Introduction

[sarahphee]

Hi there, I'm happy I found this forum and look forward to meeting people. My name is Sarah. I was one of the first CI hybrid guinea pigs in 2004. I made a documentary about it and had my entire surgery filmed and it was pretty cool to watch it afterwards. I've been toying with the idea of making a speed version of the surgery in it's entirety for others that want to see it but I haven't been able to find a camera or deck that will play back my mini DV tapes.  At the time of my first CI I had a high tone hearing loss, and had gone through life reading lips. I then received a full CI ten years later in 2014 after I lost the rest of my hearing in my late twenties for some unknown reason. I live in Canada and work as a professional writer and communications specialist. I am also a certified journal therapy facilitator and lead an awesome journaling course: www.spoutcommunications.com.

Looking forward to meeting people.

 

[Kylie]

Hi @sarahphee

Welcome! How do you find your hearing more, 6 years in?

I would watch your documentary if it was available! What is a hybrid CI?

I myself have a single side implant, and am hearing on my other side. I am 20 months post surgery at this stage.

 

[Mary Beth]

Welcome @sarahphee!

Has your acoustic hearing remained stable since your surgery?

[sarahphee]

17 hours ago, Kylie said:

Hi @sarahphee

Welcome! How do you find your hearing more, 6 years in?

I would watch your documentary if it was available! What is a hybrid CI?

I myself have a single side implant, and am hearing on my other side. I am 20 months post surgery at this stage.

 

Hi Kylie, Initially when I got my hybrid CI - my speech perception went from 24% to 80%. I lost some of the low tones ten years ago (6 years after my hybrid implant) and got the full CI on my unimplanted ear. I just upgraded today and they tested me -- my speech recognition with my hybrid is now only 3%! Not worth wearing at all. With the full CI processor it's 77%. So we're now considering whether I should remove the hybrid and put the full implant in my hybrid ear. I'm uncertain right now whether I need two if I'm already getting 77% word recognition. I would be interested to hear from others who had similar results if a second one helped them or not. I never realized until today how big of a blow losing the rest of my hearing all those years ago was.

[sarahphee]

10 hours ago, Mary Beth said:

Welcome @sarahphee!

Has your acoustic hearing remained stable since your surgery?

Hi there, there was very minimal loss after surgery. They were very happy. However, about 4 years after surgery I began to gradually lose my low tone hearing. It was in both ears, including my non implanted ear, which means it wasn't related to the surgery. It was really heartbreaking for me as my hearing had remained stable after my childhood loss and no one could tell me why I was suddenly losing all of my hearing. However, the full cochlear implant brings my speech recognition up to 77% and that's a pretty good result. Considering whether I should remove the hybrid and get a second full CI. I'm not sure.

[Mary Beth]

@sarahphee

Remove the hybrid because the electrode array is shorter?  Was it a flex24?

I have a shorter electrode array on my right side (medium array which is also 24 mm) and I hear great with it.  

[Watersail]

Are you talking about replacing the Sonnet EAS with a regular Sonnet? There is not a need to do that since the audiologist can simply turn off the acoustic part and all sound will go through the electrode. That's what the audiologist did with mine since it wasn't loud enough after surgery.

[Mary Beth]

@Watersail

right and just switch out the EAS ear hook (with a green band) to a completely closed ear hook so no moisture gets inside the processor 

[sarahphee]

2 hours ago, Watersail said:

Are you talking about replacing the Sonnet EAS with a regular Sonnet? There is not a need to do that since the audiologist can simply turn off the acoustic part and all sound will go through the electrode. That's what the audiologist did with mine since it wasn't loud enough after surgery.

No, with the hybrid cochlear implant they only put the electrodes into your ears to target the high tones so they'd have to go in and take it and out and put a full electrode coil in. I wish it was as easy as it was for you! Lucky duck.

[sarahphee]

5 hours ago, sarahphee said:

Hi Kylie, Initially when I got my hybrid CI - my speech perception went from 24% to 80%. I lost some of the low tones ten years ago (6 years after my hybrid implant) and got the full CI on my unimplanted ear. I just upgraded today and they tested me -- my speech recognition with my hybrid is now only 3%! Not worth wearing at all. With the full CI processor it's 77%. So we're now considering whether I should remove the hybrid and put the full implant in my hybrid ear. I'm uncertain right now whether I need two if I'm already getting 77% word recognition. I would be interested to hear from others who had similar results if a second one helped them or not. I never realized until today how big of a blow losing the rest of my hearing all those years ago was.

I also wanted to mention that at 20months I was still adapting to sound, but that was around the time it started to sound "normal" to me. I hope you're adapting well to the change. There's a long learning curve with these devices.