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Hearing aids in but still not understanding words
Hearing Loss | Last Active: Nov 4 4:08pm | Replies (135)Comment receiving replies
Did that ENT say anything about you qualifying for a cochlear implant? Your 40% word recognition should qualify you.
The idea of surgery can be frightening. Sometimes we express that fear to the point where the CI option isn't addressed. Of course, our state of health is a consideration. I do know several people who have benefitted from cochlea implants in their 80s and 90s. Age should not be an issue in a healthy individual.
It is also important to understand how modern hearing aids can work with remote devices like microphones and cell phones. Was that explained clearly at your appointment?
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Julie thanks for this helpful reply giving information on CIs. In answer to your question of whether my audiologist or the ENT had ever mentioned a cochlear implant (with my one ear Word Recognition score being in the 40s percentage) the answer is No but the ENT has been pushing the device called EarLens (for which his practice is the main vendor in the area) instead of hearing aids. I looked that up and was not interested (he finally has stopped mentioning it).
But since I last wrote about a year ago I tried a Roger On accessory from my audiologist who had never seen one but learnt enough to show me the basics. I found it very useful with my husband one on one but if he only remembered to face me I wouldn’t need it. It was also good when 4 people were at a meal in our house and I pointed it to the soft spoken but loquacious man. But it didn’t work in the middle of the table for that group and was hopeless in a restaurant with me across from my husband as it picked up the conversation from the table behind me.
So I didn’t think for me it was worth $1300 so returned it. But that experience made me question whether my audiologist who had been great for my lesser hearing loss stage would be equally good for my current severe in my opinion loss. I had heard years back another audiologist speak at an HLAA meeting and she had mentioned having local PhD audiology students to help patients with technology even going as far as going to their homes for tv connect issues etc. I could have done with support for the Roger On and maybe would have then kept it. End of story I have now changed to this audiologist who is fitting me with an earmold with my BTE phonaks to see if that makes any difference. She also has a cache of old donated hearing aids and has given me a pair of oticons as my back up pair were not functioning well. So a new day and although I don’t have much hope that the ear molds will make much difference a relative (much younger) said they made a world of difference for him over domes. Sorry this is so long!