New Here:)

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 2/27/01 8:43:39 PM GTB Standard Time,

princessaudrina@... writes:

<< I was on the list before but not able to keep up I am back now

**Hugs**

~*Lesley*~ >>

Lesley!

Welcome to this list.Still has a ton of mail as ever,lol

Sara and Nimet from Ohio

[Guest guest]

Hi There and welcome to the forum.

 

Each case of cochlear implant is different, meaning. The surgery takes place out

patient and if all goes well your son is released the same day. Most doctors

like to follow up with the patient a week after surgery. Most doctors activate

several weeks after implantation.

 

In my case I was implanted first time on the right side April 3rd 2007 activated

May 14th 2007. Implanted second time June 3rd 2008 and up coming activation day

is June 30th 2008. As you can see by these date ranges several weeks are in

between them.

 

I have read here in this forum of cases where activation day is a week from the

day of implant. Others just several days after wards. So it all depends on the

doctor.

 

Reason most doctors wait that long is they like to wait for things inside the

inner ear to calm down and blood clots to go away etc etc etc.

 

 

RS Implant April 2007

Activate May 14 2007

LS implant June 3 2008

Upcoming activation June 30 2008

University of Miami

Dr. Balkany

From: msmistysu <msmistysu@...>

Subject: New Here:)

Date: Tuesday, June 24, 2008, 2:30 PM

Hi. I am new to this group. I have a 12 year old Deaf son who is

probably going to get a CI. He has a progressive loss so he does have a

little hearing still with his aides. He is also oral though he signs as

well. I was wondering if anyone can tell me, once he gets an CI, how

long will it take him to be able to use it since he did have hearing at

one time and does have speech? Thanks, Misty

[Guest guest]

Hi Misty - welcome to the group!  What a wonderful adventure you and your son

have ahead of you!

As to your question about how long it will take before he is able to " use it " ,

my assumption is that you mean how long it will be before he is understanding

sounds since he had hearing at one time.  It will depend on how long he has been

without usable hearing in that ear.  The sooner he is implanted after losing the

ability to hear speech, the faster he will be successful at understanding speech

with the CI.

In my case, I was implanted in an ear that had not been able to wear a HA due to

high frequency loss (no response to sound above 1500 Hz), and severe hearing

loss in the lower frequencies, starting at 55 dB 250 Hz, steep slope to 1500

Hz.  This was for 51 years.  Prior to implantation, my word recognition score in

that ear was 20%.  I've been activated now for 14 months..  The first 8 months

of activation was difficult for me because I had to get accustomed to hearing

high frequency sounds I'd never heard before.  The sensation I had whenever I

heard a high frequency sound was that my brain felt like it was being vibrated

to death (someone else described it as being Tasered - which if you can imagine

what that might feel like, could be as apt a description as any).  It wasn't

painful to me, but it was very distracting.  It took 6 months before I no longer

had those sensations for most high frequency sounds.  It took 8 months after

activation

before I was able to hear, with the CI, at the 20-25 dB levels from 250 Hz to

4000 Hz, which was exciting for me because I never heard high frequency sounds

before in either ear, and now I was hearing them in my implanted ear.  After

that was accomplished, I was able to start working on word/sentence

recognition.  At 2 months activation, my sentences in noise score was 8%, 8

months after activation it was 22%, and 1 year after activation it was 42%.  I

believe that I continue to improve as I sense I am understanding more and more

with my CI ear.  Of course, I'm still using my non-implant ear with a HA as I

still have pretty good word recognition with that ear yet, and having that ear

aided with a HA is giving me sense of direction of sound, as well as the

surround sound, which makes music and the spoken word sound so much better. 

With hearing in both ears, my sentence in word recognition score is 94%

accurate. 

As for your son, his experience may be very different.  He will have sound right

away upon activation, but it will depend on his brain (and how long it has been

" lazy " - not working at its hearing) as to how much of that sound he is able to

recognize right away.  But one thing for sure, with rehabilitation, desire to

obtain the best hearing possible, and willingness to work at it, he will be

successful with his CI. 

Best of luck to you and your son!  I hope you keep us posted as you continue

your journey with a CI.

 

New Here:)

Hi. I am new to this group. I have a 12 year old Deaf son who is

probably going to get a CI. He has a progressive loss so he does have a

little hearing still with his aides. He is also oral though he signs as

well. I was wondering if anyone can tell me, once he gets an CI, how

long will it take him to be able to use it since he did have hearing at

one time and does have speech? Thanks, Misty

[Guest guest]

Hi Misty:

I am an adult who was implanted 12 years ago with the Nucleus 24 at the age

of 51. Like your son, I had progressive hearing loss beginning from the

time my Mother first suspected when I was about 2, but not diagnosed until I

was 5. I was fit with hearing aids and due to the progression of my loss; I

had a 95dB loss at age 15. Hearing loss greater than 92dB is considered

deaf. When I was first diagnosed my loss was moderate to severe or about

60dB average.

Of course, the miracle of cochlear implant technology was not available at

that time.

Over the years I continued to wear hearing aids, even though they did NOT

provide me much speech discrimination. I became an excellent speech reader

and never learned to use sign language. It was the thinking at that point

in time that deaf children should try to remain oral, and my parents did not

take any exception to this because I was doing very well despite my severe

hearing loss.

When I was implanted at age 51 I had several things going in my favor. One:

My original hearing loss was not so severe as to prevent me from learning

speech, so I had the advantage of hearing speech which created auditory

memory that is so crucial for our brain to adapt to what I like to call " CI

hearing " . Then, I did have a period of time between ages 5 to about 10

where I had pretty good aided hearing, so again my auditory memory had a leg

up.

What worked somewhat against me was the long duration of profound deafness

and in the case of one ear, no aided hearing.

That said, for me it took about 3-4 months to feel speech sounded like I

remembered it. I was able to understand speech immediately, it just sounded

different (like the AOL computer voice that says " You've got mail " ) Speech

sounded horrible, but at least I could understand it.

I share this to give you hope, but with the caveat that my auditory memory

was more intact than perhaps someone born with a hearing loss greater than

60dB. The auditory pathways in a person with more severe hearing loss would

most likely be less developed. It is this person that may have a longer

journey to develop auditory pathways to speech understanding.

The experience of each CI recipient is unique and is impacted by many

different factors. One of them is something we have absolutely no control

over - and is called elasticity of our brain. Some people just have more of

it than others, and it is nothing to do with IQ!! It also is the big

" unknown " as we move forward, and the other factor that helps is just how

tenacious and curious a person is about learning new sounds never heard

before. As a child, I just hungered for more sound and learning to

understand sounds was almost a game. Fortunately, that was still the case

when I received my CI at 51 years of age. I just challenged myself and

played mental games to see how I could improved from day to day. The

absolute worst day was activation day.....but it only got better each day

after that!

Best of luck and I hope all goes well for your son. Does he want the CI?

That is a huge motivator in itself. Feel free to write off list as well, if

there is anything I can do to help allay your concerns.

Warmly, Carol in WI

--- Original Message ----

From: msmistysu <msmistysu@...>

Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 1:30:19 PM

Subject: New Here:)

Hi. I am new to this group. I have a 12 year old Deaf son who is probably

going to get a CI. He has a progressive loss so he does have a little

hearing still with his aides. He is also oral though he signs as well. I was

wondering if anyone can tell me, once he gets an CI, how long will it take

him to be able to use it since he did have hearing at one time and does have

speech? Thanks, Misty

[Guest guest]

 

What is your overall understanding without your HA.

 

New Here:)

Hi. I am new to this group. I have a 12 year old Deaf son who is

probably going to get a CI. He has a progressive loss so he does have a

little hearing still with his aides. He is also oral though he signs as

well. I was wondering if anyone can tell me, once he gets an CI, how

long will it take him to be able to use it since he did have hearing at

one time and does have speech? Thanks, Misty

[Guest guest]

Overal understanding with my left ear without the hearing aid?  Well, when they

tested me with individual words while doing an auditory exam, my understanding

of single words was 70% before my surgery.

 

New Here:)

Hi. I am new to this group. I have a 12 year old Deaf son who is

probably going to get a CI. He has a progressive loss so he does have a

little hearing still with his aides. He is also oral though he signs as

well. I was wondering if anyone can tell me, once he gets an CI, how

long will it take him to be able to use it since he did have hearing at

one time and does have speech? Thanks, Misty