Sunday 15 May 2005

Showtime....

2005-02 - (May) Update
Just wanted to give an update on our little angel, 2-3/4 years old and using her Ci (bi-lateral) now for 6 months.


It's going great. She's talking away to herself and her dolls, to us. Not that we got to a point that we want to shut her up, but then again, I don't think that time will come.

Today we went to a concert where our son, 8 years, would be singing. Lotte got her own chair and enjoyed it.
In the beginning a piece of Astero Piazzolla, beautifull South American music. (I can recommend this) and she was totally concentrated. Indicating that there was a man playing, and a women. Not sure if she indicated who made the sound, I don't think so.
But these are the special moments, when you sit there with your deaf child and see her concentrated on listning. It's magic.
Other beautiful moments is when she hears music and dances. She has a sister a rolemodel, so copying that goes well. But now she starts by herself. Hearing alarms, recognising the telephone and so on. She tries hard to repeat sounds and manages well at times. She has a great speech therapists who - I think - has her as sort of a private project. (First girl in Norway operated on both sides at the same time, plus she will have to learn Norwegian AND dutch AND continue with sign..

Noticing Sound
She enjoy's the CI. Put's it back when they fall off. At least when she notices. She's not at a stage where she misses sound. She can go on with both CI's loose.
FYI, instead of a microphones behind the ears in combination with two bodyworn processor, we opted for 2 BTE's that she carries on her shoulders. It's working really well.
Next mapping she will get the latest BTE's of Cochlear. She's allready got the latest electrode implanted but uses the old type BTE.
(AllDeaf)

9 comments:

Cloggy said...

Cheri (AllDeaf)
Cute daughter by the way, I have some questions, How come she wears two? instead of one? Those shown on her head, does she remove those if showering or what? When you stated that she puts it back on when it falls off, She enjoyed her CI, that doesn't mean she enjoys it, Hearing aids does the same as well. How long of period of time before you consider giving her cochlear Implants, when you first noticed that hearing aids weren't benefiting her during the year of 2003 to 2004?
(http://www.alldeaf.com/hearing-aids-cochlear-implants/27616-experiences-my-daughter.html#post517216)

Cloggy said...

Answer to Sheri
She wears two because she has them on both sides. Two CI's are giving her better understanding in noisy environment and will give her sense of where the sound comes from. This we found out lately when one of her BTE's was broken. She had trouble in noisy environment and her sense of direction was based on experience, knowing where the sound should come from
In addition it was great that she had two, because now she could still hear. Had she had only 1, then she would have been deaf for 1 to 2 weeks.

In the shower she takes them off and she's deaf, so we use sign. But she also reads lips. She almost fooled us when we were testing if the CI was working. USing standard words to test it, she repeated the words perfectly.... until we covered our mouth!

Regarding considering CI: We applied for it while we tried HA's HAd she benefitted from HA's we just would have stopped the request for CI.
BUt she never reacted to sounds in the 1½ years she used them. And she only wanted to wear them in the deaf-kindergarten. Not at home.

Not really sure by what you mean with "When you stated that she puts it back on when it falls off, She enjoyed her CI, that doesn't mean she enjoys it, Hearing aids does the same as well. "
My main indication that she enjoys the CI is that she wants it after she wakes up. Plus, she wants it back on when it falls off.
I'm not sure how HA's come into this picture. The HA's were probably more uncomfortable because of the molds in her ear. Small ears, growing etc didn't make the situation easier. She went through 3 molds I thinks... and lost a few due to her disassembling them in the car....

So I can really say she likes CI, she likes to hear. She couldn't hear with HA's
(http://www.alldeaf.com/hearing-aids-cochlear-implants/27616-experiences-my-daughter.html#post517442)

Anonymous said...

Regarding Bilateral CI
I think that the bilateral CI should be limited. Just b/c it is so expensive, and b/c most people can benifit from more traditional amplification. Also should wait in pediatric cases so that the kid can help choose if they want it.
I disagree with waiting til they are teenagers, but I do think that pediatric cases should wait on a second implant.

Cloggy said...

When it's obvious a child cannot hear, is profoundly deaf, then it is a pity that economics would be a dcisive factor.
We choose for Cochlear implant because they would provide the next CI for free. We would have to pay for the operation. Then, just before the operation, the hospital offered both in 1 operation.

We took the offer. 1 operation instead of two is allready an advantage. Also, having heared with 1 ear, the other ear will have to learn from scratch. (We see it with children now hetting the second CI, standard inn Norway)

We see a large benefit in directional hearing and general comprehension. We noticed it when one of the processors broke, and she had only 1 left.
Directional hearing was gone. (I experienced that once when I had a bad ear infection on 1 side... lack of direction was a handicap.... not serious, but annoying)
It also showed another advantage of bi-lateral: she could still hear even with 1 processor defect.

When the CI has to be payed by the user/family themself, then I agree that it is a problem to justify the costs. And in "one of the richest countries in the world" it is a pity that CI is not provided by the state. I guess that for many families even the FIRST CI could be such a financial burden that the decision is NOT to have one.
As I have stated before. Economics should NOT be a factor.

Cloggy said...

Additional info from this article:
(http://www.4hearingloss.com/archives/2006/06/study_focuses_o.html)
-------------------
Study focuses on cochlear implant placement
Sequential placement of cochlear implants -- electronic devices that can help restore partial hearing to deaf people -- in both a child's ears may help improve speech perception in quiet and noisy settings, a U.S. study finds. The study included 30 children, aged 3 to 13, who received one cochlear implant and then a second in the other ear a minimum of six months later.

The children's speech perception in quiet and in noise was tested at three, six, and 12 months in both unilateral (one ear) and bilateral hearing conditions.

The children's speech perception in quiet and in noise was tested at three, six, and 12 months in both unilateral (one ear) and bilateral hearing conditions.

In quiet conditions, the children acquired speech perception in the second ear within six months, but children younger than age 8 did so more quickly and acquired a higher level of speech perception compared to older children, said researchers at the Dallas Otolaryngology Cochlear Implant Program, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The children's speech perception in noisy conditions was much better when they had two cochlear implants than just one, the researchers added.

"Bilateral sequentially implanted children who are successful users of their first device are able to obtain open set speech discrimination in their second ear, even when receiving their second implant as late as 13 years of age," the researchers wrote. "Speech perception scores in the second ear improve with experience during the first six months of implant use. Scores continue to improve for up to 12 months in younger children. Further experience past six months may not add an additional improvement in older children," they added.

The study was presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Otological Society, in Chicago.

By Robert Preidt
----------
(AllDeaf: http://www.alldeaf.com/hearing-aids-cochlear-implants/29097-new-hearing-parents-positive-story-2.html?highlight=directional#post550512post550173)

Anonymous said...

Lest you misunderstand me, I'm not against others getting bilaterals. My thing is that the benefits of a second CI comes no where close to what the first one gives you (one reason why I have no interest in it for myself...go through all that for this amount of improvement?!?). Sound localization is a trivial issue in life. Now, I can agree listening with other sounds going on where a second CI could be helpful. But I disagree that would be true for all folks. Listening to somebody with background noise is more of a function how well one's brain can filter such interference. It is easiest for those with normal hearing as there is a incredible dynamic involved with it and how it does what it does. Can't really replicate that with HAs nor even with CIs. Here I am with one ear (first with HA and now with CI) can do very well where there is noise involved. In fact, when the audiologists were testing me, they couldn't understand why I did almost as well with no noise. I assumed that must be that my brain does a superb job filtering out the junk. Hence, my view getting a second CI is so problematical...it may or may not be such a great thing to the person. Some people have enough trouble with just one CI.

Anonymous said...

I think that the bilateral CI should be limited. Just b/c it is so expensive, and b/c most people can benifit from more traditional amplification. Also should wait in pediatric cases so that the kid can help choose if they want it.
I disagree with waiting til they are teenagers, but I do think that pediatric cases should wait on a second implant.

Cloggy said...

When it's obvious a child cannot hear, is profoundly deaf, then it is a pity that economics would be a dcisive factor.
We choose for Cochlear implant because they would provide the next CI for free. We would have to pay for the operation. Then, just before the operation, the hospital offered both in 1 operation.

We took the offer. 1 operation instead of two is allready an advantage. Also, having heared with 1 ear, the other ear will have to learn from scratch. (We see it with children now hetting the second CI, standard inn Norway)

We see a large benefit in directional hearing and general comprehension. We noticed it when one of the processors broke, and she had only 1 left.
Directional hearing was gone. (I experienced that once when I had a bad ear infection on 1 side... lack of direction was a handicap.... not serious, but annoying)
It also showed another advantage of bi-lateral: she could still hear even with 1 processor defect.

When the CI has to be payed by the user/family themself, then I agree that it is a problem to justify the costs. And in "one of the richest countries in the world" it is a pity that CI is not provided by the state. I guess that for many families even the FIRST CI could be such a financial burden that the decision is NOT to have one.
As I have stated before. Economics should NOT be a factor.

Anonymous said...

Two hearing aids vs. Bilateral Hearing
Two Hearing aids as compared to bilateral cochlear implants: There are virtually no benefits of continuing to wear the hearing aids when comparing the benefits of cochlear implants. Today’s cochlear implants technology is superior to hearing aids in every category as possible. Therefore, bilateral cochlear implants have huge advantage over the hearing aids, no question at all.

Noise: I can greatly hear better in very noisy areas such as bar, diners, and more. This is very impressive to me and many people told me that I am very different person since I am more responsive than I was with hearing aids. With bilateral hearing, I was able to “cut” and “slice” the echoes and noises across the room and just to hear a person talking in the crowd, just like focusing with telescope.

Speech: My speech has improved greatly, and I had no problems hearing others and speaking as well. I just realized that bilateral hearing helped me to clear out the confusion in understanding the spoken words! I rarely had any confusion understanding the words, even repeating my speech, which is very common with hearing aids. I plan to take speech therapy to greatly improve my new found bilateral hearing and my speech.

Telephone interaction: Wearing the hearing aids, I had to deal with several barriers using the telephones. One of the barriers is the electromagnetic interference from the cellphone. Another barrier using the landline phones is the feedback. Feedback is always constant and challenging when the handset and hearing aids gets too close. With cochlear implants, all the barriers are gone and all I need to do now is learning how to listen the caller. My wife and I are starting talking on the phone more and more than ever because my speech has more clarity and I can understand what she said. I prefer to use speakerphone mode because I can hear much better with my bilateral cochlear implants.

Social Interaction With Strangers: My experience of communicating with strangers are always awkward with hearing aids because I never understood what they said. Now I was able to understand the strangers’ speech better than before. Hearing aids does not help me to hear most critical sounds that speech produces such as /s/ and /sh/.

Family: I live in two-story house with no carpets, and I have a 13 month old daughter. With hearing aids, I recalled that there is so many echoes in the house and I was not able to hear my wife calling me downstairs. All has changed with bilateral implants that my house is very quiet so I was able to hear my wife calling me. One time I heard my baby talking downstairs, too. All and more experiences have assured me I am able to hear these critical sounds with bilateral hearing.

Environmental Surroundings: I recall many experiences that I had hard time hearing the source of the sounds by echolocationing. Now with my bilateral cochlear implants, I was surprised and impressed that I can echolocationing on the first day of bilateral hearing. All the sounds around me such as nature (birds singing, etc…), retail stores (squeaky carts, talking, echos are less distracting), driving (hearing cars around me, listening for 18 wheelers, motorcycles), and many more that I do take granted with bilateral hearing.

(Some) Milestones

  • 2013-08: Grade 6
  • 2012-08: Grade 5
  • 2011-08: Grade 4
  • 2011-03: BTE's on the ear
  • 2010-08: Grade 3
  • 2009-08: Grade 2
  • 2008-08: Mainstream School (6y. old)
  • 2006-10: All-hearing Kindergarten (4y. old)
  • 2004-11-22: CI activated (27 m. old)
  • 2004-10-04: Bi-lateral CI (26 m. old)
  • 2003-08: Deaf/HOH/CI Pre-school/"DEAF" Kindergarten (12m. old)
  • 2003-07: HA's fitted (11 m. old)
  • 2003-06: Diagnosed deaf. Start sign-language (10m. old)
  • 2002-11: Suspicion loss of hearing (4 m. old)
  • 2002-08: Born - A fierce LION
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