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geoff

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I'm 41 years old and have been hearing impaired since 5. I had spinal meningitis. From 5 to 13 I could hear without my hearing aids but at 13 I had to rely on them all the time. Just another thing a 13 year old needs to go along with puberty and middle school ;). I've never learned to sign and have never had any hearing impaired friends. I have a profound hearing loss. The past 4 years I've noticed it was getting worse. I can no longer use a telephone without captions and I cannot watch TV or moving s without captions. My audiologist recently informed me I've lost 15% of my hearing. She has sent me to an Ent to see if I qualify for cochlear implants. What I've read I seem to meet the criteria. This is a life changing decision and a total transformation of who I've always been. I'm trying to learn to sign but I'm not sure where is the best place ( books,private tutor, class or online?). Does anyone here have CI and if so what's the difference compared to hearing aids if you ever wore hearing aids? My family is very loving and supportive but all of them hear. Any insight would be appreciated.
 
Sign will set you free!!
Which city are you in?
Find the Deafies around you, and learn sign. sign is the superior technology to ci. Sign can be used in any enviroment save the thickest dark. It is free, it has no battaries nor thrid party mulinational coprs, itching to drill a hole in your head for profit. It has no wires attached...Sign is our greatest treasure, its power is only limited by your mind....

You need ci, like you nedd a hole the head.
Sign
Will
Set
You
Free!!
 
Sign will set you free!!
Which city are you in?
Find the Deafies around you, and learn sign sign is the superior technology to ci. Sign can be used in any enviroment sae the thickest dark. It is free, it has no battaries nor thrid party mulinational forces itching to drill a hole in your head for profit. It has no wires attached...Sign is our greatest trasure, its power is only limited by your mind....

You need ci, like you nedd a hole the head.
Sign
Will
Set
You
Free!!
leave him alone.
 
Hi Geoff: Some thoughts from a person who has had a Cochlear Implant for just over 8 years. One can't compare C I to Hearing aids which increase the sound coming in while a CI is "imputed directly to your "nerves" which your brain accepts as sound.
After getting used to so much sound now- which you didn't hear- one usually does get much more. Thus there is an improvement for you-over time.
.
Not everyone can benefit from having a Cochlear Implant.

aside: Notwithstanding some people can hear on regular phone with their Cochlear Implant. I don't-just the dial tone not anyone speaking. Just continued using my UltraTec 1140 TTY.

I was in the "profound loss classification" almost 30 years-both ears till total DEAFness in 2006.
I benefitted from the skilled help at Sunnybrook Cochlear implant section/Toronto.Ontario I have always acknowledged

All this happened when I was 70 years old. A bit older than you

Much success Geoff in your journey.
 
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Thanks so much Phil. People say I will have to learn to hear again. My worry is what about work? I work in a very noisy environment with alot of people.
 
Whether you can work in a noisy environment by adjusting the "volume control" you should discuss very specifically when your audi does the first "map". The next one you will have a better idea on what level your Implant should be "set at".

It is most important for you to be very exact with the audi the level what you are hearing in all circumstances..
From my experience it does take a few "maps" to get the best point for you.
It pays in the long run to be very honest with your audi.
 
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Thanks so much Phil. People say I will have to learn to hear again. My worry is what about work? I work in a very noisy environment with alot of people.

What work do you do?
 
I work at an auto manufacturing plant. I drive around and deliver parts to the assembly line
 
I work at an auto manufacturing plant. I drive around and deliver parts to the assembly line

Alright.
Ci do have magnets and stuff so best to check very deeply lest you end up suckin back.
Some lightning bolts at work..

In my line of work ci is non brainer...no way...im always fighting and getting hit, hitting, chocking, getting chocked, throwing, getting thrown, kicking getting kicked...so on..
Ci just doesnt belong.
But your work is a different enviroment,
Besides.
You need ci like you need a hole in the head.
Sign
Will
Set
You
Free!!
 
I think a class would be amazing.... that way you might be able to meet other dhh folks and get connected to local dhh events.
From what I understand, progressive loss people do tend to have a lot of success with CI......So go for it! If you're finding out you're maxing out on HA, it might be time for the next step!
 
The magnet is not strong. At All.

If you hearing before, and you had good, effective use of your aids before there won't really be a whole lot of "relearning" to hear. At least that's what I've found to be the case. I've been activated for 4 weeks and for me it's been more a matter of getting accustomed to more volume. They start you off with very very little, but it doesn't seem like it.

It's hard to say, but everyone is different. Me and sono both have been implanted fairly recently, we have both had very good experience. I'm not positive what his hearing history has been but mine was progressive. It started when I was 20, I'm 40 now, I lost my hearing in waves. It drop, be steady for awhile, drop more. I've been in the profound range for at least 3 years I think, mostly lip reading. I've been no response for 6 months-a year, in that time my hearing aids were useless. I can't tell you how many times I wore them all day and the batteries were dead and I had no idea :shock: so anyway, I had 20 years with perfect hearing, at 15 years with aidable hearing loss. Even with the last 4 years of hearing mushiness or nothing my CI is working fantastically for me and is sooooooooooo much better than hearing aids. Both Sono and I have threads about our CI experiences.
 
Oh yeah!! I almost forgot! If your work is noisy it may be overwhelming for awhile. This was something I didn't have to deal with. I'm a massage therapist, I spend all day in a very quiet room with just me and one other person in the room and not much talking. If you do get one hopefully this is something you can manage while you're getting used to the new sound input.
 
Oh yeah!! I almost forgot! If your work is noisy it may be overwhelming for awhile. This was something I didn't have to deal with. I'm a massage therapist, I spend all day in a very quiet room with just me and one other person in the room and not much talking. If you do get one hopefully this is something you can manage while you're getting used to the new sound input.

Thank you so much for that. It's just a big transformation and I have alot of questions. This helps especially since you've had it done recently and your the same age as I am
And also similar hearing history more or less
 
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