One Implant Made an Impact. Might Two Do Even More?

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loml

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If anyone had suggested to me just a few years ago that my deaf daughter should undergo intricate operations on both ears to receive cochlear implants, I would have recoiled. Believe me, I wanted Ruthie to be able to hear -- and speak. Her progressive hearing loss had been identified when she was 2, by which point she was profoundly deaf and almost entirely lacking in language. My husband, Aaron, and I felt a decided sense of urgency to get her communicating. We arranged for Ruthie to have surgery on her left ear when she was nearly 3.
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washingtonpost.com
 
i can definitely vouch for the benefits of having bilateral implants:

* sound directionality/localization
* louder, richer sound quality to speech and music
* not having to be in complete silence when changing batteries
* if one implant fails, i still have the other
* increased speech understanding compared to only one ci
 
I am considering the second for Miss Kat. She is hearing so much better than she ever did with her aids. So, why not?
 
Yes, but what percentage of deaf people are going to be eligable for bilateral implants? There is a significent number of people who are going to be "right off the bat" canidates, as well as people with recruitment and tintituas....
however there are prolly a lot of people who benifit from a bimodal approach, as well.
 
deafdyke said:
Yes, but what percentage of deaf people are going to be eligable for bilateral implants? There is a significent number of people who are going to be "right off the bat" canidates, as well as people with recruitment and tintituas....
however there are prolly a lot of people who benifit from a bimodal approach, as well.
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according to cochlear, there are 5,500 adult bilateral ci users. however, i don't know if that's in the u.s. or worldwide.
 
Hi,

I'm one of 5,500 adult bilateral ci users.

I'm glad I have two instead of one, and They are much better than crappy hearing aids.
 
I have two as well. Same idea as Faire Jour - "Why the hell not?"

I have TRIED bimodal approach and it's crap. There was no way in heck I would EVER be able to hear in the higher frequency ranges that the CI gave me. When I did try hearing aids in my non-implanted ear prior implantation, it sounded pretty distorted. I was actually pretty surprised how I COULD I hear with the HA's on. So boom, there was no question why I wanted to have my second ear done.

I do know a few people that do still wear hearing aids in the other non-implanted ear. They probably could hear better with the hearing aids than I could when I had HA's.
 
most people who use a bi-modal approach tend to have more residual hearing than those who choose to receive bilateral ci's.
 
I want to go bilateral so bad :(
I think my surgeon have too high of a expectation he expected me to be able to speak and hear well (I already can hear well and understand 70% of convo if only one person talking to me on subject I know) my audiologist want me learn to listen to multiple people at once (pfft 2-3 maybe in few years I don't think hearing can even do that) only thing I'm still not getting is speaking well maybe I have permament case of undiagnosed apraxia? Lol just my mouth doesn't work with my brain no matter how many time people correct my pronouncation it never stick so
Plus I hate the one sided hearing feeling if I lean my ci side head on couch or backside of lounge chair everything's muffled and quiet and I can't hear people well if they sit on my nonimplanted side I have to move my ci side to where person is its super annoying and my tinnitus in nonimplanted side is getting worse in fact couple time its louder than what I'm hearing with ci in semi-quiet evironment.
I NEED get CI in my other ear I'm going crazy with one side hearing, super loud screaming ringing and not being able to hear as well as I'd like
Dunno what to do I don't want to get different model of newer technology for other ear that sound's mismatched or wait too long that it take so much of adjustment ugh
 
skullchick,

i have different ci models in each ear (nucleus 24 contour advance in my left ear and nucleus freedom in my right ear) yet they don't sound different. they did at first, but after my audi adjusted mappings for both ears, she was able to get them to sound identical.
 
I have two implants. I agree two are better than one. I have different mapping on each one, but they work together in sound discrimation. The first time my ears have ever worked together. I also find I don't like to wear just one.
 
i should mention that i also have different maps for each ear. i discovered this after accidentally placing my ci's on the wrong ear. long story short, one ci sounded extremely soft and the other extremely loud and painful. when i put them back on the correct ear, everything sounded just like it should.
 
Hear Again said:
i should mention that i also have different maps for each ear. i discovered this after accidentally placing my ci's on the wrong ear. long story short, one ci sounded extremely soft and the other extremely loud and painful. when i put them back on the correct ear, everything sounded just like it should.
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You can't do that with AB. If you place the wrong ear on, then it just doesn't work. I have a little mark on my right one to tell them apart.
 
Hear Again said:
i should mention that i also have different maps for each ear. i discovered this after accidentally placing my ci's on the wrong ear. long story short, one ci sounded extremely soft and the other extremely loud and painful. when i put them back on the correct ear, everything sounded just like it should.
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Interesting! I know for a fact that if I used my left map for the right, it would be extremely loud due to very high DR (42 in left, 30 in right).

However, if I try to put them on the other ear, it just doesn't work..instead a H6 shows up on the LCD. People said that the audiologist programs it that way so you avoid having a situation where the map is too loud/wrong.
 
LadySekhmet said:
Interesting! I know for a fact that if I used my left map for the right, it would be extremely loud due to very high DR (42 in left, 30 in right).

However, if I try to put them on the other ear, it just doesn't work..instead a H6 shows up on the LCD. People said that the audiologist programs it that way so you avoid having a situation where the map is too loud/wrong.
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lady,

do you know if both processors can be programmed that way? if so, i'd really like to ask my audi if she can do that for me because when i accidentally placed my ci's on the wrong ear, one of them was so loud it actually hurt and i was close to tears.
 
vallee said:
You can't do that with AB. If you place the wrong ear on, then it just doesn't work. I have a little mark on my right one to tell them apart.
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i have mine marked tactually as well, but sometimes i'm so sleepy in the morning that i don't pay attention to what i'm doing. :giggle:
 
lady,

i just e-mailed my audi to ask her if she can program my freedoms the way you described. i'll let you know what she says after i receive a reply.
 
Hear Again said:
lady,

i just e-mailed my audi to ask her if she can program my freedoms the way you described. i'll let you know what she says after i receive a reply.
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It should be able to do that. H6 is pretty much used for bilaterals. It also prevents from other people "trying" on CI. So I think it's also a child thing. It's nice to have because what if children start trying each other's processors. That would really screw them up.
 
Hear Again said:
i should mention that i also have different maps for each ear. i discovered this after accidentally placing my ci's on the wrong ear. long story short, one ci sounded extremely soft and the other extremely loud and painful. when i put them back on the correct ear, everything sounded just like it should.
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Impossible. The Freedom knows the serial number in your implant and if it don't match, then error message " H6" will appear on your BTE. H6 means wrong coil. It will PREVENT sending sounds therefore you should NOT hear anything from wrong BTE.

I have CIs since 1988, bilaterals and I know a lot about them.
 
Hear again,

My Cochlear CI's will not work on the wrong side. They are programmed to read the internal processor ID to make sure the external processor is on the correct side.

I have found that if I take both processors off and put the maginets together, I get an H6 code if the coils get within 1.5 inches of each other. Just checked. Same code if I put them on the wrong ear. This protects the user of incorrect stimulation for that ear.

Steve
 
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