)
This 21 year old named Raia is getting her second cochlear implant. I loved watching her response and her situation is closer to the one of mine. Except the ear that's getting implanted has a little residual hearing and mine doesn't. This is her third blog. There are two video's she did before this that explains her story and experience with getting her first implant. It has a lot of good information.
I haven't had the time write up the blog I wanted to do about cochlear activation so you can understand my reactions and experiences better. So here's this. I hope this will will do.
I'm jealous that she only had to wait a week and I had to wait 5 for my activation but it's tomorrow!!!! I did appreciate letting it heal first to prevent infections and discomfort with a cochlear implant on my ear putting pressure on my incision.
Good night all! :D
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
The function of a normal hearing ear vs. hearing with a cochlear implant
I know a lot of you have questions about what a cochlear implant is and how it causes a non-hearing ear to hear. I thought we should start with the basics so you can get a clear, concise description you can understand fully. This will help later when I explain the significant new technology features of the my cochlear implant. Now here is a disclaimer: I'm going to be referencing AB (Advanced Bionics) website to help me explain. It's the original device that I wanted and their site has better content and information. If you want to roam the site yourself it covers most of what I'm going to be explaining. So here is the link to their website and the device name is Naida CI Q70 http://www.advancedbionics.com/us/en/home.html It's very exciting significantly new technology! The device I chose is called Nucleus 6 made by Cochlear. (More information about the implant will be available on an upcoming blog.)
The ear is made of the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear and contains the eardrum, ossicles, cochlea, and auditory nerve.
The outer ear portion of the ear that you can see is called the Pinna. The purpose of the Pinna, and it's unique shape, is to collect sound and amplify/boost the sound pressure, and concentrate the sound to travel down the ear canal to the ear drum, like a funnel but for sound waves. It's the natural amplification of sound that makes the ears so sensitive to frequencies and the human ear can hear in a certain certain pitch range. The Pinna is always pointing forward, because of this it helps to locate the direction sound is coming from. Sound coming from each direction bounces off the outer ear in a different way, this alters the pattern of the wave. Your brain analyzes and recognizes patterns and compares the different waves ,which then determines what the sound is and where the sounds are coming from, but it takes both of your ears to truly be able to tell sound direction. Your brain compares the information collected from both ears and then comes to a conclusion. For example, when you hear a sound to your left the sound will be louder in your left ear than your right, and the sound will be heard in your left ear before its heard in the right. When your deaf in one ear you hear the sound, but unless it's immediately to the side of the good ear determining location based on hearing alone is very hard.
The eardrum is a tiny flap of skin that separates the ear canal and the middle ear and is one of two sensory parts of the ear. It serves to detect sound, protect the middle ear physically, and also protects the inner ear from noise extremes especially loud, low-pitched noises. To help you further understand the eardrum, it acts like the diaphragm in microphones. Sound waves cause the diaphragm (ex: paper) to vibrate back and forth and the vibrations travels down the intended path (the ossicles aka ear bones), becomes an electric signal which in this case is the audio signal (the cochlea and auditory nerve), interpreted by audio equipment (the brain). The higher the pitch the more rapidly the eardrum vibrates, and the louder noises cause the eardrum to move back and forth further than soft noises. One element that isn't needed in microphones is your Eustachian tubes. These tubes connect your middle ear to your throat, so air moves up these tubes into your ears and creates a pressure balance from both sides of the eardrum allowing it to move back and forth freely.
When the brain receives information the ear needs to be protected from a sound, a natural reflex happens where certain muscles connected to the eardrum contract. This causes the eardrum to become more taut and rigid which in turn pulls the ear bones in the opposite direction decreasing the effectiveness of the vibration pathway. This makes it harder to hear the lower sound vibrations, thus dampening some of the noise, making the sound less damaging to the middle ear. This reflex also helps you dampen background noise (low pitched sound) so you can hear higher pitched noises you desire to hear better, like speech. When you're talking your eardrums use this reflex the same way so your voice does not drown out the sound around you while your talking.
So I've mentioned a part of the ear called the Ossicles a few times already. They are also known as "ear bones". This is essentially what the ossicles are, they are three tiny bones (the tiniest in your body) connecting the eardrum to the cochlea. In order they are called the Malleus, Incus and Stapes, also referred as the hammer, anvil and stirrup. The Malleus is connected to the center of the inside of the eardrum so vibration and movement from the eardrum moves and vibrates and malleus. Then from the malleus to the incus to the stapes. The end of the stapes rests against the cochlea and transfers the sounds waves to the cochlea. The vibration of the eardrum itself does not have the momentum and power to affect the cochlea by itself, so the bones act to amplify the momentum or pressure of the vibration.The cochlea is a snail like structure that is divided into three fluid filled canals. The fluid is almost identical to spinal fluid. The cochlea uses this fluid to conduct sound as opposed to air. Fluid is harder to move than air, which is why the vibration of the eardrum is inefficient to affect the cochlea. The vibrations cause ripples like in a pond that travels along the canals to the other end of the cochlea where the auditory nerve is located. (Hint: the cochlea is the part of my ear and is completely non-functioning.)
The cochlea is the most complex part of the ear. It's job is to take the physical vibrations it receives from the Stapes and translates and transforms the vibration signal into an electrical signal the brain can receive, interpret and understand. I'm going to mostly skip how different parts of the cochlea helps interpret different parts of sound but it is fascinating if you want to look it up.When the ripples get to a certain part of the cochlea called the organ of corti, which has thousands of miniscule hair cells, the energy caused by the vibration/ripples hit against and move these hair cells. When this happens the hair cells send a complex pattern of electrical impulses through the auditory nerve to the brain.
I'm going to stop here. I know I've promised more, and it's coming, just not as fast as I'd hoped. Writing is not the easiest for me and it's slow going. I posted a video just before this blog that is a visual of the process that I just explained and also touches on how a cochlear implant works.
My cochlear implant activation is on Thursday March 13th at 1pm!!! I'll receive the outer part of my implant. They will connect it, turn it on and start the slow process of programming it. This happens at the hearing rehabilitation clinic which is not at the U of M hospital. The next day I have an appointment with Dr. Telian which is at the hospital, and plan to stop by and visit the OR. Hopefully the appointment won't be long and I can catch people on their lunch. I'm so excited!!! I hope everyone is well!!
The ear is made of the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear and contains the eardrum, ossicles, cochlea, and auditory nerve.
The outer ear portion of the ear that you can see is called the Pinna. The purpose of the Pinna, and it's unique shape, is to collect sound and amplify/boost the sound pressure, and concentrate the sound to travel down the ear canal to the ear drum, like a funnel but for sound waves. It's the natural amplification of sound that makes the ears so sensitive to frequencies and the human ear can hear in a certain certain pitch range. The Pinna is always pointing forward, because of this it helps to locate the direction sound is coming from. Sound coming from each direction bounces off the outer ear in a different way, this alters the pattern of the wave. Your brain analyzes and recognizes patterns and compares the different waves ,which then determines what the sound is and where the sounds are coming from, but it takes both of your ears to truly be able to tell sound direction. Your brain compares the information collected from both ears and then comes to a conclusion. For example, when you hear a sound to your left the sound will be louder in your left ear than your right, and the sound will be heard in your left ear before its heard in the right. When your deaf in one ear you hear the sound, but unless it's immediately to the side of the good ear determining location based on hearing alone is very hard.
The eardrum is a tiny flap of skin that separates the ear canal and the middle ear and is one of two sensory parts of the ear. It serves to detect sound, protect the middle ear physically, and also protects the inner ear from noise extremes especially loud, low-pitched noises. To help you further understand the eardrum, it acts like the diaphragm in microphones. Sound waves cause the diaphragm (ex: paper) to vibrate back and forth and the vibrations travels down the intended path (the ossicles aka ear bones), becomes an electric signal which in this case is the audio signal (the cochlea and auditory nerve), interpreted by audio equipment (the brain). The higher the pitch the more rapidly the eardrum vibrates, and the louder noises cause the eardrum to move back and forth further than soft noises. One element that isn't needed in microphones is your Eustachian tubes. These tubes connect your middle ear to your throat, so air moves up these tubes into your ears and creates a pressure balance from both sides of the eardrum allowing it to move back and forth freely.
When the brain receives information the ear needs to be protected from a sound, a natural reflex happens where certain muscles connected to the eardrum contract. This causes the eardrum to become more taut and rigid which in turn pulls the ear bones in the opposite direction decreasing the effectiveness of the vibration pathway. This makes it harder to hear the lower sound vibrations, thus dampening some of the noise, making the sound less damaging to the middle ear. This reflex also helps you dampen background noise (low pitched sound) so you can hear higher pitched noises you desire to hear better, like speech. When you're talking your eardrums use this reflex the same way so your voice does not drown out the sound around you while your talking.
So I've mentioned a part of the ear called the Ossicles a few times already. They are also known as "ear bones". This is essentially what the ossicles are, they are three tiny bones (the tiniest in your body) connecting the eardrum to the cochlea. In order they are called the Malleus, Incus and Stapes, also referred as the hammer, anvil and stirrup. The Malleus is connected to the center of the inside of the eardrum so vibration and movement from the eardrum moves and vibrates and malleus. Then from the malleus to the incus to the stapes. The end of the stapes rests against the cochlea and transfers the sounds waves to the cochlea. The vibration of the eardrum itself does not have the momentum and power to affect the cochlea by itself, so the bones act to amplify the momentum or pressure of the vibration.The cochlea is a snail like structure that is divided into three fluid filled canals. The fluid is almost identical to spinal fluid. The cochlea uses this fluid to conduct sound as opposed to air. Fluid is harder to move than air, which is why the vibration of the eardrum is inefficient to affect the cochlea. The vibrations cause ripples like in a pond that travels along the canals to the other end of the cochlea where the auditory nerve is located. (Hint: the cochlea is the part of my ear and is completely non-functioning.)
The cochlea is the most complex part of the ear. It's job is to take the physical vibrations it receives from the Stapes and translates and transforms the vibration signal into an electrical signal the brain can receive, interpret and understand. I'm going to mostly skip how different parts of the cochlea helps interpret different parts of sound but it is fascinating if you want to look it up.When the ripples get to a certain part of the cochlea called the organ of corti, which has thousands of miniscule hair cells, the energy caused by the vibration/ripples hit against and move these hair cells. When this happens the hair cells send a complex pattern of electrical impulses through the auditory nerve to the brain.
I'm going to stop here. I know I've promised more, and it's coming, just not as fast as I'd hoped. Writing is not the easiest for me and it's slow going. I posted a video just before this blog that is a visual of the process that I just explained and also touches on how a cochlear implant works.
My cochlear implant activation is on Thursday March 13th at 1pm!!! I'll receive the outer part of my implant. They will connect it, turn it on and start the slow process of programming it. This happens at the hearing rehabilitation clinic which is not at the U of M hospital. The next day I have an appointment with Dr. Telian which is at the hospital, and plan to stop by and visit the OR. Hopefully the appointment won't be long and I can catch people on their lunch. I'm so excited!!! I hope everyone is well!!
Video describing normal hearing and cochlear implant hearing
I'm not sure why the video isn't working, so here is the link. I strongly suggest you watch it, it's very helpful!
http://bcove.me/hqu50trw
Friday, November 22, 2013
My test results
*Huge Grin*
That about covers it. I'm going to look to my sore ear and I have celebrating to do! Have a lovely weekend!!
That about covers it. I'm going to look to my sore ear and I have celebrating to do! Have a lovely weekend!!
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
This Friday, November 22nd, is when they test my right ear auditory nerve!!!!!!
Hello everyone,
I've been working on a bigger post that will have a lot of information about the hearing ear, how it works, how cochlear implants work and information on the cochlear implant that I plan to get (I get to choose!). While that is being written (I'm struggling to find time) I thought I would put up information about the test I'm going to have this friday. Now this is a significant procedure. For real this time, this will give the official answer as to whether I am a cochlear implant candidate!!! I don't know if I'll get the results that day or very soon after. I'm thinking I'll have the answer by Thanksgiving, at least I hope! If this test is successful, the next step will be to get pre-approval for surgery from the insurance company. Now on average that can take up to 6 weeks to receive a response/decision about surgery, but since this is not a usual case it could take longer than that. I'm hoping to receive an answer by the end of January, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. :-D
I wanted to have information up on this test so when all of my supporters have questions, hopefully this would help. Your welcome to ask any questions you like. I also plan on writing a post Friday night to at least state the status of the results.
Electrical promontory stimulation test (testing the level of nerve response)
This type of test is one of the first procedures used in the selection of prospective patients for cochlear implantation. The test requires the patient to be awake because it relies on their responses.
So what they do is numb up my ear, and they would place an needle/electrode through my ear drum to the proper nerve and stimulate it with electrical impulses. According to one article a second reference electrode will be placed on my forehead, although I'm not sure why. They will use many types of pulses (ex: constant vs. a rhythm) and a range of stimulation (ex: low vs. high/loud). Pulsed electrical stimulation is earier for patient's to detect, especially if there is any ringing in the ear's. Now that I've paid attention more this happens at least once a week, I guess I grew accustomed to it. They will also carefully and slowly increasing the amount of stimulation until the signal can be consistently detected. The more stimulation it takes to make a consistent response, the less sensitive the nerve is.
This test is recommeended especially for patient's that have my type of hearing, no hearing at all. In fact because my auditory nerve has NEVER been used, there is a possibility that the electrical impulses could cause a 'false' interpretation from the brain. This is because I would lack auditory memory from the corresponding part of my brain to my right ear to associate the impulses its receiving to sound. It can be expected that I may not "hear" the impulses but could feel pain in the inner ear possibly into the neck, dizziness, tingling in the arms, chest or head, a warm sensation, etc.
If there is no response or very low response, then a cochlear implant would not be an option. So I hope you can understand when I say that I am greatly excited for this procedure, but a little nervous. I'm very optimistic about the results I receive. In case I'm not a candidate, at least I will know. I know a lot more than I did before this great turn of events in my life, that's for sure. This has already been life changing. The response from those I know has been absolutely wonderful. Honestly I was quite stunned at how many people wanted to stay actively informed warmed my heart. I thank all of you for supporting me. I'm sure it couldn't be easy to deal with my excitement and how much I've wanted/needed to talk about it and enlighten them on where I am with my countdown. Probably to the point of annoyance. So thank you!!!!!
I hope everyone is well and I will update again Friday night!! 2 more days!!! :-P
I've been working on a bigger post that will have a lot of information about the hearing ear, how it works, how cochlear implants work and information on the cochlear implant that I plan to get (I get to choose!). While that is being written (I'm struggling to find time) I thought I would put up information about the test I'm going to have this friday. Now this is a significant procedure. For real this time, this will give the official answer as to whether I am a cochlear implant candidate!!! I don't know if I'll get the results that day or very soon after. I'm thinking I'll have the answer by Thanksgiving, at least I hope! If this test is successful, the next step will be to get pre-approval for surgery from the insurance company. Now on average that can take up to 6 weeks to receive a response/decision about surgery, but since this is not a usual case it could take longer than that. I'm hoping to receive an answer by the end of January, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. :-D
I wanted to have information up on this test so when all of my supporters have questions, hopefully this would help. Your welcome to ask any questions you like. I also plan on writing a post Friday night to at least state the status of the results.
Electrical promontory stimulation test (testing the level of nerve response)
This type of test is one of the first procedures used in the selection of prospective patients for cochlear implantation. The test requires the patient to be awake because it relies on their responses.
So what they do is numb up my ear, and they would place an needle/electrode through my ear drum to the proper nerve and stimulate it with electrical impulses. According to one article a second reference electrode will be placed on my forehead, although I'm not sure why. They will use many types of pulses (ex: constant vs. a rhythm) and a range of stimulation (ex: low vs. high/loud). Pulsed electrical stimulation is earier for patient's to detect, especially if there is any ringing in the ear's. Now that I've paid attention more this happens at least once a week, I guess I grew accustomed to it. They will also carefully and slowly increasing the amount of stimulation until the signal can be consistently detected. The more stimulation it takes to make a consistent response, the less sensitive the nerve is.
This test is recommeended especially for patient's that have my type of hearing, no hearing at all. In fact because my auditory nerve has NEVER been used, there is a possibility that the electrical impulses could cause a 'false' interpretation from the brain. This is because I would lack auditory memory from the corresponding part of my brain to my right ear to associate the impulses its receiving to sound. It can be expected that I may not "hear" the impulses but could feel pain in the inner ear possibly into the neck, dizziness, tingling in the arms, chest or head, a warm sensation, etc.
If there is no response or very low response, then a cochlear implant would not be an option. So I hope you can understand when I say that I am greatly excited for this procedure, but a little nervous. I'm very optimistic about the results I receive. In case I'm not a candidate, at least I will know. I know a lot more than I did before this great turn of events in my life, that's for sure. This has already been life changing. The response from those I know has been absolutely wonderful. Honestly I was quite stunned at how many people wanted to stay actively informed warmed my heart. I thank all of you for supporting me. I'm sure it couldn't be easy to deal with my excitement and how much I've wanted/needed to talk about it and enlighten them on where I am with my countdown. Probably to the point of annoyance. So thank you!!!!!
I hope everyone is well and I will update again Friday night!! 2 more days!!! :-P
Monday, October 7, 2013
The fortuitous quest of enlightened perception
This blog has been created for friends/family/coworkers/acquaintances/etc. to be able step with me on this quest of enlightened perception...... the fancy way of saying the journey of discovering whether I'm a cochlear implant candidate. I don't know why I didn't think to do this before as it's a central place for everyone to get updates without having to send out a lot of emails, but alas I didn't think it a good idea until now. In future post I'm planning on retracing my steps and writing about the journey from the beginning and also hoping to put up some educational information regarding cochlear implants so it could be better understood by all. For this post I will be giving an update where I am in the process and what the next steps are.
Compared to what I have endured already, we're getting closer to the end of the process. But still having to be patient with the doctors schedules and the fact that I have to wait longer than I would like between appointments. I know that the University of Michigan hospital is a very busy place and has tons of patients always going through the system with steps of their own. It's still hard to be patient though. I'm starting to get very worried that despite everything looking great so far, and the likelihood that I am a candidate is in my favor, that it will turn out that I either won't be a candidate or I will be a candidate but the insurance doesn't approve the surgeries despite appeals.
I'm getting a little ahead of myself. The most recent appointment I had was with the University of Michigan hearing rehabilitation clinic. The first part of the appointment was the re-telling of my story to ensure that she understands everything. When finished with this she began to tell me about the further hearing testing that we were doing that day and how they have come up with ways to alter the tests from a standard patient for me. I am apparently the FIRST patient to come through this clinic, going through the steps of getting a cochlear implant, that is completely hearing in the good ear and not plagued with constant hear ringing. Who would have thought that my good ear having close to perfect hearing would be a problem? First I should explain that up until recently to be a candidate you had to have at least 60% hearing loss in both ears to qualify for the implant. Only recently they started looking at patients with unilateral hearing loss (deaf in one but not both ears). Dr. Telian referred to it as pioneering. But I didn't fully appreciate the level of pioneering that was happening with my case until this appointment. The tests are based on the amount of hearing loss I mentioned earlier, and with that amount of hearing loss in both ears they can generally test one ear at a time despite those with appropriately functioning ears functioning as a couple instead of individually. What I mean by your ears functioning as a couple is as follows: when you hear a sound the ear closer to the sound hears it louder and will note that the sound was coming from a certain direction but your other ear confirms the location with the amount heard from the other ear, so your ears work together to gather information simultaneously in order to respond to the sound immediately and appropriately. Your hearing also works by bone conduction, this means that the sounds waves that are collected in one ear vibrate the bones around it and carries it through vibration to the other ear. So if you had one ear plugged and sound was played in the other ear loud enough, to some degree the plugged ear hears the sound. Thus the testing of just one ear individually creates a challenge. What was done to try to eliminate the hearing ear out of the equation was to put a earpiece in my left ear and play white noise to try to scramble what is managed to be heard coming from the other ear. I won't go into depth of the hearing tests as they aren't the easiest to explain but entailed putting a very strong hearing aid on my deaf ear and playing different pitches of tones and my indicating whether I could hear it. As anticipated I didn't hear a thing. They also took the earpiece out of my good ear and had me listen to and repeat back sentences played to me with people chattering in the background. This concluded the hearing tests.
We then discussed the steps anticipated from that appointment on. The next step was having a procedure done where they insert a needle/electrode through my right ear drum to my auditory nerve to stimulate the nerve and assess the level of function it has. When this is done and they are satisfied with the level of response Dr. Telian will write a letter to my insurance, because it is a special case, to present my case and requesting pre-approval to have cochlear implant surgery. This is where she explained that she is 100% unsure what to expect as again they haven't done this before. There were a few things that were against me, those being that I have never heard out of that ear in the 28 years of my life and the level of response is questionable. Also just the fact that I do have good hearing in my left ear could be against me as they have to decide the appropriateness of this surgery and how much benefit it would give. As she explained all of this to me a feeling of dread landed in my stomach but I'm trying to ignore it because it does not mean that I am not a candidate. She also told me that ii generally could take the insurance company up to 6 weeks to respond to approval or denial of a surgery. Because I'm an unusual case it could take longer and may even mean that the Dr. Telian has to call the insurance company himself and talk to them about my case. Dr. Telian did also tell me at an earlier date that if they do say no the first time that we weren't going to immediately give up and would appeal the decision. Here's hoping the insurance says yes, if my procedure is successful. At the end of the appointment she gave me packets from the 3 cochlear implant devices companies that they work with. She told me that I would be able to pick out my own device! This was a surprise but I sure didn't complain. I have already decided with device I'm choosing but I will talk about that in a later post.
The procedure is scheduled on Friday November 22nd at 3:30pm at the University of Michigan university hospital. I haven't received the complete information on what to expect with the procedure as I am awaiting that information to come in the mail. I do know that they will at least numb my eardrum but it will still be an uncomfortable procedure. I'm assuming they can't sedate me too much as they need me to be awake enough to tell them if I hear anything while my nerve is being stimulated. If the procedure goes well and gives the results that I'm praying for then Dr. Telian will discuss with me about the insurance again and give me information about the surgery and recovery. When I receive insurance approval I will then go back to cochlear hearing rehab clinic to receive further information that I need and to order the device and accessories oh and choose the color! lol :) Purple is not an option but I'm thinking about going with Ruby red.
So here's to being patient and waiting for November 22nd! I'm keeping my toes and fingers crossed and praying that it will turn out in my favor.
Thank you all for being supportive of me up to this point. It's meant a lot that so many people want to be kept informed. This is the most exciting event of my life thus far and I dream of what it's like to have my hearing closer to normal hearing, having sound direction and not having so much trouble with background noise. I look forward to having higher functionality in my job and my personal life. I look forward to learning what hearing in stereo sounds like and waiting to see if I hear things I hadn't been able to hear before. And I look forward to not missing nearly as much in conversations and jokes thus making me less awkward in public. That would be really nice.
I plan to post again soon,
Erica
Compared to what I have endured already, we're getting closer to the end of the process. But still having to be patient with the doctors schedules and the fact that I have to wait longer than I would like between appointments. I know that the University of Michigan hospital is a very busy place and has tons of patients always going through the system with steps of their own. It's still hard to be patient though. I'm starting to get very worried that despite everything looking great so far, and the likelihood that I am a candidate is in my favor, that it will turn out that I either won't be a candidate or I will be a candidate but the insurance doesn't approve the surgeries despite appeals.
I'm getting a little ahead of myself. The most recent appointment I had was with the University of Michigan hearing rehabilitation clinic. The first part of the appointment was the re-telling of my story to ensure that she understands everything. When finished with this she began to tell me about the further hearing testing that we were doing that day and how they have come up with ways to alter the tests from a standard patient for me. I am apparently the FIRST patient to come through this clinic, going through the steps of getting a cochlear implant, that is completely hearing in the good ear and not plagued with constant hear ringing. Who would have thought that my good ear having close to perfect hearing would be a problem? First I should explain that up until recently to be a candidate you had to have at least 60% hearing loss in both ears to qualify for the implant. Only recently they started looking at patients with unilateral hearing loss (deaf in one but not both ears). Dr. Telian referred to it as pioneering. But I didn't fully appreciate the level of pioneering that was happening with my case until this appointment. The tests are based on the amount of hearing loss I mentioned earlier, and with that amount of hearing loss in both ears they can generally test one ear at a time despite those with appropriately functioning ears functioning as a couple instead of individually. What I mean by your ears functioning as a couple is as follows: when you hear a sound the ear closer to the sound hears it louder and will note that the sound was coming from a certain direction but your other ear confirms the location with the amount heard from the other ear, so your ears work together to gather information simultaneously in order to respond to the sound immediately and appropriately. Your hearing also works by bone conduction, this means that the sounds waves that are collected in one ear vibrate the bones around it and carries it through vibration to the other ear. So if you had one ear plugged and sound was played in the other ear loud enough, to some degree the plugged ear hears the sound. Thus the testing of just one ear individually creates a challenge. What was done to try to eliminate the hearing ear out of the equation was to put a earpiece in my left ear and play white noise to try to scramble what is managed to be heard coming from the other ear. I won't go into depth of the hearing tests as they aren't the easiest to explain but entailed putting a very strong hearing aid on my deaf ear and playing different pitches of tones and my indicating whether I could hear it. As anticipated I didn't hear a thing. They also took the earpiece out of my good ear and had me listen to and repeat back sentences played to me with people chattering in the background. This concluded the hearing tests.
We then discussed the steps anticipated from that appointment on. The next step was having a procedure done where they insert a needle/electrode through my right ear drum to my auditory nerve to stimulate the nerve and assess the level of function it has. When this is done and they are satisfied with the level of response Dr. Telian will write a letter to my insurance, because it is a special case, to present my case and requesting pre-approval to have cochlear implant surgery. This is where she explained that she is 100% unsure what to expect as again they haven't done this before. There were a few things that were against me, those being that I have never heard out of that ear in the 28 years of my life and the level of response is questionable. Also just the fact that I do have good hearing in my left ear could be against me as they have to decide the appropriateness of this surgery and how much benefit it would give. As she explained all of this to me a feeling of dread landed in my stomach but I'm trying to ignore it because it does not mean that I am not a candidate. She also told me that ii generally could take the insurance company up to 6 weeks to respond to approval or denial of a surgery. Because I'm an unusual case it could take longer and may even mean that the Dr. Telian has to call the insurance company himself and talk to them about my case. Dr. Telian did also tell me at an earlier date that if they do say no the first time that we weren't going to immediately give up and would appeal the decision. Here's hoping the insurance says yes, if my procedure is successful. At the end of the appointment she gave me packets from the 3 cochlear implant devices companies that they work with. She told me that I would be able to pick out my own device! This was a surprise but I sure didn't complain. I have already decided with device I'm choosing but I will talk about that in a later post.
The procedure is scheduled on Friday November 22nd at 3:30pm at the University of Michigan university hospital. I haven't received the complete information on what to expect with the procedure as I am awaiting that information to come in the mail. I do know that they will at least numb my eardrum but it will still be an uncomfortable procedure. I'm assuming they can't sedate me too much as they need me to be awake enough to tell them if I hear anything while my nerve is being stimulated. If the procedure goes well and gives the results that I'm praying for then Dr. Telian will discuss with me about the insurance again and give me information about the surgery and recovery. When I receive insurance approval I will then go back to cochlear hearing rehab clinic to receive further information that I need and to order the device and accessories oh and choose the color! lol :) Purple is not an option but I'm thinking about going with Ruby red.
So here's to being patient and waiting for November 22nd! I'm keeping my toes and fingers crossed and praying that it will turn out in my favor.
Thank you all for being supportive of me up to this point. It's meant a lot that so many people want to be kept informed. This is the most exciting event of my life thus far and I dream of what it's like to have my hearing closer to normal hearing, having sound direction and not having so much trouble with background noise. I look forward to having higher functionality in my job and my personal life. I look forward to learning what hearing in stereo sounds like and waiting to see if I hear things I hadn't been able to hear before. And I look forward to not missing nearly as much in conversations and jokes thus making me less awkward in public. That would be really nice.
I plan to post again soon,
Erica
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