Re: delayed again... / severe to profound implantees?

[Guest guest]

What's the reason for delay?

Well, in my case, I'm in borderline.... My hearing loss is severe to

profound.

Here it is, in this order (frequency / right ear / left ear)

250 / 55 / 60

500 / 80 / 75

1000 / 95 / 105

2000 / 75 / 95

4000 / 120 / NR

8000 / NR / NR

I wonder if any severe to profound implantees in this forum who have similar

audiogram as I do.

And another disadvantage that I have during the evaluation is I wear CIC

hearing aid so they recommend me to go for BTE first before proceeding. I

don't know if this means I need to buy a BTE first. The reason why I

hesitate hearing aids is because my MCL (maximum comfort level) is low. But

the new ENT (also an audiologist) said it can be tuned out, so I will be

giving it a try. However, it will be on May 17... Lose me a lot of time.

Regards/

Jerome

Re: delayed again...

Jerome,

Patience is the key... difficult to be patient but no other

alternative...it will all work out in its own time.. My wife waited very

patiently for her surgery...originally scheduled for April 16th...Then, when

we went for pre-op testing, a quirk showed up which delayed the surgery. It

turned out the quirck was a false result...so she lost her surgery date and

for no (valid) reason. However, as I write this e-mail, I am waiting for

her to get ready...seems I am always doing that....her surgery was squeezed

in today...and we will be on our way to the hospital shortly.

So, hang in there. It will all happen for you. From your posts, I

know you are researching this far more thoroughly than I was capable of

doing.

I guess I just have a lot of faith in our doctors...hopefully, a justifiable

faith.

Well, good luck. I will let you know how we made out today.

Sincerely,

Ron

[Guest guest]

your hearing is worse than mine was and i got my implant over three years ago.

15 dB @ 250Hz

45 dB @ 500 Hz

85 dB @ 750 Hz

100+ db @ 1000 Hz and higher.

[Guest guest]

Now I'm surprised how you got your implant!

Your hearing is fairly good that you will do very well even without hearing

aid when talking with people who have deep voice. The 500 hertz you had is

enough.

Prior to the implant, what hearing aid do you wear?

Can you share to us your experience comparing your hearing aid the last time

you used it and also after using the implant? And how close would you

consider yourself as compare to normal hearing like being able to talk on

phone, being able to listen to radio, understand the whisper, etc...

Back to my case, the ENT doctor (audiologist too) believed that the

technology available now for BTE is good enough to help severe-to-profound

so he insist that I should try the BTE first, specifically Siemens Triano. I

have some doubts on his competence though, because when I asked him what's

the minimum decibel a cochlear implantee can hear, he said it's 40db to 55db

and I disagreed telling him it's somewhere 25 to 35. I didn't argue much,

will be trying the Siemens Triano to keep everything going.

Thanks!

Regards/

Jerome

Re: delayed again... / severe to profound implantees?

your hearing is worse than mine was and i got my implant over three years

ago.

15 dB @ 250Hz

45 dB @ 500 Hz

85 dB @ 750 Hz

100+ db @ 1000 Hz and higher.

[Guest guest]

Jerome,

Are you wearing super power hearing aids? BTE aids may be able to provide

you with more power. Generally (but not always) CICs aren't recommended for

people with severe to profound hearing loss.

[Guest guest]

I'm not an audiologist but based on the audiogram provided, I don't

think he'd be able to function without hearing aids. Even if he could hear

low frequencies without HAs, he still would need HAs to compensate for the

higher frequencies/consonants he's missing in the speech range.

[Guest guest]

I'm wearing CIC now, that's why all people I meet suggest me to go to BTE

first. Knowing my own situation/hearing loss, I know BTE is not going to

help much. If my hearing loss is conductive in nature, BTE would be able to

help me, but it's sensorineural... Either it hurts or I can't hear it

well...

With sensorineural hearing loss, your MCL remains the same even when your

hearing loss is big, but in conductive hearing loss, your MCL increases same

as your hearing loss, so having more powerful BTE will not hurt you.

Even with my current CIC, I'm having problem with sounds, I find them too

loud and not comfortable and yet I can't hear well quiet sounds.

Regards/

Jerome

Re: delayed again... / severe to profound implantees?

Jerome,

Are you wearing super power hearing aids? BTE aids may be able to provide

you with more power. Generally (but not always) CICs aren't recommended for

people with severe to profound hearing loss.

[Guest guest]

I agree with you... But he would need to lipread, and also, it's impossible

to understand TV and radio with that hearing loss.

Regards/

Jerome

Re: delayed again... / severe to profound implantees?

I'm not an audiologist but based on the audiogram provided, I don't

think he'd be able to function without hearing aids. Even if he could hear

low frequencies without HAs, he still would need HAs to compensate for the

higher frequencies/consonants he's missing in the speech range.

[Guest guest]

Jerome,

I completely understand. That's how my hearing loss works too. The only

difference is that I've always worn BTE super power aids since age 15.

[Guest guest]

Jerome,

Believe me, I'm all too familiar with the difficulties imposed by not being

able to lipread. In my own case, I'm forced to use my poor hearing in many

situations without the help of an interpreter or captionist. In regards to

the qualifications for a CI, there still may be hope Jerome. I know a few

people who were considered " borderline " candidates and still were implanted.

[Guest guest]

what is CIC?? a hearing aid??

[Guest guest]

Joni:

Yes, CIC one type of hearing aid. It stands for " completely in the canal "

hearing aid. If I remember correctly, CIC hearing aids are relatively small

and fit inside the ear canal. (Am I right about that, anyone?)

Jerome:

Given their size, do your CIC hearing aids have a T-coil?

[Guest guest]

,

You're correct, and CIC's can't have a Telecoil or DAI.

____________________________________________

Best Regards,

Brad Ingrao, M.S.Ed. CCC-A, FAAA

Editor

EDEN - The Electronic Deaf Education Network

www.bradingrao.com

e-mail: info@...

Re: delayed again... / severe to profound implantees?

Joni:

Yes, CIC one type of hearing aid. It stands for " completely in the

canal "

hearing aid. If I remember correctly, CIC hearing aids are relatively

small and fit inside the ear canal. (Am I right about that, anyone?)

Jerome:

Given their size, do your CIC hearing aids have a T-coil?

[Guest guest]

Completely in the canal.

Regards/

Jerome

Re: delayed again... / severe to profound implantees?

what is CIC?? a hearing aid??

[Guest guest]

Jerome,

Now that your loss is severe to profound, do you have difficulty hearing on

the phone and in background noise (I assume the latter is true -- as it is

for most people with hearing loss), etc? The reason I ask is because I was

diagnosed with a severe hearing loss at age 24. I couldn't use the phone or

hear in background noise but my ability to understand speech was much better

than it is now. With my left ear, I can no longer understand speech but with

my right ear, I still can even though that requires a little extra effort on

my part.

[Guest guest]

In my left ear, I cannot talk on phone. In my right ear, I can talk only

*if*

1. speaker is male (if female, the voice should not be high, I have 75db

loss on my right ear 2000 hertz, so it helps a bit, so far the only female

person I can talk to phone is my mother, but even with her it's getting

difficult, need to repeat, need to clarify, need to bring up first one main

word)

2. voice is deep

3. I know the person and have lipread him many times

4. I know the topic being discussed

Without those cues, I cannot talk on phone, I can hear but cannot

understand. That's for my right ear. Left ear is not usable and have

hyperacusis, it has lower MCL compare to right, and yet left ear has bigger

loss.

My conversation on phone never last more than 1 minute. I find a way to end

it as soon as possible as it gets draining and tiring.

It cost me more mental concentration energy to understand a sentence than to

solve a complex algebra problem. It's more tiring to follow a conversation

than to make an equation to solve a physics problem.

Regards/

Jerome

Re: delayed again... / severe to profound implantees?

Jerome,

Now that your loss is severe to profound, do you have difficulty hearing on

the phone and in background noise (I assume the latter is true -- as it is

for most people with hearing loss), etc? The reason I ask is because I was

diagnosed with a severe hearing loss at age 24. I couldn't use the phone or

hear in background noise but my ability to understand speech was much better

than it is now. With my left ear, I can no longer understand speech but with

my right ear, I still can even though that requires a little extra effort on

my part.

[Guest guest]

Jerome,

Wow, does everything you describe sound all familiar! Thanks for your reply!