Dear Judy, 4 months since my CI was connected and I still feel like I’m a miracle everyday! My 3 m evaluation showed that before CI with both hearing aids my sentence recognition was 14% and now it is 100%! hearing in noise was 0, and now is 60%. Amazing. My audiologist says I am a Superstar and I certainly feel like one. I am grateful every single day. My story similar to so many others, diminishing hearing then profoundly deaf and Hearing Aids not helpful and such a misery, for me especially but also my husband and family who felt a great loss. I didn’t know of anyone who had a CI or about HLAA so my research was long and arduous. I tried to “keep up” socially but so exhausting. I even took Italian lessons! Which were so difficult but ultimately helped with CI in ‘stretching “ my brain as my audiologist said. After 3 years of being deaf and all that entails, I chose John Hopkins and began my journey to hearing. At first evaluation I was “overqualified’ for a CI and Medicare coverage. Still I continued to research, I found and walked into an HLAA office one day and met 2 women who had CIs and one who had used Johns Hopkins and same surgeon I was considering. One woman very young and the other my age and I was so excited! From that point on my decision was made and began the process, including meeting with surgeon, audiologists, CAT scans, physical etc. Surgery in mid January and connected one month later. I chose Cochlear brand because it is the most compatible with IPhone and Resound which were my former hearing aids. I was told that all 3 companies are very good and just a matter of individual differences, like IPhone. As I mentioned, I could hear and understand immediately, I can talk on the phone with Cochlear program and works like a charm, I can hear TV although accents and dialects not so much. Background noise is an issue because I am hypersensitive to it but can hear as well as a hearing person in noisy restaurants and places. Sometimes difficult with wind or person not close by to be able to tell where sound is coming from but that is minor to me. I was supposed to have an evaluation for a hearing aid on my left year but decided to wait til 6m visit to see if I want one because I hear as much as I want right now. Haha. I can’t praise Johns Hopkins enough, every doctor audiologist technician and support has been outstanding and continues to be. I understand that this is just my experience and others vary but I can only speak of mine. This is very long Judy but I hope it helps, I would have been happy to have such input when I was first considering. I am happy to answer any questions you may have . I wish you the best on your journey, Christina

This thread just popped up again. Since my initial response, I have heard a few other stories about people being told that their hearing isn't bad enough for a cochlear implant. Again, I want to encourage anyone who has been told that to consider being tested at a CI center/hospital. The criteria for candidacy is considerably lower than it was even a decade ago.

It seems that some hearing aid providers; be they audiologists or hearing instrument specialists, do not always suggest CIs to their customers. In many instances, those providers lose a customer if the person becomes a CI recipient. I don't like to think that is a reason for not encouraging someone who is struggling with hearing aids to consider a CI, but as many providers have said: "It is a business". (That is my reason for using the term 'customer' rather than 'patient' in this post.)

Also, some providers do not have current information about the success rate of cochlear implants. After re reading the post by judyca7, I ask the question "What does a provider mean by hearing aids being 'completely useless'?