Zebadee's Activation.

Hey Zee. Does the processor feel heavy on your ear... I get turned on thursday and my ear is still tender. Just wondering.

Not really, is your ear or head tender? If its your head it probably won't bother you. But if its your actual ear then i'm not really sure. It's pretty light weight. I also have to wear glasses with it. But i've wore them since I got out of surgery..

Shouldn't be bad though. If it is just take some tylenol or advil.
 
Right now both are still tender... haven't been able to wear my prescription glasses but for a few mins at a time... right now i'm using store bought for reading. Im gonna take my prescriptions back in and see if they can lossen the spring up on them so they won 't put so much pressure on my head. maybe get a lighter set made... so your glasses don't interfere with you processor?
 
Right now both are still tender... haven't been able to wear my prescription glasses but for a few mins at a time... right now i'm using store bought for reading. Im gonna take my prescriptions back in and see if they can lossen the spring up on them so they won 't put so much pressure on my head. maybe get a lighter set made... so your glasses don't interfere with you processor?

No not really, I have Nike glasses. so they snug my head a bit. That may be why they don't interfere but i'm not sure. it doesn't sit flat but it stays on and doesn't make my glasses stray to either side or anything.

As I've read quite a few times on here from others. Don't be to stressed on the pain. Just take the medicine they gave you, or if you're out then try some advil. It helps. I've gotten to where I don't really need either. and It's only been almost 6 weeks since surgery. So i still have a little bit of swelling but not much. I actually forget i'm wearing it sometimes.

But i'm also used to experiencing a little bit of pain from surgery's.. And yet I hate shots and blood.. haha.

I really do wish you best of luck.
 
I was off the pain meds at day 2.. I just don't like taking them... I do take Advil if needed I have no pain unless pressure is put on it. have the same cut that you have on my head. It itches more than anything...lol.. oh i hate shot too :)
 
I was off the pain meds at day 2.. I just don't like taking them... I do take Advil if needed I have no pain unless pressure is put on it. have the same cut that you have on my head. It itches more than anything...lol.. oh i hate shot too :)

Hmmm.. I don't really know then, maybe your skin is just more sensitive than mine? Mine itched a little bit for a few days, but other than that not much..

I think i've had a great experience so far..
 
Hey Zee. Does the processor feel heavy on your ear... I get turned on thursday and my ear is still tender. Just wondering.

Deb, good luck on Thursday, please update up on a new thread when you get activated, how was your hearing before the CI?
 
FI885. I have profound in both ears. I had 12% speech recognition in left ear now i have none. and I have 24% in my right ear. i will post a new thread after i get activated
 
I would like to make a suggestion: That if you wear glasses, to get them specially fitted to your aids. When in humid weather, they can chafe really bad. You wouldn't want that! (I had the same problem with HAs before).
 
Hey Zee. Does the processor feel heavy on your ear... I get turned on thursday and my ear is still tender. Just wondering.
Deb, that although I don't wear glasses. However, I do recall my implanted ear sticking out more at first, before it eventually went back to its original position. So maybe that could be a factor. Perhaps, give it a little time.
 
zebadee-
great to hear ur going guns. over all so far has it reached ur expectations? are u happier how things have went or disappointed?
also have ur family and friends noticed an improvement in hearing ? the reason i ask this is because i think that when we miss out on so much sounds etc that i think others dont realise that we arent hearing it,
keep up the rehab.
 
zebadee-
great to hear ur going guns. over all so far has it reached ur expectations? are u happier how things have went or disappointed?
also have ur family and friends noticed an improvement in hearing ? the reason i ask this is because i think that when we miss out on so much sounds etc that i think others dont realise that we arent hearing it,
keep up the rehab.

Well this thing will never be good as my natural hearing was.... But things are going great. And it's going as good as it can considering I have to rely on a mic for hearing.. It's still kinda hard to understand in a concert environment. But i'm backstage and out of the path of the speakers.. So it sounds muffled even before I lost my hearing.
 
I'd agree with below. My circumstances have made my progress great. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to hear fine with it after about a month or two. Plus talking on the phone mainly takes practice! It's trying to find where to hold it thats my problem!

Bingo.. thats where I have had trouble.. Where to hold the phone. I have finally masterd my cell phone and have no trouble at all anymore with making or receiving calls. I don't even need T-coil with it.
 
Deb,
The processor is light as a HA if not lighter and there's no mold so you won't have the stuffy feeling.. You might experience a little discomfort since your sensitive still behind the ear ( I was) but just be gentle for the next week or so with it and you should be fine.
 
Zebadee, update us, how are you doing?

I'm doing excellent, just got back from my checkup yesterday and they said that I was at 96% w/o noise and 85% with noise, that was sentences
and on single words I was at 90% she said that most of her patients are at 70-80% at 6 months and i'm only at 1 month!
 
I'm doing excellent, just got back from my checkup yesterday and they said that I was at 96% w/o noise and 85% with noise, that was sentences
and on single words I was at 90% she said that most of her patients are at 70-80% at 6 months and i'm only at 1 month!

wow, that's amazing, so happy for you, I think you deserve every bit of it.
how's your speech understanding now, how do you function after becoming completely deaf for little while, how do you think you hear now and how the CI helped you, your results are so encouraging, I spoke to a dr today and feel way better to go ahead with the CI than before
 
wow, that's amazing, so happy for you, I think you deserve every bit of it.
how's your speech understanding now, how do you function after becoming completely deaf for little while, how do you think you hear now and how the CI helped you, your results are so encouraging, I spoke to a dr today and feel way better to go ahead with the CI than before

Those numbers were for speech understanding, but I must say I do better with her tests than I do in real conversations, but that is mostly because there is so much noise usually where i'm listening at. But I think in the long run that will help me have better hearing because i'm learning to hear in really hard to hear environments.

I hear pretty well now, although as I said places where it's really loud or if i'm listening to music that is really loud, that makes it harder to understand. But i'm doing really well with it. I don't know what kind of hearing you have right now if any at all but I would say that you shouldn't expect to have great results. My Dr. said that my results were most likely because I had been deaf for so short of time. About 2 months total. But don't let me discourage you. It really does sound great and if nothing else in about 6 months you should be hearing pretty well.

I really would recommend getting one. Although there is some pain and stuff like that, and all results vary, I'm sure you'll do just fine!
 
zebadee2010, even normal hearing people don't hear well in noisy situation so do not get discouraged.
I have 90 db loss in both ears, I was born normal hearing,I'm 35 now and started losing my hearing 10 years back and it got pretty bad in a year or so, I have been wearing hearing aids (HA) ever since that time and I do understand lip reading with sounds of course, I hear pretty good with my HA if I'm in a small group (2-4 people) or 1-1, I get lost with bigger group and if everyone is talking from every side, i can use phone and do a lot of business on phone (use a special headset for hearing aids or bluetooth for HA, my brain is pretty programmed on sounds and as per the dr I spoke with today (2nd opinion) he recommended that I do it soon and not wait 2 years otherwise my brain starts losing it, he is expecting me to do very well since my brain is already stimulated, but you never know. My fear is that I have already changed my career once (when my hearing started going down after spending years in college and get my wow degree) I can't afford losing my current career at this point when I'm not 22-25 anymore, I'm afraid of losing my ability to use the phone if I go with the CI, this my major challenge, plus I did try to use one HA to see how I do and it was not good, I have to have my both HA on to function right, so basically, if the CI does not work for me, I'm done, that's why all the research and the fear.
I know your results are amazing and we should not compare ourselves to you, but as how I research it: it's not about the ear, it's about your brain, the auditory cortex that covers the brain and how stimulated it is, if you were born deaf or very hard of hearing and have not stimulated your hearing with hearing aids or your regular ears, then that area will be doing something else, not for hearing, however if you keep stimulating the cortex with sounds and try your best (if you wear HA) to figure out what that sound is, a bird singing, a spoon hitting the side of the cup, the sound of the keys in the door knob ...., these explanations are very important for your cortex and brain, that's why CI results vary from a person to person, the way how your brain is developed to hear sounds and how to explain them back to you, so if the person never heard the sound of a key in a door knob, he may take time to understand it and may never can get grab of it after he gets a CI, but if a person is already heard it, knows what is it and have not been away so long from hearing it, then he will remember it when he gets the CI, that's why you are doing so good now, HOWEVER: you are having major problem with noise at this point because you were only deaf for 2 months, you will need a lot of time to grasp on mixing noise with other sounds, a thing that is a piece of cake for us, hard of hearing people :) and this is OUR advantage on YOU, I was in your shoe when I wore my first HA 10 years back, I was going crazy after months of less hearing and out of sudden sounds were so high that I was going to scream, noises were all mixed, my brain could not separate the sounds, but after several years, I could separate them easily and I can say that this is a blessing for us, probably the only blessing we have, don't worry, you will get there but make sure to relax when it's too noisy and don't let it distract you from separating sounds, practice :)
 
zebadee2010, even normal hearing people don't hear well in noisy situation so do not get discouraged.
I have 90 db loss in both ears, I was born normal hearing,I'm 35 now and started losing my hearing 10 years back and it got pretty bad in a year or so, I have been wearing hearing aids (HA) ever since that time and I do understand lip reading with sounds of course, I hear pretty good with my HA if I'm in a small group (2-4 people) or 1-1, I get lost with bigger group and if everyone is talking from every side, i can use phone and do a lot of business on phone (use a special headset for hearing aids or bluetooth for HA, my brain is pretty programmed on sounds and as per the dr I spoke with today (2nd opinion) he recommended that I do it soon and not wait 2 years otherwise my brain starts losing it, he is expecting me to do very well since my brain is already stimulated, but you never know. My fear is that I have already changed my career once (when my hearing started going down after spending years in college and get my wow degree) I can't afford losing my current career at this point when I'm not 22-25 anymore, I'm afraid of losing my ability to use the phone if I go with the CI, this my major challenge, plus I did try to use one HA to see how I do and it was not good, I have to have my both HA on to function right, so basically, if the CI does not work for me, I'm done, that's why all the research and the fear.
I know your results are amazing and we should not compare ourselves to you, but as how I research it: it's not about the ear, it's about your brain, the auditory cortex that covers the brain and how stimulated it is, if you were born deaf or very hard of hearing and have not stimulated your hearing with hearing aids or your regular ears, then that area will be doing something else, not for hearing, however if you keep stimulating the cortex with sounds and try your best (if you wear HA) to figure out what that sound is, a bird singing, a spoon hitting the side of the cup, the sound of the keys in the door knob ...., these explanations are very important for your cortex and brain, that's why CI results vary from a person to person, the way how your brain is developed to hear sounds and how to explain them back to you, so if the person never heard the sound of a key in a door knob, he may take time to understand it and may never can get grab of it after he gets a CI, but if a person is already heard it, knows what is it and have not been away so long from hearing it, then he will remember it when he gets the CI, that's why you are doing so good now, HOWEVER: you are having major problem with noise at this point because you were only deaf for 2 months, you will need a lot of time to grasp on mixing noise with other sounds, a thing that is a piece of cake for us, hard of hearing people :) and this is OUR advantage on YOU, I was in your shoe when I wore my first HA 10 years back, I was going crazy after months of less hearing and out of sudden sounds were so high that I was going to scream, noises were all mixed, my brain could not separate the sounds, but after several years, I could separate them easily and I can say that this is a blessing for us, probably the only blessing we have, don't worry, you will get there but make sure to relax when it's too noisy and don't let it distract you from separating sounds, practice :)

Oh, i've been working at all this non stop. When I say it's hard in noisy situations, it seems more like the noise is just so much louder than whoever is talking to me. I know they have programs on the CI that are supposed to help with that but I rarely use them.

And as for using the phone, I think it all depends on the user and how well they hear in normal situations. I am able to talk on the phone right now, but the tricky part is getting the phone help up to the CI and not to your ear. But once you find that spot and get used to it talking on the phone is pretty easy.

I would say that you should get which ever ear that you don't normally use done first that way you can try talking on the phone with that ear first and try to get used to it..

Again, i'm new to all these deafness ratings and such so I still don't really know how deaf you are, but I'll assume that you aren't too bad off! But I personally feel like you could do pretty well with the CI like I am doing, maybe not quite so fast but I would expect in 3 months you would probably be doing pretty well!

i wish you luck in whatever you decide to do. I'm personally still trying to decide if I want to get my other ear done.
Part of me doesn't want to go through surgery and re-learning the hearing in it. But I also don't like the constant ringing in my ear. But I don't know if I would wear both of them all the time if I did get another one.

Right now i'm kinda leaning towards waiting until they have the fully implantable CI's out. My Dr. said they were doing some testing on them and had them in people but one of the major problems was things like chewing were much much louder because it was hearing all your muscles moving..
 
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