Evaluation Tommorrow

[Guest guest]

Dear All

I have been lurking here behind the scenes for quite some time now, absorbing

all the information this wonderful group has to offer and have finnaly taken the

plunge and booked myself in for an evaluation for a cochlear implant.

I have been reading with keen interest over the last few days on the topic

relating to test results and the disscusion of guessing during the tests and the

ensuring results. My audiologist has always asked me to guess if i am not sure

what the word is, wich in my opinion has always led to me getting overinflated

results on the single word test with out any background noise that he performs,

last time i got over 80% correct even though i guessed more then half of them,

so tommorrow there will be no guessing.

Like many have stated these test in the enviroment that they are performed are

absolutly no comparison to the reall world situations that we enconter every day

in our work and social lifes, if we have enough hearing left to have much of

one.

I have a profound sensory neural hearing loss in both ears and have been wearing

hearing aids now for over 32 years, but i know everyday that that they are not

going to do me much good for much longer and every year it becomes more of a

struggle just to cope, especially with work where i have had to withdraw from

many duties and committies that i used to enjoy being a part of.

I live in Sydney Australia and i get the impression that most of you are from

the US of A, so the system here is quite different from there, particualy the

cost and payment structures, I am not privately insured and was unaware untill i

got my information pack that it was covered by private insurance over here, so

if my evaluation is succsesfull I will have to go on the waiting list for public

funding, I hope in that case that the list is not too long as it is not funded

by medicare but by state goverment grants are giving to fund a certain number of

implants a year, but hopefully i will learn more tommorow.

Once again I feel privelidged to be part of this group, as I start my journey

where many of you have been before.

Regards

Neil