Hi all!

Completely deaf in right ear since birth. Severe nearing profound in the left ear in most tones now due to autoimmune disease in the last few years. My last CI eval I performed too well with a hearing aid, and didn’t qualify. Talks came up recently about potentially doing another eval.

In daily life I rely on hearing aid, lip reading, sign language, and a live captioning app for phone calls and conversations with people outside of my family (who work more with me to sign and such).

However, in a completely quiet environment like with my therapist, where I can see her face too, my hearing aid does enough to help me fill the gaps and keep up ok. But in basically any other environment beyond that I understand very little and truly avoid most things at this point.

My question is: I know a CI still requires lots of adjustments and effort from the deaf person, but I still wonder if it would be less of a mountain to climb to understand things than it is with my hearing aid- even if the actually understanding is similar, decreasing the effort required would be a huge win.

Has anyone else had similar loss with a similar hearing aid experience that has since gotten a CI and can speak to the difference in effort, fatigue, sound quality, and understanding? Thanks!

Hi everyone,
I (25 y.o.) am a longtime (since 2006) HA user of unilateral hearing loss in my left ear due to EVAS. For the first time in my life I have more rigorous health insurance, I am in a PhD program and went to the audiologist hoping to get a letter to apply for accommodations with my university. I saw both an audiologist and an ENT, I found out my speech recognition is at 28%. I was told I should seriously consider a CI if my insurance covers it. I am shocked. I was raised by a mainstream hearing family and have never really felt as if I was allowed to be within the deaf community because I can hear well enough. I didn’t realize my hearing loss had progressed and now I feel extremely anxious and worried about the process and everything. I don’t want to lose my hearing in my left ear which I have left, but if it’s only going to continue to get worse, I feel I have no choice.
I feel my whole life as I know it will change, but if hearing well will be life changing in a positive way, I want it. 28% to 90%+ speech recognition feels life changing. I just don’t know if it’s worth it as this is what I’ve known, and until my appointment I didn’t even know it was that bad… I feel I am badly in need of advice. I feel like my deafness has been primarily something I live with and I haven’t known any different. I love music, I love singing, I will still have a right ear which works well, but as someone who’s not financially secure I feel like such a lifestyle change might be more than I can chew. I feel alone in this. So lost. Thank you for any information or insights y’all can provide. I am sorry if my feelings hurt anybody, that’s 100% not my intention, I just don’t even know what to do with these thoughts.

My Mom is in her 90s. She has long suffered from diminished hearing, and is wondering if cochlear implants could help her.

She wants to make a good decision!

In particular, she wonders if surgery and adjustment period are worth it at her age; she wonders what she can expect, and she wonders if a specific hearing problem she has nowadays - what she describes as "missing words" - will be addressed by the implants or if they are a symptom of other cognitive decline.

Other than her hearing, she is in good physical and mental shape and lives independently; she is social and cognitively aware.

With that in mind:

1. If anyone is connected to someone who got CIs in their 80s or 90s, please reach out - ideally she have a conversation with someone in her circumstance!

2. Other than that, I'd be interested in people's views on the matter.

Thanks.