Cochlear Implant technology is 30 years old

On one of the yahoo groups this morning, a woman posted an article about CI's being 30 years old. It also featured a 10 month old in Australia who received simultaneous bilateral implants. He had them activated last month. Here is the link if you want to see a picture of what it will look like should Mikaela receive them.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/another-miracle-in-implants-30-years-20080731-3nzz.html

Of course, at this time, CHOP will only do unilateral. Should we decide to get a second one, we would have to find another surgical facility. (I would research John Hopkins) As many of you know, I have been on the fence about this. Lately, should the doctors tell us that Mikaela is a good candidate, I have been leaning towards getting her implanted. I have always said that if we do one, I want two. God gives us two ears for a reason. Localization of sound, hearing in noisy environments, clear speech discrimination and I am sure there are more valid reasons to hear from both ears.

I still have more research to do. Since this technology is only 30 years old and more importantly only been used in infants for maybe about 10 years, there aren't many studies about potential long-term effects. Initially, the youngest they would implant was 2 years old. Then the FDA lowered it to 18 months and currently, here in the USA, the FDA has approved implatation at 12 months.

As many of you know, implanting will most likely sacrifice any natural hearing that Mikaela has. So when her processors are off at night, swimming, bathing or any time she has them off, she won't hear anything. Right now she could possibly hear loud noises. (As you noticed on her official hearing test results.) I also read that when you yell and are within 4 feet of someone, that your voice is about 75 dB. She is hearing at 55 or 60 dB at the low frequency. So she would hear a warning scream. Now, she doesn't have speech discrimination with her aids off and just using her natural hearing because she can't hear certain sounds. Meaning that she would probably not know what you yelled, but she would have heard the yell. Not so after surgery.

Recently I was talking to a friend and she was shocked to learn of this. I think a lot of people think the implants are 'always on' and don't realize there is an external part that comes off. So yes, Mikaela will always be deaf. That is why I am feeling so strongly about learning ASL. That is part of who she is. I want our family to be connected with the Deaf community even if she receives a device that allows her to hear. She should have others around her that can relate to what she may be experiencing through various stages of her life.

It is my understanding that with the implants, she will typically hear in the "mild hearing loss" range. That means if you are in the kitchen talking to her and someone is pulling out the chair, you will probably have to repeat yourself. She will have to got to AV (Audio/Verbal) aka listening/speech therapy for quite a while.

In addition, she will have the bed shaker for the smoke detector and her morning alarm. I am not sure of what other assistive devices she will need as she grows, but I am sure we will learn. There are FM systems that help with hearing the teacher in school as well as the TV. And there are special connectors to assist with the phone, Ipod and the like, should she need them.

A cochlear implant is not a cure. It is just the best "hearing aid" they have available at this time.