Re: CI and HA

[Guest guest]

My daughter and I each wear a hearing aid in our unimplanted ears along with

our cochlear implant processor. Despite her ultimately severe to profound

hearing loss and my profound hearing loss we both had been great hearing aid

users as our hearing got progressively worse. What worked for us was to wear

only the cochlear implant processor for 4 weeks so that we could get used to

the new sounds from the processor and be able to accurately report to our CI

audiologist for mappings. After exactly 4 weeks, we wore both the processor

and the hearing aid continuously. My informal research showed that the

longer you leave your hearing aid out, the harder it would be to have your

two ears assimiliate the two different sounds/sides. I have seen this many

times so if you think you want to try wearing both, don't leave your hearing

aid out for 6 months it will probably be too long of a period.

After the initial 4 weeks without it, I had to force myself to continue

wearing my hearing aid for two solid weeks until my ears adjusted and the

new binaural sounds became " normal " sounding. I almost gave up but I'm so

glad I didn't. My daughter, who was only 6 at the time, didn't have any

trouble adjusting to wearing both after a 4 week break from her hearing aid.

I'm so glad we chose to wear both, we test better with both than when we

have just the cochlear implant processor on. We also function well in noisy

places, restaurants, etc. because we are able to hear from both sides.

I hope my perspective is helpful. Like Alice says, just because it worked

for us, doesn't mean it is right for everyone.

a

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a Rosenthal, Publisher and Speaker

HearingExchange

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[Guest guest]

a,

Thank you so much for your input on this issue. This is exactly what I was

trying to say. My experience was likewise as I wore my hearing aid with the CI

until the hearing was gone in my unimplanted ear. This was actually recommended

by my CI team and it worked beautifully.

I agree completely that you can't wait 6 months to try this and anyone who wants

to do this should definitely discuss it with their CI team who's ultimate goal

is also to give you the best possible hearing.

Everything we do with our hearing is try, practice and determine what works best

for us.

Alice

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 05/30/2004 2:23:24 PM Eastern Daylight Time,

info@... writes:

> My daughter, who was only 6 at the time, didn't have any

> trouble adjusting to wearing both after a 4 week break from her hearing aid.

>

>

>

>

Hi a

It is so good to read your daughter adjusted well. How did she do with

speech and language at this point. I realize she was a good HA user but did she

start to drop behind her peers? I understand that if your gonna implant a child

it should be done before the age of 5 as this is the speech/language

development time.... My daughter just turned 5 and I haven't decided to implant

her

yet. It is something I struggled with and Hopkins refused to see her

because she is a good HA user. However she was just tested for speech and

language and she is falling behind.. She has been found age appropriate up

until

this year. I thought she was doing really well but when they tested her using

the Preschool SL 4 she scored in the 70's for expressive and 90's in the

receptive. I think the norm's for this particular test is 85 - 115..... So as

you

can see her expressive is low...... Hopkins would not see her as she

tested 100% speech recognition in her hearing tests. I wonder if they would

reconsider seeing her if they saw these results?

Just curious how your daughter did preimplant?

Thanks

a

[Guest guest]

This is basically the school of thought on wearing the CI with HA at the

start of being implanted. Four years ago I was told the same thing, i.e. I was

advised not to wear my HA for the first 6 months so that my brain would learn to

hear with the implant better and faster.

However! There are plenty of people who have lives that demand they wear

their HA also because they need comprehension. If we look at our commitment to

wearing the implant, it is basically for the rest of our lives; we don't know

what the future may hold. Therefore, if one person chooses to wear only their

implant then while they may acclimate a little faster, the other person who

chooses to wear both CI and HA will be less stressed in their daily life and

maybe it'll only take an extra 6 months? What's an extra 6 months in a lifetime

commitment? I say do what seems right for you!

In a message dated 1/24/2005 8:33:32 PM Eastern Standard Time,

deborahjstroud@... writes:

Hey ...I didn't realize you were using both your CI and your hearing aid

since your implant. My audiologist doesn't want me to use my HA for about 4

weeks after the implant. I have also been told that when someone does that, it

makes hearing with the CI take longer for the brain to adapt to. My ENT said

that the brain is going to key in on the side that has the most familiarity

to it. Does anyone have any thoughts to share about this?

[Guest guest]

,

Great post!

Such is true in the case of deafblind people like myself, , and

Larry who have no other visual clues (lipreading, body language, facial

expression) to rely on. For us, speech understanding is an all or nothing

proposition.

Implanted: 12/22/04 Activated: 1/18/05

Deafblind/Postlingual

BTE hearing aid user 20 years

Severe-profound hearing loss 10 years

" Surviving a loss and letting go is only half of the story. The other half

is the secret belief that we will find, in one form or another, what we have

lost. And it is that potential, shimmery as a star on a clear night, that

helps us survive. " -- Chambers