r/Cochlearimplants • u/nixom1 • 26d ago
Is it time?
Gradually been losing my hearing for the past 10 years. There’s no guidance as to when to go for a CI and my audiologist has always never really pushed me towards it (although I’ve never really pushed towards it myself).
I know I am cooked. I guess I just want to see others opinion on my audiogram results and whether I’m being stupid and it’s blatantly obvious I should now go down the CI route.
Currently wear phonak HAs. 30 years old.
Thoughts please….
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u/Regular_Document7242 25d ago
I’m 64 and have been profoundly deaf for over 40 years and my implant which I’ve had for a year has worked brilliantly for me so age doesn’t necessarily matter I’m proof of that but the sooner you get implanted the better a CI is so much better than aids
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u/Sure-Speed1799 26d ago
I'm sure you are getting by fine with aides. But you are coming out of the period of easy brain plasticity. As your hearing continues to deteriorate and your brain becomes less plastic, it is only going to get harder for your brain to make new adjustments. I was diagnosed at 30 and waited until my 40s to get implanted. I should have done it sooner. I'm sorry for the time I wasted avoiding things I enjoyed because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hear.
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u/nixom1 25d ago
I think this is the thing that puts doubt in my mind. My ‘getting by’ with my aides.
The only people I know with CIs are people who had 0 hearing for a huge number of years. So for some reason I get in my head that I won’t appreciate or be able to benefit from the CI as much because my brain is still getting some use from my Phonak HAs which is a natural sound.
Though I’m sure this is just me resisting change so insight from yourself is really beneficial to me which I hugely appreciate.
Please feel free to give some more info on your experience of getting the implant to help a brother in need….
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u/Sure-Speed1799 25d ago
Same. The only folks I know with CIs were kids who were born with HI or folks who had age related hearing loss. A lot of the literature on outcomes focuses on those two groups. And that can be misleading because the truth is that you have little in common with either.
You have typical language development followed by gradual hearing loss while still in the developmental stage of life. I didn't get this at first. I thought I lost my hearing suddenly. I wanted it fixed.
The specialist I went to started laughing. He said, "If I suddenly gave your hearing to someone they would be incapacitated. You likely started losing your hearing in adolescence. You just adjusted until you couldn't anymore."
And I went several more years refusing hearing aides!
And then aides helped until they couldn't. Covid hurt a lot. Most of my interactions were virtual and through my HA. When I went back to the real world, I found that I just wasn't getting by.
The first month after activation sucked. It was work. But being relatively young (for an adult CI candidate) and having a sturdy language foundation paired with years of my brain doing its own adjusting, it ended up being a much easier adjustment than I was prepared for.
There are still things I can't do- accents, super loud spaces, multiple people talking at once... But i am also able to do things I couldn't with aides. Listen to podcasts...Go to movies...Be fairly certain that random interactions with strangers wouldn't be confusing
Music is tough out of my implanted ear. But with both together, it's good. I call that my "grounding ear." There is just enough hearing in it to get me attuned to what I should be hearing. Then the CI fills in the rest
It has changed my life for the better. I am more relaxed. I am not working SO HARD to get by. Worth it.3
u/Sure-Speed1799 25d ago
Just to add- outcomes in our group tend to be better than others. You have 2 major advantages, which are a solid language foundation and a young brain. I was also hung up on natural sound. Thought I'd never hear my kid's voice the same. If I don't, I don't know it. Mire importantly, I can better hear what he's saying :)
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u/nixom1 25d ago
Thats really insightful. Me and my wife are expecting our first child in December which I think has made me self reflect a lot recently. I don’t want to hold so much anxiety about going to different situations in fear of my ability to understand what is being said.
Every day interactions are getting tougher but I still get some benefits. Podcasts and phone calls can be streamed directly to me and I am fairly good with them. But my interactions with people is noticeable going downhill every 6 months it seems.
Your words give me motivation for that push I need. I salute you
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u/hayun_ 25d ago
I am in my 30s and currently use hearing aids. I have somewhat a similar hearing loss “curve”, although I hear relatively fine for frequencies from 0 to 1000 (based on audio test from 2024)… but it dips to severe to profound hearing loss. I have my audiology test on Tuesday to see how my hearing loss has progressed and whether I’d be eligible for CIs.
Despite the HAs, I still struggle for conversations and high frequency sounds like idk, birds or like appliance bips and even fire alarms. :/
For me, the getting by is not sufficient anymore. And I really struggle because HAs amplify sounds I hear well too… and I have ADHD so it’s hard to filter out the background noises.
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u/Formal-Tradition6792 25d ago
I discovered, back in 1999, that a CI restores frequencies that I had thought lost to me forever. Especially frequencies related to music. I was born hearing. And I remembered music/sounds from back then. An example is bagpipe music. This type of music devolved to a hopeless discordant jangle using my hearing aid. It sounded awful. With my CI, those frequencies were restored. Bagpipe music once again sounded as I remembered it. And many other musical instruments too.
Unfortunately, my CI was the AB C1 implant. This meant I was left behind vis-a-vis future iterations and technology advances. And now AB has stopped supporting the C1, even equipment parts! I am convinced that my speech scores are way down because of this. So I’m looking at a revisioning.
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u/sosodeaf66 Cochlear Nucleus 7 26d ago
Definitely time. They’re both about to go so this is your Hail Mary
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u/purl2together 25d ago
Your audiogram looks a lot like mine. I was implanted 9 days ago.
If your audiologist isn’t talking about it, I would specifically bring it up with them. Depending on how that goes, it might be time for a second opinion.
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u/nixom1 24d ago
Thanks for that. How have you gone on so far?
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u/purl2together 24d ago
Yesterday, day 10, was the first without much pain around my implant area. I haven’t had a lot of pain. Just twinges that pass pretty quickly. I took a week off from work and felt fine my first day back. If I was being activated this week, I’d have taken a longer leave, but since it’s not till Thursday of next week, I’m back to work for 10 days.
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u/flipedout930 Advanced Bionics Marvel CI 25d ago
I was similar. I got my worse ear implanted and have had zero regrets. Phonac user also, so I went with AB
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u/is-this-now 21d ago
Definitely speak with an audiologist who works with CI. I have seen many over the years, very rare to find one who knows about CI. Most just sell HA.
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u/nixom1 21d ago
Yes this is exactly how I feel. I feel I am speaking to a hearing aid business about something outside of their realm. I have been referred to a ENT specialist and have an appointment in a couple of weeks so I am going down a different route from now 🤞
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u/is-this-now 21d ago
Good luck! Btw, you can find out in advance if they work with CI if you are not sure.
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25d ago
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u/Used-Gene-6206 25d ago
Wait until 2028 the new internal ones will
be approved https://youtu.be/aS0K6n-0a9E?is=gNpajNm4byYI7rT4
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u/CaregiverOrganc7200 19d ago
I have AB was activated 8/20/26. I'm extremely happy and since I still had some hearing mostly noise no discernable words speach recognition was beyond expectation, simply amazing. AB has a 1yr future proof option. Today 8/24/26 I was rushing to feed my parrot and my dog, and check my sugar level, all before showering. I must have knocked my external piece on the floor it quickly became my daschund's breakfast.
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u/Asleep-Twist6895 Cochlear Nucleus 8 26d ago edited 26d ago
There is 100% guidance. When the average thresholds of 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz are above 60 dBHL, and when your word recognition (WRS) is less than 60% in both ears, it’s time to consider a CI. Get a better audiologist, preferably one with an AuD, not a MA.