Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My Granddaughter,two months prior to turning 5 years old,underwent the Cochlear Implant surgery. She will be 6 this coming November. Would like to know if there are any forum members who have had this procedure performed or possibly know others who have. What future problems,if any,may occur? Does a Cochlear Implant actually hold a brighter future for ones who are deaf? Pros & Cons? Any insight on this subject would be greatly appreciated. Thank You!
I know this post is almost a year old but still i would like to reply.... I hope by now your granddaughter would have started responding to sounds n speaking few words as well. Well I have 2 kids with cochlear implant, one is 6 years old n the other one is 20 months old. And both are doing good with that..... we feel cochlear implant is a blessing for us. There is lot of hard work with these kids in the initial stage but believe me its fruitful. There is a blog turnonmyears.blogsport.com follow this. I hope it will help you.
My Granddaughter,two months prior to turning 5 years old,underwent the Cochlear Implant surgery. She will be 6 this coming November. Would like to know if there are any forum members who have had this procedure performed or possibly know others who have. What future problems,if any,may occur? Does a Cochlear Implant actually hold a brighter future for ones who are deaf? Pros & Cons? Any insight on this subject would be greatly appreciated. Thank You!
While now deaf, I heard enough for many, many years. I also have an implant and have had it for over a year and some months. I'm old enough to have grandchildren.
I believe that for children (young kids), CIs have the potential to be a positive life-changing experience. Their minds are more pliable than those who are older (like me). I went to a DDS a couple of years ago and his child had two successful implants. While I thought about it for years, it was time to take the plunge and do massive amounts of research. Giving you a list of pros and cons may go on forever, so I won't do that. I apologize. But I will give you a short list.
Hearing people (the culture) will be more pro-CI than the deaf community. So, you'll see my positive response and if a deaf (they may call themselves Deaf means born that way) person responds, their tendency would be to tell you leave the child alone and let him/her be deaf.
You asked if your grandchild will have a brighter future. I can't answer that. I can tell you that I was born with a loss and it wasn't recognized as one. I was labeled slow. By the mid 60s, a family member bought a hearing aid home. WOW ... My grades zoomed up (hearing helps) and I did okay in life. I'm retired now. But it's dependent on the support and lets just say environmental factors.
Now, hearing with a hearing aid produces natural sounds and with a hearing aid, you hear. A CI processes sounds and it's very different. But to a kid, they're likely to adjust to it better than I have because they really haven't had the mass exposure to life. To a kid in a hearing family, I suspect they'll do a lot better than having a deaf child left deaf in a hearing family. But a deaf child in a deaf family would be fine in life. It's a cultural difference and mindset.
My biggest issues are the costs and all the stuff that comes with it. For me, I seem to have a high rate of return on various pieces and the warranty is not long for the cost. They don't last forever and will need replacement. In that sense, it's like everything else in life. You just have to keep up with it.
I think you get the picture. If you have questions, I will be honest with you. Just send me an email on city-data (or post here but let me know).
American radio personality Rush Limbaugh has had a cochlear implant since 2001, and it doesn't seem to have slowed him down in his field which relies a lot on hearing.
It is definitely an ongoing expense, like any other electronic device, it has to be updated periodically and the parts don't last forever.
I've had degenerative hearing problems since I was born. I have hearing aides, got them just a few years ago. I never wore them daily like you're supposed to, dropped one - it broke. The other one still works fine so I wear that one when I watch TV with my husband maybe three hours a week. I just do it so he doesn't have to turn the volume up higher than his comfort level. I think the only thing I'd really and truly miss once my hearing goes for good, would be the sound of music and the sound of nature. The rest, I can live without. I can read lips, but never learned sign language. I took in college and actually got a decent grade on it, but it just wasn't all that interesting to me so I forgot most of what I learned.
I don't think I'd want to get an implant at this point. But if I was born deaf, instead of merely "hearing impaired and destined to some day become deaf" I think I would've benefited greatly, growing up in a fully hearing-abled family.
First of all I wish to thank each of you for responding to this thread. And a special thank you to those who have shared their own personal experiences. When I first posted this thread back in July of 2013 I became disheartened to see that it had laid dormant for almost a year. Then to my surprise I received an email that someone in June of 2014 had finally posted a reply....I was elated...to say the least.
It has been over two years since my granddaughter had the cochlear implant surgery and (in her case) my cons still outweigh the pros. When she was born she was given the hearing test that they perform in the hospital and she passed the test.
She was born on Nov. 30th and a few days after having turned 3 months old she came down with a head cold. She had a stuffy,runny little nose which,of course,made it difficult for her to suck on her bottle. She had a lowgrade fever,was irritable and fussy. My daughter,living only a few blocks from me,called to keep me up to date on the baby's condition. I advised her to keep a cool washcloth on top of the baby's head to keep the brain cool and suggested that she hold the baby a bit more upright so as to make it a little easier for her to drink her formula. We chatted,on and off,the rest of the evening. Late that night we got hit with a massive snow and ice storm leaving the roads impassible. At noon the next day my daughter called and said they were taking the baby to the hospital. She was crying so hard that I could barely understand what she was saying. I finally got her calmed down enough to talk and my heart sunk when she said that the soft spot on top of the baby's head was all swollen. Tests were preformed on the baby and the results were spinal meningitis. She was life flighted to another hospital.
For weeks she suffered from seizures,strokes,brain bleeds,etc.,etc.,etc. We were told that very few at that age survive. Though we were heartbroken,we were also thankful that the Drs didn't fill us full of false hope. Though she was left with brain damage and deaf,it was months before we would learn whether or not her eyesight was saved from that nightmarish disease. We call her "Our Miracle Baby" and her eyesight is perfect!
American radio personality Rush Limbaugh has had a cochlear implant since 2001, and it doesn't seem to have slowed him down in his field which relies a lot on hearing.
It is definitely an ongoing expense, like any other electronic device, it has to be updated periodically and the parts don't last forever.
First, I will reiterate that a young child has a better chance in life (I believe) because they're just being shaped. Maria Montessori refers to the a child from pre-natal through six years old as having, "The Absorbent Mind." (I was an elem. ed. major among other things.) That's why the grandchild with family support have a greater chance of a seamless acceptance of an implant. I don't want to scare the OP with the rest of what I'm writing.
Expenses are part of life as anything wears down. But the implant itself is so expensive that after the warranty ends and the device stops working, it's not a $150 send it in to be fixed as it might be for an analog hearing aid. It will be much more but I don't know how that looks right now.
Yes, Limbaugh did have an implant. I looked for data about it just now. He apparently already had one in one ear and was advised not to have the other ear done at that time (as was I but I will not get a second). So, he had 13 years of getting used to one first. He couldn't tell where sounds come from. That happens when you have hearing in one ear. The second implant (as he said) would help that. Yes, you also have to get used to understanding mechanical sounds and identifying what they are. It's sort of like relearning how to understand again. It's no different from what happens if you have a hearing loss in both ears and get one aid. You have a type of mono hearing and likely cannot tell where sound's coming from. I used to tell my peers to throw something at me because if they called my name (while working), I'd have no idea where to look to hear. (Sounds funny but it's normal for people like me.)
You will also likely be limited in terms of learning how many were successful and not. I don't know what those parameters are but I've seen graphs and I don't know how truly accurate they are. The implant companies will want to show you the success stories not the unsuccessful ones. So, you'll see some headers to draw you in and perhaps your business. "Mom Hears for the First Time!" This is one example. But medically, she's not hearing she's processing sounds. She really wouldn't know what she was hearing since she never heard before. But, the article got you and served its marketing purpose.
Limbaugh, who has been away from his show for several days, explained that he needed the implant for hearing loss in his right ear. He already had one in his left ear, which he got 13 years ago and was advised to leave his right ear alone at the time.
"I'm not able to identify where a sound is coming from," the radio host said Thursday, according to a transcript of the show. "If I'm in the studio alone and an alarm goes off, I have no idea what it is... Maybe that'll be helped by this."
Sorry about all the writing. My goal is to give another side of the story that you may not hear or read from others. (Thank you city-data.com .)
I have left out a very special part about my granddaughter...that being her name...it is Serenity...quiet,quietness. Ironic? Maybe..and then again maybe not. Since then,our family has been blessed with two more grandchildren. When they got their first head cold,did we panic..did we curl our toes..did we silently pray? Damn right we did!!! Because Serenity was left with three different areas of brain damage she was having yearly MRI's in order to keep watch of the damage. Now due to having the implant she can no longer have an MRI
PeaceOut001...Thank you for your replies. You bring up many issues to this subject!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
cochlear implant is a miracle....
for many, many years. I also have an implant and have had it for over a year and some months. I'm old enough to have grandchildren.
