One person’s perspective with a cochlear implant

Thanks for this , I have never considered one and never will for the exact reasons he did not like it.

 

What he says is the same feeling I have with my hearing aid. It generally makes hearing the world more natural or louder, but the hearing aid sounds like a noisy metal speaker if I cover my good ear.

However, this is not bad news, the hearing aid must be calibrated little by little, but it is more important to get used to it, especially our brain. Our brain has to learn to interpret the new sounds that it receives in conjunction with the healthy ear, this is a slow process, especially the older we get.

Brain plasticity is amazing in youth, but much less in adults and the elderly. That is why the stage of life in which we learn the most without effort is childhood and adolescence. This does not mean that adults do not have any capacity for our brain to mold itself and learn new things, but it will take more time and effort.

I cannot guarantee that I will hear better with my hearing aid over time, but I am sure that my brain takes a long time to adapt.

I imagine that a cochlear implant will be something similar, in any case I have the hope that research in gene therapy could allow hair cells to be regenerated in the future. In being optimistic no one beats me hahaha.

Joking aside, attempts have already been made to regenerate ear cells, but the trial failed. It is bad news of course, but it is also good news to know that research is being done to achieve it.

 

Bumping this up because my ENT has now recommended I get a cochlear implant as he says my bad ear is now "useless' . He told me in most cases it helps with the tinnitus and fullness, but I am skeptical. Can anyone chime in on this ? Thanks

 

I come by from time to time and the thought of a CI has crossed my mind again. 3-4 years ago my ENT said I should get a CI in my worse ear because it was useless. I was struggling with hearing aids at the time and decided against it. Its been a few years now and after reading this article my thought is this. When I got my hearing aids at first they were horrible. Took months of going in and getting things changed and then it took many more months for my brain to make the sounds actually sound normal. Granted my worse ear is only adding depth to the world but I can't understand anything through it. I can't leave my house without my hearing aids if I want to communicate with anyone. I believe a CI would be the same. A miserable first 6 months, then a getting better six months and then maybe after a year or two it would be good. Of course this is only speculation. I feel for me to go any further in my career I need to understand better and stop dogging conversation and meetings. I'm close to trying it but still doing research. good luck to all that are on the same fence.

 

Well I'll update - I did not qualify for a CI. They said my good ear was too good, and I even cheated a little bit. Not even close to qualifying under Medicare who requires the test. I live an hour away from Duke where I had it done so I have mixed feelings. I want to get rid of the tinnitus, but not looking forward to a dozen trips back and forth. Plus there is no guarantee on the tinnitus relief, so be it. This fricken disease sucks.