Re: Questions --just learning

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 3/12/2004 12:55:04 PM Pacific Standard Time,

mich237230@... writes:

Anyone

who is profound deaf at birth has no problem with the implants? I

was born deaf and learned how to use my voice until I entered a deaf

school at 11 yrs old. You know, everything went downhill... Today I

still rely on signing language and I couldn't read lip very well. I

haven't stopped wearing my hearing aids since day one.

Hi and welcome to the group!

I was born profoundly deaf too and was recently implanted (Dec 2003). I have

no problem with my implant, in fact, it improved my life!

I worn my hearing aid for 43 years, from age 3 until I took it off in

operating room (except for bed or bath). I started to learn to sign when I was

at

Gallaudet and found it to be helpful for me as it became my " ears " and have used

interpreter " as my ear " for past 25 years. My two children use signs as they

talk.

I am assuming you grew up having speech therapy until you were 11 y.o. when

you moved to deaf school, that is a plus! Having basic speech

knowledge/understanding is a helpful tool as we learn to hear.

Even though I was a strong lip reader (with hearing aid on), I found

lipreading as I hear became alot easier to do once implanted. Without sounds,

don't

count on me to understand what I read.

I can see you can be helped, first your prior speech use in your younger

years, and use of hearing aid as you do have some, not alot but some audio

memory

to boot.

Through work and chronic use of speech processor, I believe any pre-lingual

profound deaf can do it. At first, there were many many speech sounds that I

never heard of in my life. I still struggles with some sounds, mistaking S for

Z or T for K and few others, but we hope to resolve it at next programming in

April. Main thing, I am hearing those sounds, something I never heard in my

life. In fact, when I was turned on,, I was THROWN off hearing all the S and

thought my implant was a failure! After 2 or 3 minutes of wondering, not

knowing,, my audiologist finally realized that I was hearing the S and didn't

know

so he signed " S " to me and repeat it orally and it comforted me, knowing that

I wasn't crazy.

Today, a bit over 2 months since I was activated, I understands about 30% of

what was being said without lipreading, I tend to understand " common saying "

such as " Good morning " , " would you want more coffee? " or " have a good day " , but

I still struggle with hard conversation but in time, what I hear will

improve. Listening to radio, I would catch a word here or there, but not as a

whole

yet. Same true with TV, thank goodness for CC still.

My voice control had drastically dropped, a friend of my recently teased me

that it was like I lost my voice, went from loud speaker to a whisper talker.

She hasn't heard me talking loud since I was activated. I think it has to do

with the fact that I was hearing with hearing aid at around 65dB only in low

pitches (250-750) and now I do hear at about 30dB across the chart (250 to

8,000). So naturally what I hear now seems loud to me. As far as speech, I

cannot say anything for my speech was already good to begin with.

Overall, with improved hearing, my self esteem have skyrocket,, family and

friends are telling me that I look alot happier, perk in my face.

Please, any time you have question, ask the group, for there are several of

us in here who is pre-lingual deaf.

Again, welcome and I am glad you found us,

Lee

12-12-03 N24C

01-08-04 3G

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone, I'm new in this group.

I'm very interested in getting a cochlear implant one day. Anyone

who is profound deaf at birth has no problem with the implants? I

was born deaf and learned how to use my voice until I entered a deaf

school at 11 yrs old. You know, everything went downhill... Today I

still rely on signing language and I couldn't read lip very well. I

haven't stopped wearing my hearing aids since day one.

Anyone with this similar background as mine, I'd be very interested

in your success story!

Mucho appreciated.

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Welcome to ! I do not have the same hearing history as you as I am

late deafened. My hearing started to deteriorate from age 12 and continued

until I was implanted three and a half years ago at 39. I wear the Nucleus

implant and if you have any questions about it or what it is like to use it and

wear it, then feel free to ask away! I also have a journal of all my

experiences

from surgery to the present if you (or anyone else) would like to read it.

[Guest guest]

> Hi ,

> Welcome to ! I do not have the same hearing history as

you as I am

> late deafened. My hearing started to deteriorate from age 12 and

continued

> until I was implanted three and a half years ago at 39. I wear

the Nucleus

> implant and if you have any questions about it or what it is like

to use it and

> wear it, then feel free to ask away! I also have a journal of all

my experiences

> from surgery to the present if you (or anyone else) would like to

read it.

>

>

Hi , I'd be interested in reading your CI journal. Thanks!