Should I Get An Implant?

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a_sailor

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Hi everyone,

Some background -- I'm 25 and born and raised in Los Angeles. I was born profoundly deaf in both ears. I've been wearing bilateral hearing aids since I was a few months old. I grew up listening and speaking, have attended mainstream schools, and did speech therapy for several years. I'm terrible at lip-reading -- I rely on listening. My left ear is much better than my right one -- my right hearing aide is just to determine where sounds came from as I'm unable to discriminate much at all in that ear. Today, I'm a software engineer.

I'll be off my parent's health plan this October, so I've been thinking of getting an implant before then. I have failed to do poorly enough and qualify for an implant a few times in the past, but House Clinic has offered to fight if I really, really want one. I have upcoming cochlear evaluation next week. Dr. Luxford has indicated in the past that my situation is interesting because my right ear is much worst than my left. He said he'd implant my right ear to "save" my left one, but that ultimately it's my decision to determine which ear to implant. I have talked to several of my deaf friends and they all admit it's a tough decision.

I'm torn over whether to get an implant or not, and if I decide that I do want one, which ear to implant. My hearing loss is progressive -- its likely all my hearing will go out and I'll eventually need an implant in the future. However, my hearing has been stable for several years now. I'm happy, and I can afford an implant up-front without health insurance. I'm still not sure.

Any thoughts? I'm looking for stories, particularly from those who have one ear better than the other and implanted the worst one. We're not sure if my right ear has any of those auditory pathways formed -- at one point when I was a baby, my right ear was actually better than my left. Could I rely solely on my right ear if I implant it? I know it varies person to person, but I'm really torn here and would like to hear any thoughts from anyone who moved from hearing aids to implants.

Thanks.
 
save your loot, or donate it to Deaf...'-) you don't need implant man. you need implant like you need hole in the head. rather learn sign, we can help you with that too, never too late, Deaf culture is here for you. welcome.
the CI industry does criminal practices to Deaf, in the combined system by denying sign language acquisition to Deaf babies and Deaf children. help us stop them in their policy and practice of keeping Deaf children away from other Deaf children so they do not learn sign or "revert to being Deaf" the financial support they get from you, the use against us.
help us stop them
 
Curious.... How do you fail to do poorly enough? Grew up listening and speaking... hmm where have I read this before? :)
Why do you want the CI?
 
Jezie said:
Curious.... How do you fail to do poorly enough? Grew up listening and speaking... hmm where have I read this before? :)
Why do you want the CI?
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His/her speech discrimination scores are probably not low enough when wearing both hearing aids. The insurance companies, following Medicare's lead, have a high threshold we have to pass to be approved. Unfortunately, that does not mean we can hear/understand speech well enough to enjoy life (I'm late deafened, I've taken ASL classes, I'm not ready to rely on ASL & interpreters - and I'm just stating the facts, not arguing for or against CIs).
 
Another factor in scoring low enough to qualify is guessing. Those of us that have been HOH for a long time develop a skill at guess the meaning from what we do get. If you want the CI do not guess only respond to what you truly hear.
 
LoveBlue said:
His/her speech discrimination scores are probably not low enough when wearing both hearing aids. The insurance companies, following Medicare's lead, have a high threshold we have to pass to be approved. Unfortunately, that does not mean we can hear/understand speech well enough to enjoy life (I'm late deafened, I've taken ASL classes, I'm not ready to rely on ASL & interpreters - and I'm just stating the facts, not arguing for or against CIs).
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no your stating an ideological frame work.
using such words as "enjoy life", in regards to CI implies without one you cant enjoy life. which is NOT a fact, that's an opinion, that's an ideological framework.
big difference
how many ASL classes have you taken? whats your level in ASL? how often do you use ASL?
 
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Shockingly, I agree with hoichi on this point: you don't need a CI to enjoy life.

Having said that, if you choose to be a part of a hearing culture instead of, or in addition to, Deaf culture, a CI could be a useful tool for you. When I got my first cochlear implant, I was implanted in my "better" ear first. My worse ear was more or less completely deaf for 46 years. In my specific situation and knowing the outcome, I'd make the same choice again if I had a "do-over"
 
hoichi said:
no your stating an ideological frame work.
using such words as "enjoy life", in regards to CI implies without one you cant enjoy life. which is NOT a fact, that's an opinion, that's an ideological framework.
big difference
how many ASL classes have you taken? whats your level in ASL? how often do you use ASL?
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You are reading far more into LB's post than necessary I think.
 
Jane B. said:
Another factor in scoring low enough to qualify is guessing. Those of us that have been HOH for a long time develop a skill at guess the meaning from what we do get. If you want the CI do not guess only respond to what you truly hear.
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However... when one does 'truly hear' something... there is still a high chance of getting it wrong anyway. It's still guessing even if you THINK you have it right and heard the 'sound'.
 
DeafDucky said:
Perhaps what you think they mean and what she actually meant are two different things.
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well that could be, but that's why using words such as "fact" for ones opinions doesn't help much..because then people can challenge you, rather then if one just stated "my opinion" where people indeed will challenge you but on different ground..

the plm is in this issue almost every "fact" touted by them as "fact" actual are not "facts" at all..
if i misunderstood her use of english then i'm happy to be schooled. or if i misunderstood what she meant no plm at all in her using different words to convey her point better so shes more fully understood.
no plm or issue on my end.
 
I would go for it!! The day that I was told I had progressive hearing loss was one of the worst days of my life.
 
No, a hearing life is not worth more. deaf individuals are not inferior to hearing individuals.

However, it's natural and normal for someone who loses something that they like to feel sad and to grieve, even to feel overwhelmed. Losing a relative, losing a house due to a tornado, losing hearing can all be traumatic to the individual. It doesn't mean that the person who didn't have a relative or didn't have a house or didn't have hearing is worth any less; neither does it mean that the person who did experience the loss isn't experiencing a painful loss.
 
John Stegeman said:
No, a hearing life is not worth more. deaf individuals are not inferior to hearing individuals.
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then why keep Deaf kids away from other Deaf kids so that they "do not revert back to being Deaf?
revert means moving back. revert is not usually used to denote equal..


John Stegeman said:
However, it's natural and normal for someone who loses something that they like to feel sad and to grieve, even to feel overwhelmed. Losing a relative, losing a house due to a tornado, losing hearing can all be traumatic to the individual. It doesn't mean that the person who didn't have a relative or didn't have a house or didn't have hearing is worth any less; neither does it mean that the person who did experience the loss isn't experiencing a painful loss.
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this is the fundamental plm.
your comparing the "loss" of audiological construct of what your mean by hearing as something equivalent to someone dying, or losing a piece of property the first is a loss of a life, someone dyign ceasing to exist, the other is a loss of property something of value monetary or otherwise. the language used is heavily based on value and or something positive which is now irrevocably lost ie someone who now ceases to exist. ie dead.

so why use loaded value based language in describing something you claim is not worth any more or worth any less?
 
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