CI and hearing aid

[Guest guest]

I wore one CI and one HA for a few years. When I was first implanted, I

didn't bother with the HA because I was advised to wear the CI alone as much as

possible. I did well with whatever residual hearing I had in the HA ear so I

really worked hard at it. I remember that the implant sounded like beeps,

squeaks, and white noise before things settled in and I was able to discern

speech. Maybe this is what your husband is experiencing?

In a message dated 12/14/2008 3:53:44 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,

momstamper@... writes:

My husband has a CI in his right ear and a hearing aid in his left ear.

Is anyone else using both? He had his CI done in October and was

hooked up on November. He had his 3rd appointment yesterday with his

audiologist and she told him to use his CI alone for the most of the

day but it seems to have a lot of static. Any help or recommendations

would be appreciated. Bea

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[Guest guest]

> My husband has a CI in his right ear and a hearing aid in his left ear.

> Is anyone else using both? He had his CI done in October and was

> hooked up on November. He had his 3rd appointment yesterday with his

> audiologist and she told him to use his CI alone for the most of the

> day but it seems to have a lot of static. Any help or recommendations

> would be appreciated. Bea

I was wearing a hearing aid in my right ear (CI is on left), but I don't

bother much anymore. There were times I wore it all day not realizing I

never turned it on. I really don't get much out of it anymore, even when I

do remember to turn it on. When I wear it now it's usually just to hold my

hair behind my right ear.

[Guest guest]

I have exact same set up, behind the ear hearing aid in my left ear and CI

in my right. I had surgery in November and was activated on December 2 the

audiologist telling me the same thing, so for the most part have been

wearing CI alone. I do not notice any static and would suggest you contact

the audiologist.

_____

From: [mailto: ] On Behalf Of

momstamper

Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 12:51 PM

Subject: CI and hearing aid

My husband has a CI in his right ear and a hearing aid in his left ear.

Is anyone else using both? He had his CI done in October and was

hooked up on November. He had his 3rd appointment yesterday with his

audiologist and she told him to use his CI alone for the most of the

day but it seems to have a lot of static. Any help or recommendations

would be appreciated. Bea

[Guest guest]

I have worn bilateral hearing adis for over twenty years, and still

had some residual hearing in both ears, so hearing adiss were a little

bit useful. I had a CI inserted into my right ear in October this

year, activated 3rd November, and have been advised by my audi to wear

my hearing aid and CI together as much as possible as she said it

helps " balnace " my over all hearing. Even though hearing in my hearing

aid ear is not very good still, it does help a little bit, and wearing

my CI alone seems to give me less sound overall (I have no high tone

hearing but some very low tone hearing in my hearing aid ear). We did

some testing last week with just my CI -aided ear and early next year

will do some testing with both CI and hearing aid in to see whether it

helps much. Audi thinks it will help. But I suppose all this advice is

dependent upon your own circumstances and your audi's experiences and

training. If you wanted to you could try wearing the HA for a week,

then without it for a week, and see if there is muich difference.

Wishing you husband luck with ujis new CI journey.

Cheers

Wishart

Brisbane Australia

Freedome implanted right ear 16th October 2008, activated 3rd

November 2008

On Mon 15/12/08 6:50 AM , " momstamper " momstamper@... sent:

My husband has a CI in his right ear and a hearing aid in his left

ear.

Is anyone else using both? He had his CI done in October and was

hooked up on November. He had his 3rd appointment yesterday with his

audiologist and she told him to use his CI alone for the most of the

day but it seems to have a lot of static. Any help or

recommendations

would be appreciated. Bea

[Guest guest]

I wear a HA in my left ear and have a CI in my right.  I wear both during my

waking hours.  It took a long while for my CI ear to understand what the sounds

were coming in through the CI - mainly because I never wore a HA in that

ear and I had been hearing impaired in that ear since birth.  I tried to get by

with just the CI only once and could not  so I did my aural training by

listening to a radio or CD player hooked up to the CI only or working with a

speech pathologist - doing 2-12 week sessions with her.  My audiologist told me

that it was okay to wear both the HA and CI since that is going to be the way I

was going to hear anyway, so why not wear both.   

When tested at 8 months with just the CI alone I was understanding single words

- 22% correct.  At 12 months, 42%, and at 18 months, 62%.  It took me a long

time because my right ear had never heard sounds above 2000 Hz, and it had a

steep ski slope loss from 50dB at 250 Hz to 100 dB at 2000 Hz.  After that there

was no response to sounds, so I was totally deaf in high frequency sounds.  Now,

with the CI I hear 20-25 dB from 250 Hz to 6000 Hz.  I bring this up only so you

can understand that because I had poor hearing in that ear that had never been

stimulated, it takes longer to get the ear/brain to understand what it is

hearing.

I must also say that I still hear and understand speech quite well with my HA

ear, so it works very well for me to wear both.  I get balance of sound.  But

the main thing is that ever since I started hearing sounds with the CI, even

though I did not understand what I was hearing, the summation effect of sound

coming in both ears provided enough information for my HA ear so that I improved

my level of understanding words to 98%, where before the CI surgery I could only

understand 70%. 

Your husband is still very early in his journey.  You didn't indicate how long

he'd been without hearing in that ear prior to his surgery.  If he was late

deafened, his auditory nerve was without hearing for a short time, so he may

start understanding speech much sooner, than if he had always been deaf in that

ear.   If he's been deaf in that ear for some time, it will take time for the

ear to get accustomed to the volume of sound and to interpret what the sound

means.  If this is the case, the static that he is hearing could be that his

brain is interpreting that it is hearing something, but it isn't quite loud

enough for the brain to make out what it is hearing.  He will need to keep

working at getting conditioned to hearing sound, and once he's attained that,

then the brain will start trying to understand what it is that it is hearing -

words, birds singing, furnace kicking in, refrigerator running, etc. 

If he is able to understand speech with his HA ear, I would continue to wear the

HA along with the CI.  The auditory nerve and the brain will still get

stimulation with the CI, and it will eventually start understanding what it is

hearing.  The one thing I did that helped me a lot was to listen to audiobooks

hooked up directly to the CI as much as I could.  It seemed like that when I was

focused on the word while hearing it, the sounds were much clearer, and not so

static or far away sounding. 

Your husband may want to try having more frequent mapping sessions with his

audiologist - especially if he is having significant changes to his maps at the

beginning.  Typically what the audiologist initially tries to do is to get the

patient's brain accustomed to the volume of sound.  They will give them programs

that the patient can keep increasing the volume as they become accustomed to the

sound.  Eventually the volume will be where the patient should be hearing sounds

at - or at 20-25 dB.  Once the patient has achieved that, then s/he is ready to

start rehabbing and learning to understand what it is hearing.

You may email me directly if you have any questions you think I might be able to

help with.  Best of luck!

________________________________

From: momstamper <momstamper@...>

Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2008 2:50:40 PM

Subject: CI and hearing aid

My husband has a CI in his right ear and a hearing aid in his left ear.

Is anyone else using both? He had his CI done in October and was

hooked up on November. He had his 3rd appointment yesterday with his

audiologist and she told him to use his CI alone for the most of the

day but it seems to have a lot of static. Any help or recommendations

would be appreciated. Bea

[Guest guest]

Hi, I was implanted in the left ear in July of this year and activated in

August.

 

I wear the HA in the right ear. I was told, more like, encouraged, to keep

wearing my HA along with the CI. It helps me to determine speech so much better.

 

My right ear has always been my " better " ear, but now that I have the CI, on

days when I may just pop in the HA right away, I noticed that I don't hear as

well as I thought I did. I just worked with what hearing I had. With the CI by

itself, it still sounds a bit robotic, but the HA and CI together blends

everything together.

 

I prefer to wear both the HA and CI for " surround sound " and a more " balanced "

sound. I've been hearing out of one ear for so long, I'm happy to be able to

hear out of both ears again, even if the HA ear is at an average of 90 dBs, I

still get some benefit from the HA.

 

Many audis have different experiences and training as far as telling patients to

wear the HA or not with the CI.

 

Shari in WI

 

Freedom implant: July 23, 2008

activated: August 25, 2008

 

Blog: http://literalyblindsided.blogspot.com/

[Guest guest]

Dear Bea,

I have a CI in my left ear. Been activated since 1/16/08. In my right ear I had

an analog hearing aid. With the CI, my hearing improved way beyond my

expectations. It has been a glororious year for hearing. But, this fall, my old

hearing aid was fading, so I now have a digital hearing aid in my right ear.

WOW!!! Is all I can say. My hearing is off the charts now. My audiologist highly

recommends using both the CI and the hearing aid. I have tried just using one,

but I cannot hear nearly as clearly and loudly as I can when I have both the CI

and HA in place. They seem to complitment each other.

I hope this helps. One thing tha audiologist is firm about is keeping my HA ear

stimulated. If I do not use the HA and the ear is not stimulated, I may actually

loose hearing. So I am persistent in wearing the two and some day when the left

ear gets too bad, I will get another CI and go bilateral as they say.

Blessings,

Bernadine

from Pennsylvania

Left CI 111/30/07

Activated 1/16/08

Right BTE HA Digital

Adult onset deafness