Going under the drill on April 10

Since slavery has been abolished people no longer go under the hammer, but still can go under the drill… More seriously, all the best.

Congratulations on making the hard decision to get a CI. Remember every CI recipients new hearing journey is a very individual experience. Your brain will take its own time to set down new neural pathways which carry the sounds. This new journey is a marathon not a race. Come back and let us know how you have got on.

Good luck on surgery day this week, and your activation day next week.

Thanks to all for your encouraging comments. I’m actually looking forward to the event—except for the 5:30 a.m. hospital report time.

@Roberto2 said:

I’m actually looking forward to the event—

I too was looking forward to the implants. When I hit 65 it was on.

@Roberto2 said:

Thanks to all for your encouraging comments. I’m actually looking forward to the event—except for the 5:30 a.m. hospital report time.

Yes, it’s hurry up and wait.

After my surgery in Jan 25, I had 2 days of car sickness including losing what was left of the previous night’s supper plus the next day’s lunch. My electrode shifted so I had to have a 2nd surgery this year. I asked the anesthesiologist nurse for extra anti-nausea medicine. She must have given it to me because I had no nausea problem during the 2-hour ride home (Phoenix to Prescott).

I’m hearing better since the 2nd surgery. Also, before this surgery, when I touched my ear, I heard a metallic hum or whine. Since the surgery, that symptom is completely gone.

Fred

When in a car, try to look outside, preferably to the horizon- don’t look at books, screens, other passengers or the car interior. Drivers tend not to suffer from motion sickness, as they experience no mismatch between neuronal input from their eyes and their inner ear (the semicircular organs), looking at the road.

In most of our evolutionary history, such a mismatch signaled the ingestion of neurotoxins from plants or animals that objected to being eaten, and emptying one’s stomach could limit the damage (and save our lives). Easy to forget that a majority of our ancestors always lived on the brink of starvation, often making poor food choices.

Dogs, too, are extremely prone to vomiting, which makes them totally unsuitable for testing experimental medicines (for which they are nevertheless nearly always used). Possibly this is an adaptation to sharing our meals but, as carnivores, being poorly equipped with detoxifying liver enzymes. Dogs did however, like us, multiply their amylase genes to better digest starch (bread).

Horses, in contrast, cannot vomit. So I suppose that they enjoyed traveling on Columbus’ ships to the New World, a place where the species initially evolved but was exterminated when humans first populated the continent and ate them all, and did not figure out how to ride them.

Doctors may heal you, but evolutionary biologists can explain why you get sick in the first place…

Yes, I did get the nexa , but I don’t know what the processor is. Probably find out Monday. Question to you: when you received the second implant was that a significant improvement over bimodal? I qualify for a second, but I want to be sure it will be worth it.

@Roberto2 said:

Question to you: when you received the second implant was that a significant improvement over bimodal? I qualify for a second, but I want to be sure it will be worth it.

I got the second implant about 3 months after the first. I knew from the start I would be bilateral. When I got the first CI I took the hearing aid off a couple weeks after activation and never put it back on. So, I really never was bimidal.

Anyone that is a CI candidate has the potential to hear much better with a CI than a hearing aid. I hear very well bilaterally.

I hope all went well with the implant. Wishing you all the very best and looking forward to hearing how things are going.

I always wondered about this procedure specifically how does one clean the implants and does it interfere with basic hygiene like cleaning your ears. I cannot imagine what it must be like to have implants in the ears since versus something like an implant inside the body. And how long has this technology been available? It is wonderful news to hear of the courage and patience and fortitude and success of those posting about their experiences. The support from around the world is heart rendering and very moving. We are sort of an invisible demographic but seen here by each other.

@RAISSA said:

The support from around the world is heart rendering and very moving. We are sort of an invisible demographic but seen here by each other.

Where are you?

Your question about hygiene, the implant is under the scalp behind your ear. The implant has two wires from it that go into the middle ear and one called the array is carefully pushed into the cochlea. The other wire I am not sure where it goes but it is a ground for the electrical circuit so there is no hygiene as far as external your body with a CI implant. You do have to take good care of the external processor similar to a hearing aid.

CI has been around for about 25 years. It has evolved similar to hearing aids as far as technology, Bluetooth in particular. CI is a life changing thing for most.

@Roberto2 said:

I qualify for a second, but I want to be sure it will be worth it.

I got to thinking about your question a little more. After getting the second implant I was deaf. This was an eye opener for about a week until I moved on from that. I still had some low frequency hearing that wasn’t good for much but it was sound. Being deaf without the processors on hasn’t been a problem. I have pretty bad tinnitus without the processors but thankfully the tinnitus goes away while wearing the processors. Bilateral CI has been a wonderful thing for me, proud to wear them

People are funny about CI. When I am out and about I catch people looking at the processors often. Some will strike up a conversation about them. Everyone that asks is amazed at this technology, genuinely interested. Another thing I find funny is some people when they see the processors they start talking louder or even slower. I usually get a chuckle and ask them to talk normal because I hear them just fine. This is often in noisy places.