, I won't let him make a dollar out of me without him/her acting professionally the way they should be, without us these surgeons will be homeless, LOL
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Classic. What is wrong with a bit of postponement? It sounds like you are having second thoughts, and perhaps you need time to sort them out.
 
Beowulf
I just felt rushed by everyone, either some brand users or CI audi or surgeons, one surgeon wanted to see me one week and have the survey following week, I was like WTF, hold on, I'm trying to see if YOU as a surgeon FIT enough to operate on me, I need to sort out things before he opens my head, lol
I'm not sure what is the deal with these people (audi, surgeons or even some users of certain cochlear implant brand), they may be having some financial issues and keep pushing you to do the surgery RIGHT NOW, this is elective surgery and need time to arrange
 
Fl885 said:
Beowulf
I just felt rushed by everyone, either some brand users or CI audi or surgeons, one surgeon wanted to see me one week and have the survey following week, I was like WTF, hold on, I'm trying to see if YOU as a surgeon FIT enough to operate on me, I need to sort out things before he opens my head, lol
I'm not sure what is the deal with these people (audi, surgeons or even some users of certain cochlear implant brand), they may be having some financial issues and keep pushing you to do the surgery RIGHT NOW, this is elective surgery and need time to arrange
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I think it would be more important to have a good audi as the surgery itself is pretty simple. A bad audi could really mess up the process.
 
Fl885 said:
Beowulf
I just felt rushed by everyone, either some brand users or CI audi or surgeons, one surgeon wanted to see me one week and have the survey following week, I was like WTF, hold on, I'm trying to see if YOU as a surgeon FIT enough to operate on me, I need to sort out things before he opens my head, lol
I'm not sure what is the deal with these people (audi, surgeons or even some users of certain cochlear implant brand), they may be having some financial issues and keep pushing you to do the surgery RIGHT NOW, this is elective surgery and need time to arrange
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Yeah, I know. Like I say, classic. You feel like part of an assembly line. You know what is entailed. The question is, are you willing to go through with it? Have you talked with those implanted, those who are happy with the results and those who regret having the procedure done? You need to make sure you want to go through with this, otherwise you will regret it from the get-go.
 
Wirelessly posted

Don't hurry, and if you decide to wait five or ten years, don't look back and regret for not getting it done sooner. Live your life to the fullest rather you have CI or not.
 
Tousi said:
I think it would be more important to have a good audi as the surgery itself is pretty simple. A bad audi could really mess up the process.
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But you could switch audis anytime. You aren't likely to be in a position to swap out surgeons if -- an hour into the surgery -- you don't like his or her technique. A botched map may last a week or two before you can switch it. A botched surgery...?

Take your time and decide if this is what YOU really want and need before shopping for brands.
 
Beowulf said:
Not really. I have good benefits from my hearing aids, but they said I would get better benefits from a CI, for which I qualify.
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Ask for that in a written guarantee!:lol:
 
So glad to see this realistic thread started, instead of an "implant centers and surgeons are gifts of God" thread that portrays things through rose colored glasses.
 
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