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Spring!

crocus

Just in time for me to go South for work for a week we get beautiful weather.  These guys are poking out by the mailbox in my front yard.  It’s going to be 75 tomorrow and 79 on Sunday.  I’m hoping we get to go skiing!  I love spring skiing!

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5 replies on “Spring!”

  1. Share

    Sara says:

    Ah! Wow! What a beautiful picture! Lovely little flowers too. 🙂 You might be disappointed with Texas though, it’s easily up in the 80’s already and the grass is still… crisp from over-death last year. Not too many flowers around Austin area. Maybe it is different in San Antonio. 🙂

    You are a good photographer, or so it seems. 🙂

  2. Share

    Ace says:

    Hey Sara, I read all of your blog and found it fascinating. When I read you were considering any type of CI, I assumed your hearing was as bad as mine(see below audiogram)

    Unaided audiogram, same for both ears. Aided audiogram results comming soon. I wear Phonak Naida V UP hearing aids.

    125Hz-65db
    250Hz-70db
    500Hz-90db
    750Hz-105db
    1000Hz-110db
    1500Hz-110db
    2000Hz-115db
    3000Hz-115db
    4000Hz-120db
    6000Hz-NR
    8000Hz-NR

    You have the following loss(in the better ear):

    125Hz-40db
    250Hz-45db
    500Hz-65db
    750Hz-85db
    1000Hz-95db
    1500Hz-110db
    2000Hz-110db
    No response above 2000Hz

    Did I correctly read your audiogram? What type of hearing aids are you wearing? Do you plan to upgrade, perhaps to the same ones I wear? Or are you serious about getting a CI? If yes, when and what type and how much of the cost is your insurance paying? I thought you needed to be profound(well you are but not at all frequencies) but your HL is only moderate in the lows!

    I can’t believe you were turned down for a hybrid design with the answer “your hearing loss is too profound” I thought there was no maximum, only a minimum? Even I was looking at the hybrid as id prefer to keep my low frequency hearing. You have way more hearing than me so I gotta be honest and not recommend a CI for you as youd just trade away your low frequency unaided hearing for high frequency CI aided hearing. Even I am probably very borderline for a CI because I have only 70db HL at 250Hz and I hear great with hearing aids. For speech I just read lips but environmental sounds are easily heard and plenty loud with all the gain my HAs give me. I don’t see how CIs will make sounds louder, I probably have an aided treshold down to 20db(low frequencies)

    Thanks for reading my note and thanks for your blog. Looking forward to a response, you may also email me, I provided it in the email field.

    1. Share

      Sara says:

      Hi Ace, I’m emailing this to you too. 🙂

      Thanks for your thoughtful comment.

      Your thinking is exactly what kept me from getting a CI for so long and why I was surprised that people (ENTs) kept suggesting I get one. In the end, it isn’t so much what your pure tones are as your speech recognition scores. I think the difference between your hearing loss and mine is that you still have response at 3000 and 4000 and I don’t above 2000 any more. No matter how loud, or what hearing aids, if you’re deaf at high frequencies there isn’t much they can do. Those high pitches help a ton with speech recognition. And as long as you have at least a moderate loss in the lows and a severe loss (90dB) in the highs you can get a CI. I read that they don’t even test deaf infants beyond 90 dB anymore. Isn’t that strange?

      The reason the hybrid trial doesn’t think I qualify is that first the trial has very strict requirements to meet, and second, they are still seeing a loss from the CI surgery, even if it isn’t so much, it still puts me into the 115-125 dB range at 750-1000 Hz which hearing aids might not help with.

      However, my CI surgeon is going the route of using a shorter, more flexible electrode and a ‘soft’ surgery technique to see if he can preserve any hearing. I’m also only doing my worse ear right now. I have spoken to people who had this soft surgery done and they said that even just hearing sound at the 250Hz level helped things sound a lot more natural and normal to them. So once the CI surgery is done if I have some hearing left I’m planning to use an in the ear aid along with the CI in the same ear. Definitely also using a hearing aid in my non-implanted ear too.

  3. Share

    Ace says:

    Did those people who recommended a CI have a financial motivation? What were all their reasons and was there any pressure to push you towards a CI?

    It seems that CI nowdays is all about speech, speech, speech. My audiologist initially recommended I get a CI but days later retracted that statement and said I just need to train my brain and my speech will improve. Pretty hard when like you, I am missing alot of higher frequencies. However you have way better low frequency hearing than me so this should still help, youd hear sounds much louder than I.

    Do you feel your speech could improve with better or different HAs? What is your aided score for each frequency and are you able to be aided to 0db for low frequencies with enough gain?

    How high did your audiometer go to? I noticed your audiogram doesn’t have a spot for 120db and theres some X and O below the 110db line, is that a NR? Id try a 120db audiometer if yours wasn’t 120db. As for my responses above 2000Hz, I think it’s suspect for several reasons. Using Google: (online hearing tests) I can’t hear 3000Hz and above with or without hearing aids no matter how loud I crank up the speaker, just a low frequency distortion comming from the speaker at full volume. 1500Hz is faint, 2000Hz is very faint. I did an online aided test using my SPL meter and apparantly I am aided to only 50db at 1000Hz, 70db at 1500Hz and 80db at 2000Hz! I am outside the speech banana above 1000Hz. Also my transposition on my Phonak Naida V UP either isn’t working or is set at a frequency above what I hear.

    The CI requirements keep getting more and more lax, first it used to be a total hearing loss, then profound then severe-profound, now they are doing moderate hearing loss? All the CI reports/testimonals ive read, those people have hearing as bad as me or worse. Only the very most recent reports, a few have a moderate hearing loss. One lady has 45db 125Hz, 50db 250Hz, 60db 500Hz, 70db 750Hz, 100db 1000Hz, worse than 120db at 1500Hz and above and she got a CI and this really shocked me how so much residual hearing could ever be a candidate.

    I always thought I had too much residual hearing, at least in the low frequencies for a CI and until recently, very nearly everyone lost all natural hearing in the CI ear. Now a few lucky people manage to preserve some hearing. That’s a great plan B if the CI doesn’t properly work or is not better than HA. You still waste the money and take the risk but at least have recourse instead of being permanently deaf in the CI ear.

    Any idea why they don’t test deaf infants above 90db? What if he has a flat line at 95db or 100db? HAs would still benefit and the infant wouldn’t miss any high frequency sounds, although they won’t be very loud aided. Theres an ongoing debate about CI for infants, some say wait till the person turns 18 then let the person decide for himself, others say implant a CI only if the infant does not respond at all to HA, meaning can’t hear even environmental sounds.

    When are you getting a CI and how much, if any of the cost is insurance paying since your HL is less than 70db minimum per their requirements(in fact it’s only 40db at 125Hz). My dad thinks insurance will deny/refuse to fund me since at 125Hz I have only 65db HL. I can’t afford the $50,000 cost, few can. Has your surgeon ever done a CI on someone with so much residual hearing and what were the odds in % he gave you? I would be curious about that as theres a possibility a CI is in my future too. Would I be a candidate for the same CI as you or a full electrode CI? Preserving most/all my hearing is probably the most important thing for several reasons. Ive read around and there’s a 75% satisfaction rate with CI and that’s for hearing as bad as mine or worse.

    You definately are on the right track by doing your worse ear. If I read your audiogram correctly, it’s 40db, 55db, 80db, 95db, and NR at 1000Hz and above, right? You mentioned you couldn’t hear above 2000Hz in the better ear(110db loss?) what’s the limit for your worse ear? 750Hz? 1000Hz? Can you tell a difference unaided and aided between the two ears for any type of sounds? Also I am curious what environmental sounds you hear unaided, especially in the better ear. Unaided, I am pratically deaf. What happens if you lose the ability to hear anything unaided(and too much to be much benefit for a hearing aid) in the CI ear or worse, all your hearing? Would you have the CI removed and a long electrode CI inserted? Just live with the shorter CI and not hear low frequencies in the CI ear?

    I am neutral towards CI and view them with the same caution and skeptism as you do/did. Ive read that postlingual people are alot more interested in a CI and tend to also do better than prelinguals like me. Your brain has been wired to hear all the sounds. There’s some sounds, high frequencies in particular I never ever heard in my life. I was born deaf and got my first HA at like 4 months old.

    Oh I also wanted to ask is your hearing loss still progressing and how fast? Someone told me that exceptions have been made for less than 70db HL if it’s rapidly progressing. Do you use any instant messenger or have time for one? We could discuss this in real time, much faster than posting and emailing. Do you know anyone else considering CI that I can talk to? Good luck with your CI and let us know on your blog how you are adjusting, itll be a long process.

  4. Share

    Sara says:

    Lots of questions I’ve asked myself before. Rest assured no one has pressured me into anything. It took a long time to make the decision to get a CI but it was entirely my choice.

    When I say ‘speech’ I mean nothing about my voice, only about comprehension, understanding other people’s speech. The high frequencies are essential for that otherwise all you get is vowels.

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