My Cochlear Journey

@pathurley said:

This one didn’t go quite as smoothly as the first, but no major problems, and once it was activated things went much faster then last time.

This is how it went for my second implant also.

Good to see you back.

@pathurley said:

I stil have some residual hearing, enough to make a lawn mower loud

This is not the case for me. When the processors are off, I can not hear anything……except the tinnitus.

It’s nice to hear from both ears. Do you have directionality? I don’t for the most part but seem to be getting it back very little at a time.

I am going to call directionality a work in progress, sometimes it seems I have it, sometimes I get confused. I think background noise is a factor, but I don’t have it all worked out yet.

@pathurley said:

I stil have some residual hearing, enough to make a lawn mower loud. Also there is no guarantee that loud noises won’t damage the nerve itself instead of just the hairs, so why take chances.

That’s good you still have some hearing.

I’ve learnt something new today, I hadn’t realised loud noises could damage the nerves as well.

I don’t know if it matters much, but ear plugs are cheap. And I do have enough residual hearing to make it annoying. With ear plugs and the microphones turned down I can listen to podcasts while mowing.

Pat,
I’m new here, just getting my first set of 'aids. I hope I never need CI’s but I know a lot more after reading about your journey and thay are less scary now. Thanks for posting and keeping up with it, I learned a lot (of course when you start from zero…)

Thank you, that is why I have this thread.

I don’t try to push CIs, but I do want people to have good info if they are in the position to consider them.

My audiologist will be the first to tell you that I have had an excellent experience, but it is my experience. And I did a lot of research before I went forward, so I figure I can share it and make it easier for others.

And we all start from zero, it isn’t like hearing loss is covered in school. Actually I think a lot of us start from negative numbers.

you are very lucky, in my country of residence , IC is not supported by the insurance , are not in support of the social security amount to anything . so if there is a need implants merrka have to pay with their own money.

I have never seen the implant even program the implant. tp of the case of the previous case. I feel a tool can only be set by the owner. as I am setting HA bymyself . I never get comfort when the audiology program it first. even I see the results of the hearing test you are much more better than me . and I’m very comfortable with my Ha now muse i2000 . I can hear in a lot of situations I laugh and interact with the same people around. just because I’m setting myself by my self.

So for your amusement I do have one story from my second surgery. After the surgery you go home with a plastic dome over the ear held on by a rubber strap. This is to be worn for the first 48 hours.

Well that first night I wake up with to an awful pain and tinnitus the likes of which I have never had and never want to experience again. It seems that the tab that the strap connects to broke and the cup tried to come off. Fortunately my hand went up reflexively to the pain and I caught the dome before it went to far. My wife was able to secure it with an ace bandage and everything thing turned out okay, but I now understand how bad tinnitus can get and why people would go to such lengths to do something about it.

I had really hoped my tinnitus would have gone away with the implants.
As it turns out I still have it, maybe worse, lower frequency stuff. Sometimes I think it is mostly my right ear but not sure.

Tinnitus can sure be bad for some.

I have 2 different sounds from tinnitus. With my processor on one I can’t hear and the other is just a very vague continual sound.

Tinnitus is a strange thing. No one seems to understand it. No one knows how to cure it either.

I really hoped it would go away with the implants but it did not. Everyone is different about this. Some people lose it with implants and others don’t. It’s kind of a flip a coin thing. You just don’t know.

now I understand thank you . @Raudrive

One thing I want to say, if you have Cochlear’s and haven’t played with the sensitivity setting, you really need to.

For those not familiar with it, while the volume setting changes the strength of the signal from the processor to cochlea, the sensitivity increases the power of the microphones. I have found it very useful outdoors and in conference rooms. I almost never adjust the volume but I use sensitivity all of the time.