How long have you had it?

1 year

Is it worth all the hassle and expenses?

Yes. It made communication easier.

However, i live in france where all those expense are covered by our “social security”. I wish USA stop thinking about cost/debt and try our medical system. It will be better for everyone.

I can listen to podcast without transcript and hear without reading lips for the first time in my life. It is still difficult but i’m improving steadily. :)

Does the garbling sounds ever disappear?

Dunno. I read that cochlear implant can reduce Tinnitus.

How comfortable are they?

Very comfortable. Clean up is easy, i wear them every day. The very first time, i couldn’t bear high pitched sound because i never heard them. My hearing world was limited to hearing aids capability and hearing aids don’t support high pitched sound. Slowly, as i grow accoustumed to the news sounds, they increased cochlear implant ability.

when the cochlear implant is activated, it will start at the lowest power. And every month they will increase until you reach 30db. It is a gradual process.

How differently do people look at you for wearing it?

I’m different. Deaf community reject people wearing cochlear implant. Often my deafness is invisible and i had to explain that i’m deaf.

So i decided to wear a beautiful white cochlear implant to show them that i’m deaf and i love hearing aid, cochlear implant and i don’t care about their opinion. 😁

@zhayl@lemmy.world

Depending on our hearing background, our hearing experience will be different. You will find more accurate answer from people who share a similar profil to you.

As for myself. I’m profoundly deaf since my birth. I weared hearing aid since my 3 years old and decided to get an cochlear implant in my thirty years old.

I prefer starting by debunking misconception about the cochlear implant. :)

how the operation will go ?
It will be quick, the operation last 2h. You will fell nothing when you wake up. Over hours your ear will hurt lightly, it will last 1-2 weeks. You will have some vertigo for 1-2 weeks too.

And one month later, they will activate the cochlear implant at its lowest power. They will increase ets power gradually.

Don’t play with rugby and Electromagnetism

The cochlear implant doesn’t like shocks : boxe, rugby…and anything that can interact with its magnet under your head’s skin : airport scanner, irm scanner…

You will stay deaf

Yes, you will hear better and it is better than hearing aids. You will hear more details. Hearing aids cannot produce high-pitched sound, only cochlear implant can achieve that.

It will improve your communication. But lot hearing people do the mistake thinking you can hear as everyone do. No, you are deaf. And wearing the cochlear implant will exhaust you, you won’t notice it.

So, use every possible meant of communication that can help you daily. It will lower your fatigue :

• text communication instead of phone
• speech to text (ava, lokas (framasoft, foss app))
• collaborative pad (etherpad, cryptpad)
• rogervoice
• writing
• alert light…

The cochlear implant doesn’t work immediately, there is 1-2 year of auditory rehabilitation

You won’t be able to hear sound speech the first time your cochlear implant is activated. There is 1 to 2 years of auditory rehabilitation.

It depends of people but usually, the first time, people will hear nothing or some cryptic sound. Let’s imagine you don’t know chinese. If you go in China, the first time their chinese will be mixed, you can’t distinguish a word. And over time, you will be able to notice the same word “niiao”, then later you will see the word “Nihao”.

There is 1 to 2 years of auditory rehabilitation. You will have to wait 1 month to distinguish the speaking sound. And around the 3-6 months you will start hearing words, or sentence. It depends of people. Maybe it will be faster, slower…your brain will do everything, its amazing.

You will never hear as hearing people do, tfe sound is different

• The sound will be different, it sounds metalic. However, you can hear birds, small noises, high pitched sound. Your communication will be easier. Maybe the picture won’t have the accurate color, the same blue than most people, but no pixels will be missing and the color will be still blue.

• In loud environnement, it will be hard to discuss with people. The cochlear implant can’t filter sound as an ear does but there are option to reduce ambient noise and improve communication in loud environnement.

• Hearing with a cochlear implant or hearing aid will exhaust you. Not a lot but when you will remove it, you may enjoy those silent moments. You will be not aware of your fatigue.

A good friend has one, also only for one ear. People don’t really notice, I’d say. I don’t think it really restored a lot of hearing but he still wears it usually as it is still better than nothing. He got it pretty quickly after his hearing loss, so no idea how that would be after 20 years. He got them for free through standard health care as far as I know. I don’t think he’d be willing to pay a lot for it if he had to. But I never asked that directly. Not aure if that helps. If you want I can try to ask him some specific questions if I remember to do so.

I am not deaf and fortunately nobody from my family is.

But I have a friend who is a electronic technician and he activates those implants, make some checks up after a month and make sure the fine running is adapted to your needs.

He is under paid, needs to travel a lot, working on Sundays when needed and some times his working hours are long and exhausting.

He still says he has the fucking best job of the world and he is not thinking in switching in a million years.

I guess they work good and they are quite rewarding if just the technicians are this devote to the job

@Snoopy@piefed.social this might interest you.