Re: Hi: New Member Introduction

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 10/17/2004 11:48:45 PM Pacific Daylight Time,

snickwit@... writes:

what about those of

you that did not have previous hearing, always stable HOH for 30

years? What kind of results did you have in the speech/language

understanding test before and after the CI? Is there anyone out there

that could hear & enjoy music but not understand the words before CI?

(I can but I cannot distinguish the instruments but I do enjoy

listening to music - is it that much better with CI?)

Hi , I am one of those who had same loss all my life without any

decrease of hearing. When I was 46, I finally got my implant and LOVE IT! I

was

born with profound loss, raised as oral deaf (HOH to many). I have always

worn hearing aid up to the minute I took it off just before I was knocked out

in surgery. You are right, there are not many of us, who never had decrease

of hearing.

Now, it been 10 months since I was activated and I have came a long way.

Prior to my implant, I have always had zero or very little understanding of

speech without lipreading. However, my understanding of speech increase to

about 90% if I lipread with my hearing aid on. Being oral deaf, I grew up with

outstanding speech with strong English structure.

Since the implant, now I can understand about 35% of what was being said

without lipreading (test at 6 months). It may not seem much, but for someone

who had profound loss since birth, it is MUCH MORE than I dare to hope for.

Since my 6 months test, I can tell that I have improve some more but won't know

where I stand until I go in for my one year test in January. I can't wait

for it!

As for music, I was never fond of music, but heard it as .. " oh hummmm, what

this garbage " , now I can tell which instruments were being played (most of

the time). My favorite listening now is symphony and classical, as I am not

ready yet to " catch " lyric yet. Sometimes, I have accidently started singing

along if I knew the lyric without meaning to!

Now, everyone's " favorite " , the loudmouth is gone! Gone is the loud

talking! At first, I was whispering alot, thinking I was talking too loud, but

it

drove everyone crazy because they couldn't hear me! Gradually, I learned to

speak up more louder, even though it still sounds loud to me. At the same

time, my speech somehow became clearer. My friends had comment to me that I am

" tossing " in some sounds that I tended to omit in the past, such as " S " " G "

and others. Overall, the implant DO help with my speech quality and it did

not take much effort, it just happened.

Today, I am doing the " impossible " . With increased confidence, I am back in

college (dropped out 26 years ago), to study law, in hope to become a

paralegal. I am happier, making friends, those who were scared of me in the

past

are rapidly re-trusting me. There is no word to describe me, a friend

recently told me that I am like a butterfly, reborn to a new person, and I have

to

admit that I do agree with her. Speaking of studying law, I fear that I have

" gone too far " , today, with my back turned, TV was on, my daughter were

watching it,,, I heard it very clearly " read the contract " ,,, turned to ask my

daughter to confirm what I heard and I was right..... geeeeez

, the implant have changed the lives of many people. I know you will

be one of those success story. Keep in mind that everyone is different and

we all progress at our own rate. With your strong speech discrimination

(speech understanding test), you do stand a very good chance of being helped.

It

does not matter what others " think " of you about getting one or two

implants. I have only one, but do hope to get another soon (few years).

Good Luck!

Lee

[Guest guest]

Hi Welcome to CI Hear!!! You have come to the right place in your

journey for the CIs. And Congratulations on your insurance approval on getting

bilateral CIs. I have bilateral CIs and am very happy with them. I am hearing

wonderful with them at this point. I can get directionality (very important for

me in my job) and have surround sound. I got them sequentially which means that

I got them at a different times. There are some people here on this list who got

them both at the same time. I was born with severe to profound hearing loss due

maternal rubella and have worn hearing aids since the age of 3 and was first

implanted in 2002. I still receive auditory therapy at the pressent time. There

are three companies that you can look at : They are Medel at www.medel.com,

Cochlear at www.cochlear.com, Advanced Bionics at www.bionicears.com. Right now

Advanced Bionics has had their implants recalled due to some moisture problems

but they hope to have them resolved soon. Feel free to ask any questions here

and we will be glad to answer them.

Snoopy

[Guest guest]

Lee,

That is a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing. Gives me a lot of

hope, encouragement. It's funny that you think that other people

think you are HOH when you're really someone who is oral and deaf.

Wow about the speech discrimination and the improvement in speech

since your activation... amazingly in such a short time!

I'm so pleased that you're following your dreams of becoming a

paralegal after so many years out of college. Go for it, Lee!

Yeah, I either speak too loud, drop the ends of my words or some

sounds because I don't hear them with my HAs... and wear my HAs from

the second I wake up to the second that I lay my head down on my

pillow. Going to wear the hearing aid right to the last minute (bye

bye, R ImpaCt!) on Wednesday when I get implanted.

Chris

On Mon, 18 Oct 2004 04:16:00 EDT, spottedlee@... <spottedlee@...> wrote:

>

>

> In a message dated 10/17/2004 11:48:45 PM Pacific Daylight Time,

> snickwit@... writes:

>

> what about those of

> you that did not have previous hearing, always stable HOH for 30

> years? What kind of results did you have in the speech/language

> understanding test before and after the CI? Is there anyone out there

> that could hear & enjoy music but not understand the words before CI?

> (I can but I cannot distinguish the instruments but I do enjoy

> listening to music - is it that much better with CI?)

>

>

> Hi , I am one of those who had same loss all my life without any

> decrease of hearing. When I was 46, I finally got my implant and LOVE IT! I

was

> born with profound loss, raised as oral deaf (HOH to many). I have always

> worn hearing aid up to the minute I took it off just before I was knocked out

> in surgery. You are right, there are not many of us, who never had decrease

> of hearing.

>

> Now, it been 10 months since I was activated and I have came a long way.

> Prior to my implant, I have always had zero or very little understanding of

> speech without lipreading. However, my understanding of speech increase to

> about 90% if I lipread with my hearing aid on. Being oral deaf, I grew up

with

> outstanding speech with strong English structure.

>

> Since the implant, now I can understand about 35% of what was being said

> without lipreading (test at 6 months). It may not seem much, but for someone

> who had profound loss since birth, it is MUCH MORE than I dare to hope for.

> Since my 6 months test, I can tell that I have improve some more but won't

know

> where I stand until I go in for my one year test in January. I can't wait

> for it!

>

> As for music, I was never fond of music, but heard it as .. " oh hummmm, what

> this garbage " , now I can tell which instruments were being played (most of

> the time). My favorite listening now is symphony and classical, as I am not

> ready yet to " catch " lyric yet. Sometimes, I have accidently started singing

> along if I knew the lyric without meaning to!

>

> Now, everyone's " favorite " , the loudmouth is gone! Gone is the loud

> talking! At first, I was whispering alot, thinking I was talking too loud,

but it

> drove everyone crazy because they couldn't hear me! Gradually, I learned to

> speak up more louder, even though it still sounds loud to me. At the same

> time, my speech somehow became clearer. My friends had comment to me that I

am

> " tossing " in some sounds that I tended to omit in the past, such as " S " " G "

> and others. Overall, the implant DO help with my speech quality and it did

> not take much effort, it just happened.

>

> Today, I am doing the " impossible " . With increased confidence, I am back in

> college (dropped out 26 years ago), to study law, in hope to become a

> paralegal. I am happier, making friends, those who were scared of me in the

past

> are rapidly re-trusting me. There is no word to describe me, a friend

> recently told me that I am like a butterfly, reborn to a new person, and I

have to

> admit that I do agree with her. Speaking of studying law, I fear that I have

> " gone too far " , today, with my back turned, TV was on, my daughter were

> watching it,,, I heard it very clearly " read the contract " ,,, turned to ask

my

> daughter to confirm what I heard and I was right..... geeeeez

>

> , the implant have changed the lives of many people. I know you will

> be one of those success story. Keep in mind that everyone is different and

> we all progress at our own rate. With your strong speech discrimination

> (speech understanding test), you do stand a very good chance of being helped.

It

> does not matter what others " think " of you about getting one or two

> implants. I have only one, but do hope to get another soon (few years).

>

> Good Luck!

> Lee

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 10/18/2004 2:50:20 AM Pacific Daylight Time,

Lehfeldt@... writes:

Wow about the speech discrimination and the improvement in speech

since your activation... amazingly in such a short time!

I really think majority of credit went to 15 years of speech therapy when i

was growing up (age 3 to 18). With the CI, we hear more and using our

lipreading skill, you notice this and that and it just all fell in places.

According to my Audie, I had the " know how " but didn't/could'nt hear it to

bother

with it until now.

LOL.. I didn't " think " they think I was HOH,,, I know they thought I was

HOH, cuz my mom MADE ME tell people I was HOH. Even before I was implanted,

people still ask me " how long you been HOH " .. it was my speech that threw

people

off. My adult daughters tell me that my speach exceeded the skill normally

heard among the deaf population.

Good luck on your surgery,

Lee