Oh, I know that I could ask the doctors or other people involved, but I would prefer to hear the answers from the people that actually were on the operating table, not the ones standing. I know the surgery is usually done on an outpatient basis, but I do have other questions....
How much hair is shaved? How long does your hair have to be to cover the implant? How long were you out of work, if you worked, after the surgery? For those that do/did work, how much down time was there during the first year? How long after activation were you able to understand speech?
Sorry to have so many questions, but I am now at a point where I am being sent to an off base specialist for a consult for a CI and even though he/she could answer these, they are from the point of view of someone that has not gone through it themselves. I am kind of freaking out with wondering, but most websites are all rosy, and that is perhaps due to the success the person feels afterwards.
Thanks in advance for any input....
Hair - It really depends on the surgeon. I only had about 1 inch area shaved
Check my blog. Others had half of their head shaved, even now. Others had none. For males, they tend not to shave too much or cut too much in the hair line because the scars can easily be seen with short hair. It doesn't matter how much hair is over the implant. It grows back. That's what the magnets are for. For thicker hair, there's stronger magnet. It's just how you put the magnet on.
Work - Many people went back to work a week later. Some went a couple days later, others longer. I didn't work, so I can't really answer these question. I got back to 95% normal 1 week post op. As for downtime, it's depends on the person actually.
Speech - Again, it's on invididual basis. If you have wore hearing aids in the ear that you will be implanted, AND you can understand speech (just not clearly, that's different), then you will understand speech quickly. That's why I always insist that people that want to get implant, but using their dead ear for implantation is to at least try to use hearing aid to expose the nerves with sound. They will get a big wake up call at activation. For MY situation, it took about 2 to 3 days for speech to sound okay. Took about 2 weeks for speech to sound clearer. The reason is because I had the capability to understand speech well with my HAs, but I was missing all the high frequencies such as Shh, Z, CH, SH, etc. With CI, I was hearing the lows AND the highs that I didn't have in the first place, so it kind of sounded weird for a little while. Other people it took longer. Average is 3 to 5 weeks for speech to be clearer. 6 to 8 months to have a much higher HINT and sentence discrimination scores. Just because I did well doesn't mean it's the same for you. Just because someone struggled a long long time to understand speech doesn't mean it will happen to you.
I'm not going to lie to you. It's going to take WORK. If you NEVER wore hearing aids before, you may struggle longer because you haven't been exposed to sounds. When you get activated, it does not become a miracle right away. "It will sound like crap" - infamous words of my audiologist. After about 5 to 8 months, the CI moments get less and less. I still get CI moments here and there, but not as frequent.
Training will help you along - listen to TV shows without CC on, watch YouTube, listen to music (I have over 2500 songs, so I can give you a few choices), listen to audiobooks. Etc. You do what works for you, not what other people say will work. You can try them, but don't expect to have the same results.
Remember - Low expectations and High hopes.
Sorry for going on and on and on...
That's so sweet!