Introduction

[Guest guest]

My husband (61 y.o.) is considering cochlear implant surgery but before

committing to the procedure, we'd very much appreciate the perspective of your

first hand experiences. He's cleared the screening process and is a viable

candidate for implant, one ear 49%, the other 28% using (2) Sumo hearing aids,

diagnosed as Meniere's Disease but with minimal if any vertigo. He does have

a fair degree of functionality so he's able to carry on a face to face

conversation pretty well... background noise, telephone, and TV are

problematic,

music and distant source are out of the question.

Given that he doesn't have total hearing loss, his concerns about the

implant are benefit vs risk.

On the risk side, we'd appreciate hearing your experiences WRT balance

(vertigo or otherwise) issues beyond the initial week or two post op, tinnitus,

and any other long term negative effects.

On the benefit side, we'd like to get a feel for how much fuller function is

probable in terms of everyday endeavors like restaurant dining, TV,

telephone, and music.

Another consideration is whether the strong focus of implant technology

being on language means that CI recipients tend to loose non-linguistic sounds

like birds, frogs, dogs, thunder, etc. Other limitations?

I'm sure there are considerations we haven't even thought of so all comments

are welcome.

TIA,

Len and Sherri