Hi Everyone,
My mother is scheduled to have her implant on August 22nd and we are still not sure which ear to implant. Audiologists and doctors are not giving us definitive answers, and in many cases, completely different answers. I would really appreciate any suggestions you may have.
My mom has been wearing hearing aids in both ears for 6 – 7 years now. In March 2012, she had an arthroscopic knee surgery, which was unsuccessful (due to arthritis) and exasperated her knee situation significantly. To make things worse, immediately after the surgery, her hearing loss became considerably worse. She could not use the phone or understand speech anymore, and we had to get her much stronger hearings aids. But still, her right ear became completely useless and her left year (which still to this day has about 34% word recognition) now had a severe case of tinnitus and as a result, she lost clarity in that ear.
To make the long story short, and to get to my question, we are not sure which ear to implant. As I said, she cannot hear in her right ear anymore, which makes us want to implant that ear to preserve her natural hearing in the left ear. However, if the right ear is implanted, then tinnitus might not go away in the left side of her brain. And if the left ear is implanted, she’d lose her natural hearing in that ear, and we’re told, tinnitus would almost certainly go away (at least while wearing the implant).
I have taken mom to a couple of implant centers for evaluation. We were told different things at each place. One doctor made the case for implanting the worse ear. He said implanting it would preserve her natural hearing in the good ear, but might still get rid of the tinnitus in the good ear. Also, God forbid her surgery is not successful, well, at least she didn't implant the good ear. Another doctor said implanting the good ear will almost certainly alleviate the tinnitus in that side of the brain. Additionally, he warned that trying to preserve the natural hearing in the good ear might not be worth it, as many CI recipients discontinue use of hearing aid in the other ear after surgery.
Sorry for the long post. If you have any suggestions or advice, I would really appreciate hearing from you.
Thank you,
Sami
My mother is scheduled to have her implant on August 22nd and we are still not sure which ear to implant. Audiologists and doctors are not giving us definitive answers, and in many cases, completely different answers. I would really appreciate any suggestions you may have.
My mom has been wearing hearing aids in both ears for 6 – 7 years now. In March 2012, she had an arthroscopic knee surgery, which was unsuccessful (due to arthritis) and exasperated her knee situation significantly. To make things worse, immediately after the surgery, her hearing loss became considerably worse. She could not use the phone or understand speech anymore, and we had to get her much stronger hearings aids. But still, her right ear became completely useless and her left year (which still to this day has about 34% word recognition) now had a severe case of tinnitus and as a result, she lost clarity in that ear.
To make the long story short, and to get to my question, we are not sure which ear to implant. As I said, she cannot hear in her right ear anymore, which makes us want to implant that ear to preserve her natural hearing in the left ear. However, if the right ear is implanted, then tinnitus might not go away in the left side of her brain. And if the left ear is implanted, she’d lose her natural hearing in that ear, and we’re told, tinnitus would almost certainly go away (at least while wearing the implant).
I have taken mom to a couple of implant centers for evaluation. We were told different things at each place. One doctor made the case for implanting the worse ear. He said implanting it would preserve her natural hearing in the good ear, but might still get rid of the tinnitus in the good ear. Also, God forbid her surgery is not successful, well, at least she didn't implant the good ear. Another doctor said implanting the good ear will almost certainly alleviate the tinnitus in that side of the brain. Additionally, he warned that trying to preserve the natural hearing in the good ear might not be worth it, as many CI recipients discontinue use of hearing aid in the other ear after surgery.
Sorry for the long post. If you have any suggestions or advice, I would really appreciate hearing from you.
Thank you,
Sami