RE: Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

[Guest guest]

To All,

I want to tell everyone about my wife's hook-up this afternoon. She

selected the Advanced Bionics Hi Res Auria device. I am sure the results would

have been the same for any brand she might have selected. The audiologist

hooked up a test device to make sure her implant was operating correctly. She

did some testing. She verified that her implant was functioning properly.

She hooked her up to the BTE and she could hear. She could hear. What more

could anyone ever hope for? If anyone could have seen the smile on her face

when

she heard her first sound in about 7 months, it would bring joy to you. I

hope that everyone has as successful an operation as she had (May 7, 2004) and

as successful a hook-up.

Yes, she said, " it sounds a little like a robot. " However, as she

uses the CI, her brain will recognize that sound as normal. The joy at hearing

again clears up any and all doubts I ever had from reading of others' negative

experiences. I feel bad for those who did not achieve success. I am grateful

for my wife's good fortune in having a successful hook-up.

Best wishes to those " on the way " or to anyone considering the CI as

an option. To me, its a miracle.

Sincerely,

Ron

[Guest guest]

Jerome,

My wife lost her hearing suddenly and very quickly, over a period of

2-3 months beginning in November 2003 or so. She never wore hearing aids

because she was evaluated by an audiologist who noted that her hearing was gone.

There was no remaining hearing to " aid. " Accordingly, the only alternative to

her was the Cochlear Implant.

I hope this answers your questions. Please feel free to ask for any

additional information if it will be of assistance to you in your search for

what is the best road for you to take.

Sincerely,

Ron

[Guest guest]

Thanks a lot! I saw stories of some of the members here and also pictures.

Regards/

Jerome

Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

Jerome,

this link should take you to some more implant stories and at the bottom,

several tell of the impact the ci has had on their lives.

I've not read every one of them and several from this list have their

stories there.

Check it out if you wish.

Have a great day,

Silly MI

http://www.cochlearamericas.com/Recipients/list_stories.asp

In , " Jerome Co Tan " <jt1@i...> wrote:

> hi there,

>

> i wonder if there's anywhere i can read about ci changes in one's

life.

> usually, it's ci moments here. i'm sure many peopla are also

interested with

> long term personality changes brought by ci, like being more

confident,

> happier, etc.

>

> regards/

> jerome

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I have some questions if you don't mind, your wife is post-lingual? Has she

worn any hearing aids before? If so how long?

Thanks.

Regards/

Jerome

Re: Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

To All,

I want to tell everyone about my wife's hook-up this afternoon. She

selected the Advanced Bionics Hi Res Auria device. I am sure the results

would have been the same for any brand she might have selected. The

audiologist hooked up a test device to make sure her implant was operating

correctly. She did some testing. She verified that her implant was

functioning properly.

She hooked her up to the BTE and she could hear. She could hear. What more

could anyone ever hope for? If anyone could have seen the smile on her face

when she heard her first sound in about 7 months, it would bring joy to you.

I hope that everyone has as successful an operation as she had (May 7, 2004)

and as successful a hook-up.

Yes, she said, " it sounds a little like a robot. " However, as she

uses the CI, her brain will recognize that sound as normal. The joy at

hearing again clears up any and all doubts I ever had from reading of

others' negative experiences. I feel bad for those who did not achieve

success. I am grateful for my wife's good fortune in having a successful

hook-up.

Best wishes to those " on the way " or to anyone considering the CI as

an option. To me, its a miracle.

Sincerely,

Ron

[Guest guest]

Hi Ron,

Thanks for the clarification. I had been counting people who have the

" robotic " sound effect. And I'm coming close to my own conclusion that

everyone who experience " robotic " sound effect are people who bypassed

hearing aids and went to implant right a way with a short period of

deafness.

Regards/

Jerome

Re: Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

Jerome,

My wife lost her hearing suddenly and very quickly, over a period of

2-3 months beginning in November 2003 or so. She never wore hearing aids

because she was evaluated by an audiologist who noted that her hearing was

gone.

There was no remaining hearing to " aid. " Accordingly, the only alternative

to her was the Cochlear Implant.

I hope this answers your questions. Please feel free to ask for any

additional information if it will be of assistance to you in your search for

what is the best road for you to take.

Sincerely,

Ron

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 06/11/2004 9:39:23 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

jt1@... writes:

> . I had been counting people who have the

> " robotic " sound effect

Yesterday at the ENT office we were discussing the CI for my daughter. The

ENT says he would not implant her because she still has good functional

hearing. He also said the implant does not sound normal. This must have been

what

he was talking about.

a

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 06/11/2004 10:21:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

jt1@... writes:

> Maybe, " natural sound " just means sounds that the person get used to?

>

>

She just turned 5 yo and it would be nice if she could tell me what she hears

and how it sounds. Then I would have a better idea as to whether I

should go forward with the implant or not.....

a

[Guest guest]

Jerome-- dont jump to that conclusion about the robotic sound based on people's

hearing aid history. I worn hearing aids from the age of 3 until I was implanted

with the first CI in 2002 and I got donald duck sounds and darthvader sounds. It

only lasted a short time until the brain got used to hearing what it was hearing

and mapping sessions helped. BTW I am a preling. I really dont think that

hearing history matters as most people do hear robotic sound upon activation of

the CI.

Snoopy

bilateral CIer

[Guest guest]

Hmmm... I don't know, because it's very hard to know what's natural sound, I

for one grew up with hearing loss, I have no idea what's natural sound, I

didn't know that people are hearing high frequency sound until I was fitted

with custom/programmable hearing aid.

Maybe, " natural sound " just means sounds that the person get used to?

Regards/

Jerome

Re: Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

In a message dated 06/11/2004 9:39:23 AM Eastern Daylight Time,

jt1@... writes:

> . I had been counting people who have the " robotic " sound effect

Yesterday at the ENT office we were discussing the CI for my daughter. The

ENT says he would not implant her because she still has good functional

hearing. He also said the implant does not sound normal. This must have

been what he was talking about.

a

[Guest guest]

Jerome,

You surmised, " And I'm coming close to my own conclusion that

everyone who experience " robotic " sound effect are people who bypassed

hearing aids and went to implant right a way with a short period of

deafness. "

Not true.

*---* *---* *---* *---* *---*

" Time's fun when you're having flies. "

--Kermit the Frog

& Gimlet (Guide Dawggie)

Portland, Oregon

N24C 3G 8/2000 Hookup

rlclark77@...

http://home.comcast.net/~rlclark77/

[Guest guest]

Jerome,

Believe me, once one is activated and has good maps, natural sound

is just that. Our perceptions of what sounds natural is relative.

Most of us I am certain will say that its irrelelevant when one woudl

be otherwise deaf.

*---* *---* *---* *---* *---*

Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

& Gimlet (Guide Dawggie)

Portland, Oregon

N24C 3G 8/2000 Hookup

rlclark77@...

http://home.comcast.net/~rlclark77/

[Guest guest]

Hmmm. Yeah. I agree with you. Very much like... Hmmm... Put your hand in

cold water, then touch a room temperature water and you will feel the water

is very hot for a short while, or maybe, put your hand in hot water, and

touch a room temperature water and feel that the water is very cold for a

short while. Very much like, people with high frequency loss are very

deprived of high frequency sound, when implanted with CI for the first time,

will be shocked with high frequency sound for short period, thus Duck

effect. Then become normal as time goes. Yeah, it's hard to predict them

since mapping has the biggest influence.

Regards/

Jerome

Re: Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

Jerome,

Believe me, once one is activated and has good maps, natural sound is

just that. Our perceptions of what sounds natural is relative.

Most of us I am certain will say that its irrelelevant when one woudl be

otherwise deaf.

*---* *---* *---* *---* *---*

Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

& Gimlet (Guide Dawggie)

Portland, Oregon

N24C 3G 8/2000 Hookup

rlclark77@...

http://home.comcast.net/~rlclark77/

[Guest guest]

Almost like ... if you don't know what you are missing how do you know your

missing it ;-)))

-- Re: Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

Jerome,

Believe me, once one is activated and has good maps, natural sound

is just that. Our perceptions of what sounds natural is relative.

Most of us I am certain will say that its irrelelevant when one woudl

be otherwise deaf.

*---* *---* *---* *---* *---*

Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

& Gimlet (Guide Dawggie)

Portland, Oregon

N24C 3G 8/2000 Hookup

rlclark77@...

http://home.comcast.net/~rlclark77/

[Guest guest]

,

This is exactly what the CI audi told me today when I asked about voices

sounding robotic with a CI. She said after I'm implanted I may think that

voices sound robotic while another person implanted the same day may feel

otherwise.

Re: Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

Jerome,

Believe me, once one is activated and has good maps, natural sound

is just that. Our perceptions of what sounds natural is relative.

Most of us I am certain will say that its irrelelevant when one woudl

be otherwise deaf.

*---* *---* *---* *---* *---*

Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

& Gimlet (Guide Dawggie)

Portland, Oregon

N24C 3G 8/2000 Hookup

rlclark77@...

http://home.comcast.net/~rlclark77/

[Guest guest]

Hmm... Any idea about maximum *potential* of cochlear implants? How close

could we get close to normal hearing?

Regards/

Jerome

Re: Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

Jerome,

Believe me, once one is activated and has good maps, natural sound is

just that. Our perceptions of what sounds natural is relative.

Most of us I am certain will say that its irrelelevant when one woudl be

otherwise deaf.

*---* *---* *---* *---* *---*

Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.

& Gimlet (Guide Dawggie)

Portland, Oregon

N24C 3G 8/2000 Hookup

rlclark77@...

http://home.comcast.net/~rlclark77/

[Guest guest]

Jerome,

" Any idea about maximum *potential* of cochlear implants? "

You have control over that somewhat. If many of us can enjoy

music, it cannot get much better than that.

*---* *---* *---* *---* *---*

We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can

spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man

has ever made.

-- M. Acklam

& Gimlet (Guide Dawggie)

Portland, Oregon

N24C 3G 8/2000 Hookup

rlclark77@...

http://home.comcast.net/~rlclark77/

[Guest guest]

While there is no guarantee of anything regarding performance with a CI,

certainly one can work at achieving as many skills as possible. You can

practice

on the phone and listening to other types of synthetic voice, practice at the

movies, hering in the dark, hearing in noise, etc. I can pretty much hear

everything that a normal hearing person does including hearing in noise.

However, I also use whatever is available to me such as autosensitivity,

Whisper,

t-coil at times, lowering or raising the wheel, lipreading....

N24C

2000

In a message dated 6/11/2004 5:23:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,

jt1@... writes:

How close

could we get close to normal hearing?

[Guest guest]

Do you mean that if you practice enough... You will reach the level of

normal hearing? Apparently not... That's what I wanted to know,

realistically, how far can we go? Though, I'm very sure that guys with CI

can go much much farther than people with hearing aids.

Things like size of sound window, number of channels, stimulation rates, do

have a factor in reaching the theoretical limits. For example, if the sound

window is 10db, when a voice fluctuates exceeding that range, you will not

be able to hear it... It's a physical limit of the processor, so no matter

how hard you try, you just won't be able to hear it. I wonder if there's any

others beside this.

Regards/

Jerome

Re: Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

Jerome,

" Any idea about maximum *potential* of cochlear implants? "

You have control over that somewhat. If many of us can enjoy music, it

cannot get much better than that.

*---* *---* *---* *---* *---*

We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare.

And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever made.

-- M. Acklam

& Gimlet (Guide Dawggie)

Portland, Oregon

N24C 3G 8/2000 Hookup

rlclark77@...

http://home.comcast.net/~rlclark77/

[Guest guest]

Once again, there is no guarantee no matter how much you practice.

Realistically, one cannot say how far anyone will go until they get there. But

certainly, practice will help each person to acheive their maximum potential.

What

more could you ask for??

In a message dated 6/12/2004 9:12:25 AM Eastern Standard Time,

jt1@... writes:

Do you mean that if you practice enough... You will reach the level of

normal hearing? Apparently not... That's what I wanted to know,

realistically, how far can we go? Though, I'm very sure that guys with CI

can go much much farther than people with hearing aids.

[Guest guest]

Jerome,

Time is another factor in improved hearing with CI. My adjustment to the CI

and recognizing sounds and understanding voices was painfully slow for me,

but over time it has improved and slowly I continue to notice other sounds I

did not before. Two days ago I recognized the sound of my dog guide paws on

the carpeted hallway of the building I live in. My CI was implanted in 2000.

Re: Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

>

> Jerome,

> " Any idea about maximum *potential* of cochlear implants? "

>

> You have control over that somewhat. If many of us can enjoy music,

it

> cannot get much better than that.

>

> *---* *---* *---* *---* *---*

> We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare.

> And in return, dogs give us their all. It's the best deal man has ever

made.

> -- M. Acklam

> & Gimlet (Guide Dawggie)

> Portland, Oregon

> N24C 3G 8/2000 Hookup

> rlclark77@...

> http://home.comcast.net/~rlclark77/

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Jerome,

Realistically, its up to youi how far you want to go.

Realistically, there are limits, but knowing that, there is no

stopping you form going as far as you can. As far as the window goes,

hey, you know, once you are mapped, dont worry about it, you just go

out there and live your life. Dont think in technical terms, that is

not how we live. If you need to make changes, you go back for another

mapping. Theoretically, we can do better than hearing people in

_some_ situations because we can tweak our CI's.

*---* *---* *---* *---* *---*

Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

& Gimlet (Guide Dawggie)

Portland, Oregon

N24C 3G 8/2000 Hookup

rlclark77@...

http://home.comcast.net/~rlclark77/

[Guest guest]

Hmm curious, can you tell synthetic voice and real voice apart?

Regards/

Jerome

Re: Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

While there is no guarantee of anything regarding performance with a CI,

certainly one can work at achieving as many skills as possible. You can

practice on the phone and listening to other types of synthetic voice,

practice at the movies, hering in the dark, hearing in noise, etc. I can

pretty much hear everything that a normal hearing person does including

hearing in noise.

However, I also use whatever is available to me such as autosensitivity,

Whisper, t-coil at times, lowering or raising the wheel, lipreading....

N24C

2000

In a message dated 6/11/2004 5:23:24 PM Eastern Standard Time,

jt1@... writes:

How close

could we get close to normal hearing?

[Guest guest]

Jerome,

How many times can we answer these questions? LOL Its been said

1,000 times, CI hearing is not like normal unaided hearing, never will

be. But. At some point what we hear will sound normal to us. We get

used to it. We even enjoy music. What mroe can be said on this

topic?

And by the way, how are the BTE trials going?

*---* *---* *---* *---* *---*

Only left-handed people are in their right minds.

--Anonymous

& Gimlet (Guide Dawggie)

Portland, Oregon

N24C 3G 8/2000 Hookup

rlclark77@...

http://home.comcast.net/~rlclark77/

[Guest guest]

real voice comes right from the person and synthetic voice is transmitted via

tv, radio, microphone, etc

In a message dated 6/12/2004 8:12:52 PM Eastern Standard Time,

jt1@... writes:

Hmm curious, can you tell synthetic voice and real voice apart?

[Guest guest]

Still waiting. Will update you once I have it.

Yeah I know it's not same as normal unaided, I'm curious if you can tell

apart normal voice that goes to your CI and synthetic voice that goes to

your CI. I hope you do understand my question.

Regards/

Jerome

Re: Re: collection of long term ci results (personal)

Jerome,

How many times can we answer these questions? LOL Its been said 1,000

times, CI hearing is not like normal unaided hearing, never will be. But.

At some point what we hear will sound normal to us. We get used to it. We

even enjoy music. What mroe can be said on this topic?

And by the way, how are the BTE trials going?

*---* *---* *---* *---* *---*

Only left-handed people are in their right minds.

--Anonymous

& Gimlet (Guide Dawggie)

Portland, Oregon

N24C 3G 8/2000 Hookup

rlclark77@...

http://home.comcast.net/~rlclark77/