Intro with questions about choosing a CI...

HI everyone. I am a newbie -- and I could not decide where to place this post - in the introduction forum or here - and I chose here because ultimately it is with the issue of selecting a brand of CI that I need your input. Read on...

At the end of the year last year I was just beginning the process of evaluation for CI, in Israel, where I live. Subsequent to that the process was interrupted - first by a five week trip overseas to the States, and then by a stress fracture I sustained to the medial condyle of my left knee. However, I did finally restart the evaluation process again and would like to both share some insight which I gained from the experience with you and ask for your input.

First of all, about my deafness: I test in the severe to profound range, stable hearing loss since age 3, wear HA's - currently Oticon Agil Pro power aids. But - for the past 15 years I have complained that I feel like I do not hear as well as I used to. But testing consistently showed that my hearing was stable with little to no deterioration of my hearing - ie; my loss has remained the same as when I was three years old!

In 2005 I was evaluated for CI -- and turned down. I was told that the amount of gain I would get over HA's was so minuscule it was not worthwhile. I was quite disappointed. I was told that I tested so well in the speech recognition part of the evaluation that CI would not improve that much. (Now pay attention to this part here)....

I was evaluated again, the complete battery of hearing tests given to me last week. I continue to test in the severe to profound range, my audiograph looks the same as it has for years. BUT -- I tested really poorly in the word/speech recognition part of the test. And THAT was VERY different from my past experience. In fact, the audis and the doctor were so surprised at the results that they repeated that part of the test - with the same results. So then they repeated it again, but this time at a much higher volume. SAME RESULTS!

So, what was different?

The test here was in HEBREW. Now, I do speak Hebrew, quite well, in fact. But only because I happened to come to Israel back in 1977 and to participate in an ulpan (intense study of the Hebrew language) for nine months. I was 17 years old. I remained in Israel back then for two years before returning to the States. I did not come back to Israel until three years ago. Had I come here without that background, then there is no way that today I would speak Hebrew at all! But I speak it better than I can understand spoken Hebrew - which is the opposite problem that most English speaking immigrants here have!

But back to the CI candidacy evaluation. When I have taken this test in English I do very well. Why? I KNOW ALL THE WORDS! Baseball, Toothbrush, Airplane, Hotdog, Cowboy....et al. Sound familiar to you??? If I can anticipate what I am going to hear, or if I am extremely familiar with the sound pattern of the word(s)-- then of course I am going to "ace" the word recognition test!!

But in Hebrew? I had no idea which words I would be asked to repeat! My vocabulary in Hebrew is limited but if I could hear the word(s) I should be able to replicate verbally what I heard. But I couldn't! Without familiarity, and without ability to anticipate, I had to rely on pure hearing -- and could NOT do it. I was STRUGGLING to make sense of what I was hearing, or to at the very least repeat what I heard even without understanding what I was hearing. No can do!

So, I finally was given what I consider to be a meaningful test that revealed the truth of my hearing disability -- my inability to recognize words easily! And thus, I "passed" the test and am eligible to receive a CI.

So now this is where YOU all come in: I have to choose which brand CI to implant. Either Cochlear, MedEl or AB. Please share with me which brand CI you chose and why. Also, tell me if you are pre or post lingually deaf, deaf since childhood, or late-deafened. Other info you wish to share that is meaningful would be most welcome. Feel free to direct me to resources (other than the Cochlear, MedEl or AB websites). Thank you in advance for all that you share!

cochlear implant HELP has resources that might be useful for you.

I went with AB myself. Sonova owns both Ab and Phonak (I've worn Phonak hearing aids since becoming deaf), and the current AB processors (Naida) incorporates some of the same technology that the Phonak hearing aids uses. And I was more impressed with AB's speech processing strategies and technical advances, seems like they have more options to offer to try to get the best hearing possible. I've been quite happy with my AB implant, which I've had for 2.5 years now. Deaf since the age of 2 as a result of meningitis, am now almost age 29.

I have had AB Harmony for 7 years. I am bilateral DEAF since 2006.
At Sunnybrook/Toronto Cochlear Implant section at the the time-only AB Harmony was considered. There was a production problem with Cochlear Corporation at the time and Med El was not approved for use then. Fast forward-Med EL is accepted now and Cochlear has their production problems sorted out. All this was a few years ago.

Toronto is in the Province of Ontario. Canada.

I have had "hearing problems" Profound level -over 35 years.

Final observation-hear much better with the Implant then in the past with 2 Phonak LL6

Good luck in your journey to much hearing using an Implant.

I was implanted in January with advanced bionics and have done remarkably well in such a short time. Before the CI I understood around 11% of speech in quiet in a testing booth with high powered hearing aids with both ears together (and the volume of the tests was at 100db).
Now, I only have my right ear implanted but I am scoring 96% correct in quiet at normal conversational levels and 70-80% in moderate noise.
These results are, according to my audiologist, the best she has seen.

I am a bit concerned that you are only a candidate when you take the test in your non-native language. You may be fluent in Hebrew but the brain learns second languages (especially those learned after childhood) in a different way than native languages. It takes more work and a bit more time for the brain to recognize patterns in speech for second languages.

If you are doing well (able to use the phone, understand speech without lip reading) with hearing aids a cochlear implant might not provide much benefit. But it might.

ecp said:

I was implanted in January with advanced bionics and have done remarkably well in such a short time. Before the CI I understood around 11% of speech in quiet in a testing booth with high powered hearing aids with both ears together (and the volume of the tests was at 100db).
Now, I only have my right ear implanted but I am scoring 96% correct in quiet at normal conversational levels and 70-80% in moderate noise.
These results are, according to my audiologist, the best she has seen.

I am a bit concerned that you are only a candidate when you take the test in your non-native language. You may be fluent in Hebrew but the brain learns second languages (especially those learned after childhood) in a different way than native languages. It takes more work and a bit more time for the brain to recognize patterns in speech for second languages.

If you are doing well (able to use the phone, understand speech without lip reading) with hearing aids a cochlear implant might not provide much benefit. But it might.

Click to expand...

I think the OP's point is that the test comes out different when the words have been the same in the same order for many tests and it turns into them having been memorized rather than true understanding of what is said. Thus, not getting as many right when taking the test in the other language simply because of not knowing what word is coming next. NOT as a matter of how well either language is known.

I chose Advanced Bionics myself, having my most recent hearing aid be a Phonak and having been really pleased with Phonak technology when I was doing well with my hearing aid. I am receiving my implant in 2 weeks, but it was an easy decision for me based on using Phonak technology before, the fact that they have a waterproof processor (I'm into a lot of sports, including those in the water), and insight as to the sound quality with the t-mic 2. On a second note, I felt that I would have the best chance of music appreciation with an AB implant. AB uses something called steering technology, supposedly very benefical for music appreciation, which I don't think Cochlear or Med-El do.

I refer to my hearing history as postlingual early childhood deafness. I was born with presumably normal hearing and I was very ahead in speech & language development at 2. I was beginning to speak in full sentences by then. Around 2 1/2 I lost my hearing, unknown cause. One ear is dead and the other was aidable. My mother remembers a particularly high fever & a bad ear infection that I had one night around that age (not meningitis). We don't know if it caused the hearing loss or not, but I grew up in the mainstream because my speech & language had already been on par with my peers or above. Then my hearing/discrimination got worse about 6 months ago.

AB user here too, 98% and 100% speech scores after 10 and 3 months post activation....can't argue with those results

My parents chose Cochlear for me as it was the only option from my CI centre 13 years ago. But for reasons, if I got implanted today I'd choose AB