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Second Implant Update

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Had surgery for my second implant to go bilateral on October 3rd. It wasn’t successful as the surgeon ran into the problem of a bone mass in the cochlea that prevented full insertion of the electrodes. A scan after surgery confirmed this and also showed a kink in the array. The plan would be to see the results at activation.

At activation only 4 electrodes were active. according to the audiologist and the surgeon 8 to 10 electrodes are the minimum amount to get helpful results. When the audiologist spoke, all I heard was a horn like sound for every word she spoke.

The surgeon said he could do a revision to straighten out the array and to try to get more active electrodes. No guarantee it may work. The ball is in my court as to whether I want to take the risk or even want to go through another surgery. I am still having some mild dizziness from the surgery.

Has anyone on this board experienced only partial insertion of the electrodes?

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I’m sorry this has happened to you @merisko
What a tough decision you have to make.

Have you thought about getting a second opinion from another Cochlear surgeon?

Or look for another surgeon who specializes in Cochlear revisions?

Good luck to you Merisko on whatever deck you make.

Any news on your implant?
Which implant did you go with? Knowing what you know now, is there maybe a better choice of array? Different manufacturer?

Good luck with this.

In reply to @Deaf_piper

@Deaf_piper said:

Have you thought about getting a second opinion from another Cochlear ENT surgeon?

Maybe a surgeon who can do live monitoring of the electrodes during implantation by having a Cochlear technician in the operating room with the required equipment?

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This is a copy/paste from the group on Facebook. The guy talks about calcification and scar tissue being a problem for his CI surgery.
Might be good information for you.

In reply to @Raudrive

First of all I’d like to thank you and everyone for your responses.

I am going with Cochlear because that’s what I went with for my left ear which was very successful. I had calcification in that ear also, but the surgeon only had to drill a hole in the cochlea because there was no window for insertion. The second one had the window but had a bone mass blocking full insertion. The surgery also caused a spinal fluid leak which the surgeon stopped, but I am sure it kept the him from pursuing getting the array inserted any farther. I am hoping the surgeon has enough info from the post-op scan to be able to do a more successful revision surgery.

I have an appointment with the audiologist November 16th. At that time I will decide if I will have the surgery or just have the devices programmed for my left side for backups. I am leaning towards the surgery but I am still in the research stage.

Sounds like you have a great plan.
Hope everything works out great for you.
Keep us posted please.

Had my revision surgery on Monday the 13th. Surgery was successful with the surgeon being able to get full insertion of the electrodes. I’ve had no pain and minimal dizziness.

I’ll find out just how successful the surgery was on the 28th when I go in for my activation.

@merisko said:

Surgery was successful with the surgeon being able to get full insertion of the electrodes.

Congratulations.
That’s great news.
Good luck with your activation.

@merisko said:

Surgery was successful with the surgeon being able to get full insertion of the electrodes.

Congrats…
That’s fantastic news for you.
Keep us updated as you go along please.

Went for my activation to become bilateral yesterday wit cautious expectations. Audiologist was able to fire up 17 of 22 electrodes. I was able to understand speech but everyone sounded like chipmunks. Not quite as good as my first implant but still a good outcome.

Being bilateral is already better than one. Even though my right ear sounds like chipmunks, everything is louder and clearer. Streaming phone calls and music is better. I know its only been one day but it can only get better from here, right?

WOW! Huge congratulations to you, :clap: that’s a fabulous outcome after all the trouble you had. As you said it can only get better from here on.

@Neville said:

do you need to take your other CI off

Curious what the OP says.
For me I did not have to take the first off to help the second CI learn speech faster. My second CI turned out to be a very fast learner compared to the first CI.

In reply to @merisko

Congratulations.
Sure glad this implant went well.

Like you my second was a huge support for the first. They work very well together. It took a little over a year but I got directionality back. That is a big eye opener after not having it for so long.

So glad you are having such encouraging early results! Yes, only gets better.

In reply to @Raudrive

Pediatrics here are often simultaneously implanted now but adults still mostly just get one, so I’ve only met one post-lingual bilateral user. He said he was lazier about rehabing the second one because he heard so well with the first, and he felt he didn’t hear as well with it alone as he did with the first one alone. I don’t know what recommendations are typically. Do you find that if you are only wearing one at a time they sound about equal?

@Neville said:

Do you find that if you are only wearing one at a time they sound about equal?

The first implant (right) is testing at 90% in quiet. The second implant (left) is testing at 95% in quiet.
I can have a conversation with either implant by itself but it is a little more difficult than bilateral. This goes for phone calls too. I can talk on the phone without streaming on either side but streaming to both is so much better. I actually find my self able to talk to anyone on the phone. That includes the foreign accents.

Knowing what I know now I wish I had done both implants at the same time.

The OP is in for a treat I would expect.

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