which ear

[Guest guest]

Today I asked my surgeon about how implanting the poor ear vs. " better " ear

might affect speech discrimination. Keeping in mind that people progress

differently due to hearing history, language acquisition, etc., I was told

that after one year of having a CI, generally there is no difference in the

performance/speech discrimination of those who had their poorer ear

implanted vs. the " better " ear. The only difference lies in the fact that

those who had their poorer ear implanted can (if they wish) continue wearing

a HA in the non-implanted ear.

Surgery date: 12/22/04 (15 days and counting!)

Activation date: 1/18/05

[Guest guest]

Hi Jim,

I, too, was implanted in the worse ear - one that had no hearing, no

stimulation for 20 years. Like your surgeon, mine figured I had nothing

to lose if it didn't work. But it did, WAY beyond what anyone imagined.

I understand speech without lipreading, can follow conversations from

another room, watch TV, go to movies, listen to radio, CDs and so forth.

And this with technology that was in clinical trials 8 years ago. The

Nucleus system has been upgraded internally 3 times since then And the

external upgrades are always made available to those of us with the older

implants.

The Freedom implant now has all the " bells and whistles " that were on

the body worn processor I started with 8 years ago. Plus more.

Amazing, what a dead ear can do.

The Original

From: " ak_mustang2000 " <ak_mustang2000@...>

Subject: Re: Which ear to implant

Hi Barb,

I also had a better ear and a worst ear. I had been essentially

deaf in my left ear for over 35 years. I was unable to use a

hearing aid in my left ear due to severe distortion, tinnitus and

recruitment (sounds loud enough to hear were extremely painful). I

was able to wear a hearing aid in my right ear, but in order to hear

with it conditions had to be perfect and the speaker had to be

within three feet. My surgeon wanted to implant my left ear since

there was essentially nothing to lose on that side. I was implanted

on the left side on November 3rd, 2005 and activated on December

1st, 2005. I am very happy with the results of implanting the worst

ear. I was able to hear and understand speech by the end of my

initial activation. The distortion and recruitment are no longer

present and the tinnitus has markedly improved. I just had my 4th

mapping last Monday and my Audiologist says I am doing excellent.

Best regards,

Jim