Anyone with 1 CI and 1 Ha?

AshJagla

AshJagla

New Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2012
Messages
95
Reaction score
1
Hi everyone! I have a pretty simple question for anyone who has any thoughts on it.

Up until recently I have been told given Zoe's audiogram that she will most likely need 2 CIs. I have been planning on 2 CIs. I have read that 2 CIs are better than 1. Now with her Phonak Naidas in they say we may only need 1 CI just to access the higher frequencies and have the HA fill out the lower frequencies more naturally.

Does this go against bilateral is best? Is Dual just as good? What set up do you have and how do you like it?

Thanks in advance for any replies, I know I am a bit of a pain because I'm trying desperately to understand EVERYTHING when in reality I understand NOTHING, please bare with me :ty:
 
I'm bimodal myself. CI for left, hearing aid for right. I'm happy with the CI and HA combo for myself, it works out. My left ear had no hearing at all whatsoever and even the most powerful hearing aid did nothing so I got the CI, and kept the HA for the right.

Some people just cannot tolerate the CI+HA combo, as it's just too weird/awkward. When my CI was first activated, whenever I tried to wear both CI and HA, it was weird, my brain was confused. But I kept at it and my brain was able to balance out both auditory signals. I was really hoping I could keep wearing the HA in the right as I wanted to hear with both ears, and it all worked out for me. But not everyone likes the CI+HA combo. It's a matter of preference.

My CI has only been turned on since April, and since I had no sound in the left ear for possibly 25ish years, everything still sounds odd with the CI. More low toned/lower pitched (basically everyone sounds more like a male to me still). But I am able to pick up on really quiet sounds with the CI that I can't hear with the HA (watch ticking, soda fizzing when you open the can/bottle, random little sounds like that).
 
I was bimodal for three years and then went bilateral. The CI/HA combo worked well but I lost more hearing and the HA was no longer enough.I missed hearing with both ears.

I am glad I did not have both CIs done at once because the hearing aid was a huge help for my brain adjusting to the first CI and when the second CI was activated my brain adjusted quickly. Things sound pretty normal to me now that my brain has adjusted. Keep in mind that I had normal hearing for a long time before losing my hearing so I had a huge advantage.

Ash, you are not being a pain it is great you are finding out all you can so you can do the best for your daughter.
 
Thanks! Glad to hear you both like/d your ci/ha combo, that defintely eases the worry of it not being 'the right thing to do' by Zoe.. The hospital that we go to is excellent, so surely they won't steer me wrong. I've still got a good couple of months left to obsess over it anyhow haha.

Lots of love for saying I'm not being a pain, I often feel like a broken record anymore - asking the same or very similar questions over and over again. It's not everyday that I venture into a completely unknown world, well, it didn't used to be :P
 
AshJagla said:
Thanks! Glad to hear you both like/d your ci/ha combo, that defintely eases the worry of it not being 'the right thing to do' by Zoe.. The hospital that we go to is excellent, so surely they won't steer me wrong. I've still got a good couple of months left to obsess over it anyhow haha.

Lots of love for saying I'm not being a pain, I often feel like a broken record anymore - asking the same or very similar questions over and over again. It's not everyday that I venture into a completely unknown world, well, it didn't used to be :P
Click to expand...

You are just being a good mother. It is really important to know everything possible for your children.
 
I have read that 2 CIs are better than 1. Now with her Phonak Naidas in they say we may only need 1 CI just to access the higher frequencies and have the HA fill out the lower frequencies more naturally.

Does this go against bilateral is best? Is Dual just as good? What set up do you have and how do you like it?
Click to expand...
IMHO, unless a kid is deep profound bilaterally and gets ZERO benefit from HAs, they should experiment with bimodal. Everyone responds differently to a different set up......and yeah....even if someone gets something like 10% of speech/sound it will still add to the whole picture of sound, if that makes any sense. Also, this way she can chose later on if she wants a second CI or not.
 
Be careful that you're not just reading manufacturer hype, over whether two implants are better then implant vs a hearing aid. I think the key is that response to bimodal is going to be VERY individual.
 
Just curious what you consider zero benefit. Zoe hears the low frequencies with her Naidas turned up all the way (not sure in both ears just yet) but does not respond to ANY high frequencies, meaning that she hears stuff, just nothing intelligible (from my understanding). Would you consider it benefit still?

My surgeon has really great success in preserving residual hearing, but I know that's not a 100% guarantee.
 
Maybe zero benefit is like my left ear at only 4% speech discrimination without noise and 0% speech discrimination with noise.
Most time CI centres do speech discrimination tests to see actually how much they are gaining speech from hearing aids.
Phonak Naidias have sound recover in which would bring her bad high frequency in the her better low frequency so she would be able to hear them better.
 
Last edited:
Not sure why people want to keep their natural hearing after cochlear implant surgery as the whole point if getting a CI is the natural hearing is rubbish so you would never use it again. I personally wouldn't worry about keeping her natural hearing as she would only be hearing thru the CI.

There is another person on this site with the same hearing aids and a severe to profound loss and has around the 80% to 90% speech scores. This shows that her Naidas work well for her.

I'm profoundly deaf and have 4% and 64% speech scores. The brain is a very strange organ and works in very different ways. I personally wouldn't rush into 2 CIs as she could cope very well with her Naidas.
 
We would 'like' to keep her residual hearing in case of newer and better technology that would need it - but we are willing to risk losing it because her hearing is so poor already and she needs better access to sound *now*.

I'm curious how they would test speech discrimination in a 1 year old? It would be fantastic if Zoe didn't have to get CIs at all, but I just don't think the Naida is going to be able to give her those high frequencies. We tested her again after putting them on and though she scored 40s in the low range there was a dramatic drop off in the high frequencies no where near the speech banana. They expect her "listening skills" to bring those scores up by at least 10db still, but even with a 10db increase she will still be severely deaf to high frequencies.
 
I'm not 100% sure how they would test someone so young.

Everyone brain is different in how they hear but with me my hearing is 120db going upto 110db (which is deep profound) and I can access the high frequencies with sound recover. There are 3 or maybe 4 settings to sound recover of different strengths. Maybe worth playing around with the sound recover setting to make sure she is getting the best.

They say Naidas can do what only cochlear implants could do before and move frequencies about to be able to hear them better.

Hope whichever route you choose means you can get the best out of how your daughter hears :)

I found out the other day that speech happens in the 250htz to 3500htz which is mainly low frequencies.
 
Yeah I was told the same thing about the speech banana, she would just be missing like 's, sh, f, p, t, k' kind of sounds, but if you think about it that must be very confusing too.

Bat could be bats, bath, back, batch, bass, etc.

That's why they are talking about just doing 1 implant to help her be able to hear and understand those sounds which are currently missing in her audiogram and make speech more intelligible to her. I will ask about sound recover though, no one has mentioned any of the controls or programs to the Naidas as they are loners and all the buttons are disabled to us. Definitely sounds worth looking into :D
 
AshJagla said:
We would 'like' to keep her residual hearing in case of newer and better technology that would need it - but we are willing to risk losing it because her hearing is so poor already and she needs better access to sound *now*.

I'm curious how they would test speech discrimination in a 1 year old? It would be fantastic if Zoe didn't have to get CIs at all, but I just don't think the Naida is going to be able to give her those high frequencies. We tested her again after putting them on and though she scored 40s in the low range there was a dramatic drop off in the high frequencies no where near the speech banana. They expect her "listening skills" to bring those scores up by at least 10db still, but even with a 10db increase she will still be severely deaf to high frequencies.
Click to expand...

Look up Adam's Momma, who was active here for a while. She stopped posting after her son was found not to be deaf after all when he was about three.
 
AshJagla said:
Yeah I was told the same thing about the speech banana, she would just be missing like 's, sh, f, p, t, k' kind of sounds, but if you think about it that must be very confusing too.

Bat could be bats, bath, back, batch, bass, etc.

That's why they are talking about just doing 1 implant to help her be able to hear and understand those sounds which are currently missing in her audiogram and make speech more intelligible to her. I will ask about sound recover though, no one has mentioned any of the controls or programs to the Naidas as they are loners and all the buttons are disabled to us. Definitely sounds worth looking into :D
Click to expand...

On the other hand, that is the case that HOH kids have been dealing with for centuries. ...And yes.....it's good that she's getting low frequency benefit....and the CI will give her some more sound!
 
NaidaUP said:
Not sure why people want to keep their natural hearing after cochlear implant surgery as the whole point if getting a CI is the natural hearing is rubbish so you would never use it again. I personally wouldn't worry about keeping her natural hearing as she would only be hearing thru the CI.

There is another person on this site with the same hearing aids and a severe to profound loss and has around the 80% to 90% speech scores. This shows that her Naidas work well for her.

I'm profoundly deaf and have 4% and 64% speech scores. The brain is a very strange organ and works in very different ways. I personally wouldn't rush into 2 CIs as she could cope very well with her Naidas.
Click to expand...

You mean the concern about preserving residual hearing? Yeah me too......If you've got enough residual hearing to "hear", you should opt for hearing aids.....CIs should be for when you maxed out HAs.
 
Deafdyke - I get confused as to if you are saying she should or should not get a CI because she has residual hearing lol. I do understand that she's not and will not be the only one without access to those higher frequencies, but if she is legally deaf and qualifies for a CI and a CI would make learning speech easier on her, I think the best thing I could do for her is to get them. Without HAs on she hears nothing, zilch minus maybe a jet engine. With her hearing aids on she hears bits and pieces, but is unable to grasp the bigger picture on the sounds alone. I don't mind learning ASL for her and I will continue to learn and teach her ASL no matter how well she can hear with a device, because she is Deaf and nothing is going to change that. My concern here was that hearing completely differently out of two ears would be confusing and hard to understand, but clearly I was mistaken. It makes sense now that she would hear "normally" with the HA in one ear while gaining access to the high frequencies with her CI on the other :)

Bottesini - I highly doubt that's the case with our little girl. She has never passed a hearing test (several nb screenings), got a no response across the board on her sedated ABR, and a 75-100db loss unaided in a behavioral test. If it turns out she wasn't deaf before she most certainly might be after wearing these hearing aids all day long on max volume :x That just makes me worry
 
Maybe he is saying to make sure she can't hear those high frequencies by making sure you have tried every setting on the software.

If I can access the high frequencies with sound recover and and a deep profound loss and another lady with a severe to profound loss can access the high frequencies with sound recover then you need to make sure that the hearing aids won't work.

If she is 75db to 100db then the sound recover should allow her to access those high frequencies. She would still have volume room in those Naidas. Those Naidas go upto 120db.

To get a CI you have to be 70db or worse and be shown to have zero benefit or very little to get a CI.
 
Hearing thru a CI is not anywhere near like natural hearing they say, they say it sounds like a robot.
 
NaidaUP said:
Hearing thru a CI is not anywhere near like natural hearing they say, they say it sounds like a robot.
Click to expand...

that's not the case for everyone. Some hear normally right off the bat as soon as their CI has been activated, for others it sounds funny like robots/electronic, donald duck/daffy duck (or mickey mouse or a chipmunk) like, etc; but it gets better over time and starts sounding more "normal". It's going to be a different experience for everyone; they're going to have different results at activation, and different hearing experiences as they learn to hear and make sense of sounds with the CI.
 
Back
Top