Is it worth it?

[Lbarbar]

Dear All,

My name is Linda Barbar …..

I have a profound hearing loss in both ears, and I have used hearing aids for more than 25 years ……. last week I was told that I am a candidate for cochlear implant … at first I was very happy …

But after talking to people who had implant and reading many posts on the net …. I am scared now….

From what I understood it’s a long journey …. not an easy one …. my doctor told me it’s a one way surgery …. So I can’t get back to my hearing aid …. what if I wasn’t comfortable with the implant and the new sound?

Through my 25 years of using hearing aids, every time I was going to change my aids for a new and more advanced one, I was told that I will feel a huge improvement in my hearing and that I will be able to understand speech much better….etc …. But actually I never felt a big difference …. So what if the same happened here?

Also I have read here that people are still finding it hard to deal with crowded places …. And this is my biggest problem with my aids ……

I have talked a lot, but I guess my question is:

Is cochlear implant worth it? Is the result worth the long journey?

Thank you

[Kara of Canada]

Welcomes of Hearperrs!! We all have the same feeling as you at some point. My ah ha moments was when I decided I had nothing to lose. I was going to lose my hearing anyway. So I dove right in! It is a personal thing for sure you have to want it and be ready. For me it has changed my life!! I only have one and have only been activated for 3 months. Hearing with a CI is much different than a HA. a hearing aid as you know only amplifies sound. Mailing noisy environments even more noisy. But the CI has so many abilities that it can be programmed to make these noisy environments less noisy. I found this true. I also want to be bilateral!! The others are more experienced with them then me but I love it! It has changed my life!! Please keep us posted and we would love to hear more from you!!

[Mary Beth]

Welcome Lbarbar,

I have so much better hearing with my CI than I ever did with HAs. You may want to look at your aided audiogram to see how loud sounds have to be for you to detect them with your HAs as well as what your speech discrimination percent is when words are presented at 50dB (typical conversational level). Then compare to what you are reading in CI research for average performance with CIs.

Getting CIs was the best decision ever for me. I do function well in noisy places with my CIs but not everyone does.

Mary Beth

[Ivana Marinac]

Hello LBarbar,

 

I am not the CI recipient, but I just stopped by to say hello to you and wish you a warm welcome to the Hearpeers forum. 

 

Regarding your question about hearing in noisy environments - this is called "cocktail party" effect; implantees with 2 CIs can better discriminate conversation.

If you are looking for - HOW is it after the implantation it is really hard to get a real description unless you are not that person strictly because the outcome of each implantation depends on individual person: how much efforts were invested in the (re)habilitation? Elementary, it is not much different than going to the gym - muscles needs you.

[Sandy]

Hi LBarbar and welcome to Hearpeers. Getting a CI was the best decision I have ever made. And it is a very personal one for you to make. It is a lot of work and you definitely have to follow the 3Ps - Practice Patience and Perseverance! Ask whatever ever questions you want. One (or all) of us will do our best to answer them. It took me awhile, but now I've learned how to filter out the noisy environment and marvel that most of the world isn't deaf! Good luck and please keep us informed of your decision.

[Cara Mia]

Hi Linda,

 

I am a novice here, got implanted 12 days ago and activated 4 days ago.

I noticed the problem with my hearing more than 30 years ago. At the moment of my CI surgery, my right ear (now implanted) was completely useless for at least 10 years.  I have a profound hearing loss in my good ear. I was approved for bilateral implantation but decided to start with my completely deaf ear.  I am very surprise to find out that after surgery I can communicate with people much easily just several days after it. Currently, I don't use my HA since my activation. My audiologist advised me not to use it to help my new ear work harder. I could not imagine how it is possible. But when I did it, I found that my profoundly impared ear can perform much better. I do feel relieved during my work time now (and I communicate with people a lot).

 

And one more thing about a lot of work after surgery - I think it is good to spend a little bit more time for ourselves than we used to do. We have deserved that By the way, there is a lot of fun activities for rehabilitation - again our choice, our creativity, our result.

 

And it seems to me we have not so much options - do nothing and hear nothing. Get CI and get a very real opportunity to extend our abilities in our sounding and hearing world.

 

Good luck in finding the right decision for you. Wish you the best with all my heart!

[Adam]

Good morning and welcome to hearpeers

Getting a CI is a very personal and important decision. You have to be 100% confident in your choice to move forward. It is a lot of work as your brain is relearning how to hear. That being said, I have talked to and read MANY recipients views after implantation and after a few months with it, not one said they regretted their decision. Me included. For me, I would do it again in a second.

It does take some getting used to to speak to people in noisy situations. Even hearing people have trouble sometimes. This will get easier over time. Some people progress faster than others.

If you aren't 100% sure, ask more questions and do more research. With Medel, you also have the best chance in preserving some residual hearing. Hope this helps and we look forward to as many questions as you can think of

Adam

[Ms_D]

Welcome!  I have to tell you, ever since 2006, my ENT doctor every year encouraged me to consider the implant.  He always told me that he believe I would be a candidate for me.  I had my doubts about it, and always told him that I was not interested - that is, until 2014.  You see, I was born deaf in my right ear (hereditary - it goes back at least four generations), and I started noticing hearing lost in my left ear when I was about 12 (I hid it from everybody for 3 years).  I've been wearing a hearing aid in my left ear (which has no more than 10% of hearing left in it - my doctor said I am losing my hearing just because I have bad genes) since I was 15.  Over the years, I had more and more trouble with hearing.  I put myself through college - had to depend on a notetaker, then...years later, when I returned to finish my degree, a captioner - even though it was difficult to understand some classmates/professors.  I even returned to school a couple of years after I had completed my undergraduate degree to obtain two technical college certificates.  My reason: to increase my chance of landing a career - not a job, but a career.  Whenever potential companies became interested in me (going so far as to e-mail me requesting an interview), they would typically do one of two things: if they had wanted me to call to set up an interview day/time...or call for an over the phone interview (which just is not a good form of communication for me - and I also believe it directly discriminate against hard-of-hearing/deaf individuals), I would e-mail them to let them know that I am hearing impaired and have trouble on the phone and they would quickly stop wanting an interview (I had to demand interviews before because of this very thing), or they would tell me I have the education but not the experience.  By the fall of 2014, I was so fed up with this - I had two certificates plus an undergraduate degree and I could not land a career (of course I was, and still am, thankful I have a job) - I was tired of being discriminated against.  What's more...I wanted to be able to hear better...I wanted folks to stop talking to me like I am "stupid" (believe me, folks would end up asking the person whom I was with questions that they should be asking me), and just wanted to be able to hear better.  In August 2014, I went to my ENT dr's office because of pain in the ear.  I wasn't able to see my usual doctor, but the doctor I did see said the same thing my usual doctor said.  I told him "You know what; at this point, I am willing to look into it.  I want to hear better."  So, my dr's office set me up an appointment with a dr's office that have implant specialists.  Thus started my journey.  I went for consultation the first week of October 2014, had all the tests done that month, and on January 7, 2015 I had my surgery.  Activation Day was February 12, 2015.  I was implanted in my deaf ear.

 

Yes, it is a journey - a rewarding journey.  I hear better out of my implanted ear than my hearing aid assisted ear.  Yes, you have to be committed to the journey (as a matter of fact, before my dr's office would send off the paper work to the insurance company to get them to approve of the surgery, I had to write a letter for them to include in the documents that stated that I understood the surgery, that I would have to attend follow up mapping sessions, and that I accepted it and am committed to it).  Everyone of us hit "mile markers" at different time/stages.

 

You asked if it's worth it; my answer I give you is a resounding "Yes"!  This is my personal belief.  The implant has been a blessing to me.  I am working on trying to get my other ear implanted hopefully this year, if not this year, hopefully next.  I am that confident in the implant.  I believe if I have the implant on both sides, how well I hear will even be better than what I have ever been able to hear before!  While I still don't have a career yet, I believe the time is coming. :-)  I am even doing better hearing on the phone.  As far as my hearing aid goes, after more than 15 years wearing hearing aids, I now very seldom wear it.  

 

I'm just posting a bit about my own personal experience.  Sorry, I know it is rather long, but it's my Cochlear Implant testimony.  :-)

[Cara Mia]

Donna, that is a great CI testimony. I read it with delight. It is good when people share their "no-trouble-at- all" experience about CI journey as it is very inspiring to jump into the same boat. But all stories, that tells about how challenging our CI choices and journey can be, are even more valuable. It helps to develop the reasonable expectations and understand a lot of challenging moments that we can face on our way to success.

I wish you all the best in your career starting and hope your Ci journey will be even more rewarding for you.

[Sandy]

Donna, this is a great testimony and will be an inspiration to those considering getting a CI.

[Mary Beth]

Thanks for sharing Donna

[Ivana Marinac]

As a person from the other side regarding CIs, Donna - this is beautiful testimony of courage and your individual determination as the confidence to invest to your future.

I love it... 

[Adam]

Thanks for sharing Donna!

[Mary Beth]

Linda,

Do you have any questions we may be able to answer?

[Ms_D]

Thanks everyone. :-)

[Kara of Canada]

Donna your story is amazing. I am so happy for you. I much agree with you as well. I have had such a good experience with my implant I would. Recommend it to anyone who is a candidate and is willing to do the hard work it takes to get there.

[Ms_D]

Thanks Kara.  I actually had someone request to be my friend on fb (she is a friend of a friend) who (according to our mutual friend who knows her well) is wanting to following my implant journey.  If I can recall right, the lady is considering getting the implant herself.  She have not yet asked me any questions, but I accepted her friend's request so that she can follow all posts that I make about my journey. :-)  

 

Man, if I had this kind of connection over the years, I may have looked into getting the implant before last year. :-)

[Kara of Canada]

Yeah that's neat I haven't yet had people ask me about it in that manner except to ask me if it's working yet?!