Can Hard of hearing people get a CI?

NaidaUP said:
Here in the UK they implant the better ear and altho I have a profound loss and can already get implanted, I chosen not too as my speech scores are 4% left (left 120db going upto 110db from 1000htz) and 64% right (120db going to 95db at 1000htz)

I can actaully understand a lot on my right with my Naidas. Can even hear people call me but wouldn't be able to have a conversation with facing people.

As my right speech scores are so good, the CI won't really change anything as with a CI I will properly have roughly the same speech scores.
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64% is amazing! I can understand not wanting to loose the useful hearing you have. For me, I am 40% in both ears at over 100dB (and that is before my last major drop in hearing).
At my most recent hearing test 2 weeks ago my left ear did a bit better than my right, but I swear that I can't understand speech or noise in my left ear.
The audiologist said it is my "better" ear based on having a pure tone average of 102dB vs 105dB in my right ear.

The 64% is probably not amazing in real life. It is amazing on paper given your hearing loss but I doubt it translates to much in real life.
It is too bad that the NHS doesn't implant the better ear for profoundly deaf people. Espicaly people with progressive hearing losses. That way you still might have some memory of hearing. But pure tone averages don't say anything about ability to use the hearing.

Good luck to you.
 
ecp said:
64% is amazing! I can understand not wanting to loose the useful hearing you have. For me, I am 40% in both ears at over 100dB (and that is before my last major drop in hearing).
At my most recent hearing test 2 weeks ago my left ear did a bit better than my right, but I swear that I can't understand speech or noise in my left ear.
The audiologist said it is my "better" ear based on having a pure tone average of 102dB vs 105dB in my right ear.

The 64% is probably not amazing in real life. It is amazing on paper given your hearing loss but I doubt it translates to much in real life.
It is too bad that the NHS doesn't implant the worse ear for profoundly deaf people. Espicaly people with progressive hearing losses. That way you still might have some memory of hearing. But pure tone averages don't say anything about ability to use the hearing.

Good luck to you.
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I find that very odd. See I want to get my left, my "bad" ear implanted. But I figure I can still work, hear, mostly depending on my hearing aid in my right at least until I get used to the implant. I'd be afraid I'd be up a creek for a while if they implanted my "good" ear.
 
ambrosia said:
I find that very odd. See I want to get my left, my "bad" ear implanted. But I figure I can still work, hear, mostly depending on my hearing aid in my right at least until I get used to the implant. I'd be afraid I'd be up a creek for a while if they implanted my "good" ear.
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If I am approved for a cochlear implant I think I'd want to get both at the same time.

OMG, some people on alldeaf would hate me but I'd be better able to keep up with my medical school peers.

For me, my right ear is objectively worse by 3dB but I really can't understand much with it. If I could only get one ear implanted at a time, I'd get my right ear implanted even though the tests say it is my "better" ear. I'm much more used to relying on my left ear.
My fiancé made a good point about simultaneous cochlear implants- I'd be completely deaf for 2 or 3 weeks (and as he pointed out, we are getting married this summer) so I don't have time to be totally deaf for a few weeks. (He can sign pretty well)
 
deafdyke said:
Nadia,
so even thou you have very poor speech comprehension scores on your left, it still adds a bit to the total comprehension? That's pretty much why I think that while it's awesome that people who have extremely poor response to sound/speech with hearing aids have an option, that it shouldn't always be assumed that CI is better then hearing aids for severe/profound people, or that bilateral CI is better then one CI and a hearing aid.....
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Yep it helps me loads to wear my left as well even tho the Audi says it only helps a little, I feel like it helps loads.
 
deafdyke said:
Nadia,
so even thou you have very poor speech comprehension scores on your left, it still adds a bit to the total comprehension? That's pretty much why I think that while it's awesome that people who have extremely poor response to sound/speech with hearing aids have an option, that it shouldn't always be assumed that CI is better then hearing aids for severe/profound people, or that bilateral CI is better then one CI and a hearing aid.....
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ambrosia said:
I find that very odd. See I want to get my left, my "bad" ear implanted. But I figure I can still work, hear, mostly depending on my hearing aid in my right at least until I get used to the implant. I'd be afraid I'd be up a creek for a while if they implanted my "good" ear.
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UK feels like the CI will work better if they implant the better ear. I've got friends who have been implanted in adulthood, which means they can't get 1 CIs in the UK and have the same hearing loss so they were allowed to choose which ear they want their CI on.

Someone who I work with, auntie has just remortgaged her house to get more money so she can have two CIs instead of one.
 
ecp said:
64% is amazing! I can understand not wanting to loose the useful hearing you have. For me, I am 40% in both ears at over 100dB (and that is before my last major drop in hearing).
At my most recent hearing test 2 weeks ago my left ear did a bit better than my right, but I swear that I can't understand speech or noise in my left ear.
The audiologist said it is my "better" ear based on having a pure tone average of 102dB vs 105dB in my right ear.

The 64% is probably not amazing in real life. It is amazing on paper given your hearing loss but I doubt it translates to much in real life.
It is too bad that the NHS doesn't implant the better ear for profoundly deaf people. Espicaly people with progressive hearing losses. That way you still might have some memory of hearing. But pure tone averages don't say anything about ability to use the hearing.

Good luck to you.
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Think mine is 115db for both ears.

It's one of this questions, what is a good speech score? I personally think for anyone who is severe to profound and can get more then 50% to 60% then they are coping well with hearing aids. Altho the real answer would be how are they in noise?! HAs are not real hearing so won't ever be perfect. That's how I see it. I'm grateful for my right side being so good at picking things up :)
 
NaidaUP said:
Here in the UK they implant the better ear and altho I have a profound loss and can already get implanted, I chosen not too as my speech scores are 4% left (left 120db going upto 110db from 1000htz) and 64% right (120db going to 95db at 1000htz)

I can actaully understand a lot on my right with my Naidas. Can even hear people call me but wouldn't be able to have a conversation with facing people.

As my right speech scores are so good, the CI won't really change anything as with a CI I will properly have roughly the same speech scores.
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This is why. You start at 120db at 250hz, but then improves right? Does it stay at 95db through most of the frequencies up to at least 4K?

See my right ear, my "good" one starts at 90 but by 500 drops to 100, by 1000 it's at 110, bops around between 105 and 110 through all frequencis til 6.5k and then goes up to 100. The left starts at 100 but imediately drops to 110 and stays there all the way through to 6.5K and goes back up to 100. there's no speach past 4K though I don't think. So it sounds like your hearing is actually better where the speech sounds are.
 
ambrosia said:
This is why. You start at 120db at 250hz, but then improves right? Does it stay at 95db through most of the frequencies up to at least 4K?

See my right ear, my "good" one starts at 90 but by 500 drops to 100, by 1000 it's at 110, bops around between 105 and 110 through all frequencis til 6.5k and then goes up to 100. The left starts at 100 but imediately drops to 110 and stays there all the way through to 6.5K and goes back up to 100. there's no speach past 4K though I don't think. So it sounds like your hearing is actually better where the speech sounds are.
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Think you are right about the speech sounds being better. I've been trying to work out where the speech sounds are on the htz but I don't understand it.

After 250htz, the rest is flat at 95db until the end of the audiogram, 8000htz.

My left is 120db upto 250htz then it's 110db for the rest so that properly why my left ear isn't so good :)
 
Think you are right about speech not being past 4000htz as the Naida UPs only go up to 4,900htz as they concentrate on the speech areas.
 
ecp said:
Once you get to 95-100dB in the low frequencies what actual residual hearing do you have? Waiting until there is no residual hearing seems strange to me. Maybe, for adults who have a good language base, wait until the useable hearing is minimal.

For me, a change in residual hearing from 105 to 110 dB won't harm me. Or in another way, the benefits I would receive from potentially being able to hear at 15dB (the ideal for CI) or even 30-40dB far outweighs the loss of 5, 10, or even 20 dB of my "residual" hearing.
Right now my unaided detection of sound starts at 85dB in low frequencies and quickly drops off to above 120dB by 2,000Hz. There isn't much useable.
Even with aids that have 85dB of gain I am not hearing sounds of speech. A CI addresses the issues of distortion and recruitment.

The audiologists say that my speech discrimination is "good" with a 40% at 100dB and that is with me guessing at the words because no audi will believe that I know the words on their easy-ass balanced syllabic list. (Baseball, airplane, hotdog...)
I keep asking them to use a harder test since I have a strong auditory background (progressive hearing loss) but they look at my pure tone average and assume I can't "guess" or "infer" the words.
If they used an appropriately difficult test it would be much more informative. If they tested me with nonsense words, I doubt I'd get 20% correct.



Sorry for the rant.
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I've asked the same thing ...to get a different set of words but my audi says I have to be tested with those words because that is the "standard test" I can guess them too since I've had umpteen amounts of audiograms. I guess to which is an automatic thing ..and I know I shouldn't really guess as it doesn't really help show what my actual scores are.
 
Lau2046 said:
I wouldn't do it with severe to profound loss...it'd have to be when my hearing aids are useless that I would even consider it...even then, I prefer to stick to the hearing aids....

Laura
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There is a very long line of individuals before you who thought exactly the same way who wound up getting implanted and realized they wasted a lot of time nourishing their ignorance and fear. It is truly your loss if you have any value in hearing and you hold on to what, compared to a CI, is useless hearing.

It really is tragic how much ignorance there is regarding implants: how they work and how they sound. There's a good reason why so many of us on the other side can sit here and laugh or just shake our heads in sympathy. We understand the thought process... but it is 2012. It's mind-boggling how CI's are still some kind of secret to this day or that so many fail to recognize the advances and leaps that have been made since the 90's.
 
lovezebras said:
I've asked the same thing ...to get a different set of words but my audi says I have to be tested with those words because that is the "standard test" I can guess them too since I've had umpteen amounts of audiograms. I guess to which is an automatic thing ..and I know I shouldn't really guess as it doesn't really help show what my actual scores are.
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Several of you have touched on this. At the world renowned House Ear Institute, they do not encourage you to guess. I would encourage those going for evaluation to ignore any advice from the audiologist on guessing at words. Simply repeat back EXACTLY what you hear... even if it's not a word. You want to give the audiologist feedback on what you actually hear.

Yes, we get quite good at guessing and speech-reading to compensate. Guessing doesn't give measured results of what you actually hear... it just measures how well you cope. I had decent scores paired with my hearing aid as well by using all of the same methods the rest of you do. It was a hell of a lot of work!

Those same tests with my CI are ridiculously easy and pretty much effortless. There are no pauses to stop and consider the possible words that may match what I just heard.. just rapid call and response.
 
Yeah, I didn't guess, i just repeated what I heard at the evaluation. If the word was 'hot dog' and I only heard 'ot og' I'd say ot og instead of hot dog. There was one sentence that I really screwed up on, I could've swore I heard 'principal punch' and I can't even remember the original sentence, but my audie got a bit of a laugh out of that.
 
ambrosia said:
This is why. You start at 120db at 250hz, but then improves right? Does it stay at 95db through most of the frequencies up to at least 4K?

See my right ear, my "good" one starts at 90 but by 500 drops to 100, by 1000 it's at 110, bops around between 105 and 110 through all frequencis til 6.5k and then goes up to 100. The left starts at 100 but imediately drops to 110 and stays there all the way through to 6.5K and goes back up to 100. there's no speach past 4K though I don't think. So it sounds like your hearing is actually better where the speech sounds are.
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She is correct. You have actual useable hearing in your better ear NadiaUP. My hearing is like ambrosia's. it starts at 85 (l) and 95 (r) at 250hz and drops off to no response by 2khz. So the only things I can hear are very loud deep sounds. No real speech sounds.
 
cdmeggers said:
Yeah, I didn't guess, i just repeated what I heard at the evaluation. If the word was 'hot dog' and I only heard 'ot og' I'd say ot og instead of hot dog. There was one sentence that I really screwed up on, I could've swore I heard 'principal punch' and I can't even remember the original sentence, but my audie got a bit of a laugh out of that.
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the last time I went in for my speech tests, I kept laughing at the new intern at my audis office... because I was sure that he kept saying a bad word... any time the word ended in "ck" or "it"... I knew it was useless when the first test word made me laugh... it was duck...
 
ambrosia said:
agree, with all of that. I've never been given a speech discrimination score on the test where they do the baseball airplane hotdog etc....
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OMG - does everyone get those words? :eek2: I never really know how I do on those tests because I've memorized everything......

Laura
 
Lau2046 said:
OMG - does everyone get those words? :eek2: I never really know how I do on those tests because I've memorized everything......

Laura
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yep, and I've had hearing tests with different audiologists in two different states, always baseball airplane ice cream and hotdog. Is there more? Or do they just keep doing those words over and over and over.
 
ambrosia said:
yep, and I've had hearing tests with different audiologists in two different states, always baseball airplane ice cream and hotdog. Is there more? Or do they just keep doing those words over and over and over.
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Makes these test results invalid, heh?
 
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