CI's.....are they that much better??

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Chalgravesteve

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Hi All....

Now I know that I need proper expert advice on this subject, but I also know that there is no better way of getting information than from the horses mouth.....

I have 2 x HA phonak Micropower V's

I have been "hard of hearing" since birth, but it is steadily getting worse....

I am told that my hearing loss is caused by nerve damage...but actually, this forum has made me think I don't actually know enough about why my hearing doesn't work as well as everyone elses....is it the hairs in the inner ear that dont send the signals to the hearing nerve...or is the actual nerve damaged??I don't actually know so I need to find out!!! Sad that its taken me 46 years to realise this!!

So I was browsing hearing stuff yesterday and was looking at Cochlear implants.... now the concept of not using a HA to blast greater sound through a damaged ear so that some of it makes it through against bypassing the damaged bit and sending sounds to the bits that do work properly is something that makes logical sense.... so now I am intrigued and am keen to get some feedback (no pun intended!!) (oh what the hell...go on...laugh :lol:...it wasn't bad actually!!) on whether CI's for a hard of hearing person is a good or bad thing.

I am fortunate....despite my hearing loss, I have been through schools with no problem, had a decent eductaion, had decent jobs, got my own business, etc etc. I can have proper conversations with mates in groups as well as one to ones, but I do rely on lipreading a lot.....but I get by pretty well.....so a surgical implant is quite a major step (yes I know that I need to investigate more and not just leap into this!) and like most people I am worried that I might go through all this and not be any better, or might even be worse off...

I have read through a couple of the blogs....silent sail...awesome!!!

so any thoughts, comments, would be appreciated.

Ta

Steve
 
Chalgravesteve said:
I am told that my hearing loss is caused by nerve damage...but actually, this forum has made me think I don't actually know enough about why my hearing doesn't work as well as everyone elses....is it the hairs in the inner ear that dont send the signals to the hearing nerve...or is the actual nerve damaged??I don't actually know so I need to find out!!! Sad that its taken me 46 years to realise this!!
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MOST of the time it's the nerve hair cells in the cochlea that's damaged. If you can hear through the hearing aid, it's NOT the actual nerve that sends the signal to the brain. So, majority of the people are deaf because the hair cells are gone. If you HAD nerve damage, you would not HEAR absolutely at all, AND may have balance issues because your ears are responsible for balance as well.

So I was browsing hearing stuff yesterday and was looking at Cochlear implants.... now the concept of not using a HA to blast greater sound through a damaged ear so that some of it makes it through against bypassing the damaged bit and sending sounds to the bits that do work properly is something that makes logical sense.... so now I am intrigued and am keen to get some feedback (no pun intended!!) (oh what the hell...go on...laugh :lol:...it wasn't bad actually!!) on whether CI's for a hard of hearing person is a good or bad thing.
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Have you been to a CI audiologist? If so...GO see one first to make sure you qualify. I, for one, have been "labeled" hard of hearing since birth. (I still say I am deaf, but many deaf people feel the obligation to label me as HoH).

So, All I can say is "Why didn't I get this before?!" It's amazing how many sounds I was missing when I *thought* I was hearing. I basically did not have any ability to hear the high frequencies such as Shh, z sounds, crickets, etc, and the clarity. The CI helped that. Hearing aids only amplifies sound. CI sends electrical impulses and simulates the actual nerve ending of where the hair is missing. Think of it as simulating the hair roots if the hair is not there, then the hearing nerve gather the signals and send it to the brain. Hearing aids relies on how much residual hearing you have left. If you have nothing, then you won't be able to hear at all through the hearing aids.

Someone may tell you to try the more powerful hearing aids. That's why you should go see your audiologist or CI audiologist to see if NONE of the hearing aids is helpful.

Research research research. :)
Wish you best of luck on your journey.
 
LadySekhmet said:
If you HAD nerve damage, you would not HEAR absolutely at all, AND may have balance issues because your ears are responsible for balance as well.
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Hmmm. I always thought the spinal meningitis damaged my nerves, and I wear a HA. I do have balance issues. Fun.

I don't have a CI (waiting for insurance approval) yet, but the deciding factor was knowing that the HA gives back only 5 decibels, lowering my hearing loss from 90 decibels to a whopping 85. A CI should bring my hearing loss down to a conservative 50, but I am hoping it will be closer to 30.
 
LadySekhmet said:
MOST of the time it's the nerve hair cells in the cochlea that's damaged. If you can hear through the hearing aid, it's NOT the actual nerve that sends the signal to the brain. So, majority of the people are deaf because the hair cells are gone. If you HAD nerve damage, you would not HEAR absolutely at all, AND may have balance issues because your ears are responsible for balance too.
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I am pretty sure you are wrong about the absolutely no hearing from nerve damage.

My illness in January damaged the auditory nerve, dropped my left ear from 70db loss to 95db loss, but I am benefiting from a more powerful digital aid set.

The balance issue is true though.
 
Bottesini said:
I am pretty sure you are wrong about the absolutely no hearing from nerve damage.

My illness in January damaged the auditory nerve, dropped my left ear from 70db loss to 95db loss, but I am benefiting from a more powerful digital aid set.

The balance issue is true though.
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Correct, Bott. It depends on the damage done, the extent, and the etiology of the damage. Senorineural losses cover the same range as any other loss.
 
I apologize for a bit of confusion because of the word "nerve".

What I mean is, if you have absolutely NO hair cells, CI may benefit because it simulates the nerve endings of the hair cells to the auditory nerve.

If the auditory nerve is completely damaged, then CI will NOT benefit because it relies on a healthy auditory nerve.

Here's a picture to show.
cochlea_innerear_750.jpg


BTW - If you have damaged bones, and missing hair cells, then CI will benefit because the array bypasses the bone. It goes directly in the cochlea - in the "windows" area.
 
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Almyra said:
Hmmm. I always thought the spinal meningitis damaged my nerves, and I wear a HA. I do have balance issues. Fun.

I don't have a CI (waiting for insurance approval) yet, but the deciding factor was knowing that the HA gives back only 5 decibels, lowering my hearing loss from 90 decibels to a whopping 85. A CI should bring my hearing loss down to a conservative 50, but I am hoping it will be closer to 30.
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Again, see my post above, majority of the deaf people are deaf because of lack of "hair cells" in the cochlea. I'm not familiar with Spinal meningitis, and what problem it actually cause in the ear. I'm assuming that it's not the auditory nerve because I see a lot of CIers have spinal meningitis, and you need to have a fuctional auditory nerve for it to work.

Where are you getting your stats? My HA gave me from 40db then sloping downwards. I have a hearing loss of 105 in left, 96 in right. Now, with CI, I hear everything 10 to 20 db line across the board.

Is it because of the meningitis? Just curious.
 
Thanks for the comments.....clearly my auditory nerve suffers damage when I have a few beers....my balance seems to go after a while.....my hearing does as well...but I don't care so much!!!:shock::lol:

This will be the start of a period of research for me...trying to find out the effect that others have had, trying to get a referral myself to see a CI audio...and I will see where this goes.
 
With apologies to the OP for the hijack:

LadySekhmet, I figured your clarification post was in response to both mine & Bottesini's posts. You asked where I got my stats.

The CI audiologist during the evaluation gave me the conservative 50 decibels. I told her that was not reflective of what I have read in others' blogs, but that is what she said. I would guess that 50 would be reached without doing any kind of audio therapy.
 
Almyra said:
With apologies to the OP for the hijack:

LadySekhmet, I figured your clarification post was in response to both mine & Bottesini's posts. You asked where I got my stats.

The CI audiologist during the evaluation gave me the conservative 50 decibels. I told her that was not reflective of what I have read in others' blogs, but that is what she said. I would guess that 50 would be reached without doing any kind of audio therapy.
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No worries, there's post hijacking here all the time anyways. :giggle:

yeah, I meant your Stats because I though it seem to be awfully conservative, but yeah, that's a smart thing for your audiologist to say that because they don't want to give too much of a high hope or high expectations and then the person get so disappointed.
 
LadySekhmet said:
Where are you getting your stats? My HA gave me from 40db then sloping downwards. I have a hearing loss of 105 in left, 96 in right. Now, with CI, I hear everything 10 to 20 db line across the board.
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That's incredible! Is that typical of a CI or do results vary greatly for everyone? My hearing loss is practical identical to yours - about 105 and 100. If I knew that results could be that good for me that would be a major push in my thinking about getting one.
 
AlleyCat said:
That's incredible! Is that typical of a CI or do results vary greatly for everyone? My hearing loss is practical identical to yours - about 105 and 100. If I knew that results could be that good for me that would be a major push in my thinking about getting one.
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Actually no. There has been a few though. My audiologist had to test me twice for that, she could not believe it. However, after 6 months of activation, it has gone down to between 20 and 25 across the board. That's much better....my ears were getting too sensitive to high frequencies, and higher sounds...so, while it may sound incredible, it's not all cut out to be. LOL!

Also, never compare yourself to others. Everyone reacts differently. THere are some people that have better HINT scores than I do, even though I am bilateral, and better "hearing" than they do.

So...it's all depends on individuals. Which is why audiologist say things conservative like "You'll get to 50 db with CI". Sorry, but IMHO, that's a load of crap. I think it all depends on how much you were able to hear before, auditory memory plays a big role, etc. I would say the MAJORITY of the CI users can hear between 20 and 40db line. Am I right?? Anyone has worse than 50db?
 
Thanks OP for the comment on my blog.. :)

ladyskehmet has cool blog too.

For others, with my deafness and CI, I am 110 db deaf in left and 95 in right, CI implanted in the right ear. HA in left. I had hearing test with HA alone, and CI alone, My HA is like 100 db then dipped to n/r after 500hz, with CI it's 70db across the audiogram AND that was only 2 weeks after the switch on!! No doubt it will go up next time I am tested. :) And I NEVER EVER had 70db all my life!!!!
 
AlleyCat said:
That's incredible! Is that typical of a CI or do results vary greatly for everyone? ...If I knew that results could be that good for me that would be a major push in my thinking about getting one.
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That was exactly what convinced me. The studies I have read indicate that hearing loss consistently come down to 15-20 decibels. Like LadySekhmet (I really need to memorize the spelling "Sekhmet" What is that?) said, people vary in HINT scores. HINT score is more important, but it is dependent on being able to hear. One statement I read stood out - it used to be unusual for a CI person to use the phone. Now it is unusual for a CI person to NOT use the phone. I suspect this statement will not stand for long as more and more early deafened adults embrace CI & struggle with (or dismiss) auditory training. It can be hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

On a side note, the local deaf school is seeing a flux of CI kids in junior high & high school Some have no voice control, no language, (they did not engage in auditory training or interact with their parents) while others are fluent in speaking English. The CI can only go so far, and it does not make one hearing in group environment. Hence the need for them to switch to a deaf school to have full access to a visual language. The problem for them (and students, staff) is that they do not know ASL. It wrecks the teacher's ease to teach in a visual language (that is, SEE/ASL or what have you) in a mixed classroom. Mind you, this is my observation. I don't know if this is true nation-wide.
 
Better than what? Hearing aids?

If your asking is it much better than hearing aids then my answer to that question is yes for me it is way much better than hearing aids. But that is my experience and everyone is different so what may work for me may not work for others. I had 110 and 115 db loss in both ears and with hearing aids it would go to about 75 to 80 db loss then when I got implanted in one ear it went to 30 db loss so that a big change 110 to 30 db for myself.

Remember not everyone is the same and I am sure there been some people who been implanted that it didn't help at all or make no improvement at all. I haven't yet to meet that person but I have heard "stories" on failed implants. And I was even warned by my doctor that implant may or can failed and not work for me at all before I came to a desicsion of getting implanted.

.
 
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Thanks, everyone, for your input. Except Nathan - it is a decision everyone makes for themselves (or parents for their children) but it is not an across-the-board feeling that no one should have a CI if they so choose. You CAN be yourself, whether with a hearing aid, a CI, or nothing at all. Anyway, I truly want a CI, but I'm still scared. I want to make a decision SOON because I'm enrolled to go back to school in January. But I can change that school start date if I need more time.
 
AlleyCat said:
Thanks, everyone, for your input. Except Nathan - it is a decision everyone makes for themselves (or parents for their children) but it is not an across-the-board feeling that no one should have a CI if they so choose. You CAN be yourself, whether with a hearing aid, a CI, or nothing at all. Anyway, I truly want a CI, but I'm still scared. I want to make a decision SOON because I'm enrolled to go back to school in January. But I can change that school start date if I need more time.
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Of course I understand, everyone is entitled with their own option. I am not saying you shouldn't. I just use my point of view in from my perspective. I'm just voicing my own option. But know this, it is very risky so good luck and I wish you the best in school. ;)

To answer your topic, yes CI is better than hearing aids.
 
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