kimpossible
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- Joined
- Oct 8, 2007
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I'll start by saying i've lost my hearing gradually over the years. Here's a sort of history of my hearing loss and how it was initiated if you need to refer to it but if not just skip to the next paragraph
- diagnosed with brain tumour at 4, surgically removed at 5, underwent radiation treatment which initiated hearing loss
- first clear signs of hearing loss occurred around 3rd grade:
- - - * right ear had a Severe-Profound loss instantly
- - - * had an FM system for the left ear (mild hearing loss at the time)
- hearing in left ear deteriorated because of sensorineural AND conductive hearing loss (middle ear infections)
- obtained a BTE in grade 5 (probably about 50 dBs at this point)
- no problems hearing/conversing with BTE until 8th grade
- received BAHA surgery (Bone Anchored Hearing Aid) in grade 10 because the BTE ear mold wasn't letting enough air into my ear and worsened the infections
- hearing loss deteriorated to the point where I had to wear both the BAHA and BTE at the same time (on the same ear; google BAHA if you don't know what i'm talking about! =P)
- had a tympanomastoidectomy (operation to remove cyst in my ear that was causing infections/eating away at my ear!) in grade 11; hearing loss had been deteriorating because of the cyst already, but the operation alone brought me down to about 90 dB
- received right ear BTE shortly afterwards (minimal help, & poor speech discrimination in that ear, but good for a volume boost)
- cochlear implant assessment in November 2006 - determined that i'd be a borderline CI candidate for one in my right ear (not the left since my speech discrimination was "very good" for sentences without lipreading, but only at several dBs higher than normal conversation level) and also my loss is somewhere like, 85ish dB - right ear, 110 dB - left ear
Phew. so anyway, here's the thing: I had a CI assessment a year ago to determine whether I'd be a good candidate for a CI. I decided maybe I'd want to go ahead with it as I'd heard good things about speech clarity and such. My main problem is that even Phonak's strongest hearing aid that's on the market currently (although I know there's this new sort of awesome technology coming out apparently) I don't get the desired amount of amplification, and even though my speech discrimination is a LOT better than many people who use BTEs, it's still not as good as I wish it were. (but let me stop myself there and just clarify that I understand that CI doesn't give perfect hearing..!)
when I first had the assessment I didn't know much about CIs, like how some people had said they heard "Donald Duck speech" and the like. My mom read something about not being able to hear music. I have a friend with a CI and she says she listens to some rock, so I don't know, what's the deal on this? I know it's generally different to describe what hearing with a CI is like but I'd still appreciate some input
I was supposed to have an appointment about 2 months ago with a CI specialist.. person... but when I found out about how allegedly weird the sounds were when a person gets a CI, I told her to cancel, screw it, i'll stick with the BTE.
when I came here and read some more clear descriptions of people's experiences with the CI, i started to change my mind and may want to reschedule that appointment (or possibly another assessment since it's been a year!). but i'm really unsure about this whole thing. Everything I've read about candidacy says that a good CI candidate is someone who doesn't get enough help from hearing aids, blah blah blah. But I think I get a fairly decent amount of help; I can talk on the phone and such, my biggest issue is with amplification but I can't seem to get any more powerful hearing aids...
1. is there anyone here who has experienced wearing a BTE and a CI at the same time (or does that even work for some people?)
2. are there any people who have gotten a cochlear implant after having lost their hearing gradually (ie. you were hearing or HoH at one point, then deaf, then you got a CI!) and have experienced use of a hearing aid prior, that can tell me their story?
3. essentially how good is a CI when it comes to conversing over lots of background noise?
4. how well do you follow a 3-person conversation (3 as in, including yourself) without lipreading?? how well can you discriminate speech without lipreading?
- diagnosed with brain tumour at 4, surgically removed at 5, underwent radiation treatment which initiated hearing loss
- first clear signs of hearing loss occurred around 3rd grade:
- - - * right ear had a Severe-Profound loss instantly
- - - * had an FM system for the left ear (mild hearing loss at the time)
- hearing in left ear deteriorated because of sensorineural AND conductive hearing loss (middle ear infections)
- obtained a BTE in grade 5 (probably about 50 dBs at this point)
- no problems hearing/conversing with BTE until 8th grade
- received BAHA surgery (Bone Anchored Hearing Aid) in grade 10 because the BTE ear mold wasn't letting enough air into my ear and worsened the infections
- hearing loss deteriorated to the point where I had to wear both the BAHA and BTE at the same time (on the same ear; google BAHA if you don't know what i'm talking about! =P)
- had a tympanomastoidectomy (operation to remove cyst in my ear that was causing infections/eating away at my ear!) in grade 11; hearing loss had been deteriorating because of the cyst already, but the operation alone brought me down to about 90 dB
- received right ear BTE shortly afterwards (minimal help, & poor speech discrimination in that ear, but good for a volume boost)
- cochlear implant assessment in November 2006 - determined that i'd be a borderline CI candidate for one in my right ear (not the left since my speech discrimination was "very good" for sentences without lipreading, but only at several dBs higher than normal conversation level) and also my loss is somewhere like, 85ish dB - right ear, 110 dB - left ear
Phew. so anyway, here's the thing: I had a CI assessment a year ago to determine whether I'd be a good candidate for a CI. I decided maybe I'd want to go ahead with it as I'd heard good things about speech clarity and such. My main problem is that even Phonak's strongest hearing aid that's on the market currently (although I know there's this new sort of awesome technology coming out apparently) I don't get the desired amount of amplification, and even though my speech discrimination is a LOT better than many people who use BTEs, it's still not as good as I wish it were. (but let me stop myself there and just clarify that I understand that CI doesn't give perfect hearing..!)
when I first had the assessment I didn't know much about CIs, like how some people had said they heard "Donald Duck speech" and the like. My mom read something about not being able to hear music. I have a friend with a CI and she says she listens to some rock, so I don't know, what's the deal on this? I know it's generally different to describe what hearing with a CI is like but I'd still appreciate some input
I was supposed to have an appointment about 2 months ago with a CI specialist.. person... but when I found out about how allegedly weird the sounds were when a person gets a CI, I told her to cancel, screw it, i'll stick with the BTE.
when I came here and read some more clear descriptions of people's experiences with the CI, i started to change my mind and may want to reschedule that appointment (or possibly another assessment since it's been a year!). but i'm really unsure about this whole thing. Everything I've read about candidacy says that a good CI candidate is someone who doesn't get enough help from hearing aids, blah blah blah. But I think I get a fairly decent amount of help; I can talk on the phone and such, my biggest issue is with amplification but I can't seem to get any more powerful hearing aids...
1. is there anyone here who has experienced wearing a BTE and a CI at the same time (or does that even work for some people?)
2. are there any people who have gotten a cochlear implant after having lost their hearing gradually (ie. you were hearing or HoH at one point, then deaf, then you got a CI!) and have experienced use of a hearing aid prior, that can tell me their story?
3. essentially how good is a CI when it comes to conversing over lots of background noise?
4. how well do you follow a 3-person conversation (3 as in, including yourself) without lipreading?? how well can you discriminate speech without lipreading?