Newly SSD, seeking CI

[Mkgilmour]

Hello, everyone! My story is similar to many who are SSD. I awoke one morning and couldn't hear anything out of my left ear. I was found to be profoundly deaf with 0% word recognition on the left side. Over the next few weeks, I received oral and intratympanic steroids with no improvement. I received CROS hearing aids which do help a bit but I still have only 9.8% word recognition on the left side. I was found to be an excellent CI candidate and have a surgery date of August 24. I chose to receive a MED-EL Sonnet 2.

 

However, my insurance has deemed my CI not medically necessary because I have normal right sided hearing. This preposterous argument will hopefully be effectively refuted in the peer-to-peer conversation set to happen soon between my ENT and the silly physician who works for my insurance company who will be appointed to argue the ridiculous assertion that we don't need two ears. Imagine telling a patient that they can't have surgery on their left eye because their right eye works fine. Or that they don't need a prosthetic leg because their other leg is intact. I am probably preaching to the choir here, but there is copious evidence that points to the importance of binaural hearing for sound quality, sound localization, and word recognition, as well as background noise filtration. All of these things will hopefully improve once I get my CI.

I have faith that my Heavenly Father will help me through this trial, and that modern science will restore most of my left sided hearing function. Great to meet all of you! 

[Mary Beth]

@Mkgilmour

I hope the insurance review goes well. Keep us posted.

Which CI center are you going to?  I go to NYEE in NYC.

[Mkgilmour]

I'm going to KU in Kansas City. I'll let you know how it goes when I hear back from my ENT!