@lizzy102 I was remiss in joining this conversation until now but I have just read through all of it. I want to thank you for journaling your whole experience so well. It's exactly what a person who is considering a CI needs -- the pros and the cons. I know I will refer back to it if/when the time comes that I do qualify for a CI.

I am not quite to the point where I qualify for a CI but I know I am not too far from it. My hearing has degraded quite a bit in the last few years and my word recognition has really decreased. This seems to have happened since I had a liver transplant in 09.2016. I have read that there is some possibility that those things could be related - hearing loss and immunosuppressants. If so it's not a common side-effect but a less frequent one. It can be very discouraging and depressing to be in a group and not understand much at all of what is being said, even when speaking directly to one individual. The background noise intrudes too much. My family, particularly my son, try to accommodate my loss, and the couple we spend most of our social time with are very accommodating. She, coincidentally, had a deaf aunt and was a teacher of deaf children so they both have dealt with hearing loss.

I know that you cannot wear a CI in the water. I go to water aerobic classes regularly and wear my hearing aids -- my head remains above water, but there have been a couple of occasions when I slipped and my hearing aids were briefly submerged. They were not damaged by that brief submersion. Would that be so also for a CI?
Thanks again for such an informative journal of your experiences.
JK