Saturday, October 16, 2010

Cochlear Implant - 18 Months Review

Just had my 18 months mapping with this new implant. For those that have forgotten, this is my third implant, after the first one failed. Reimplanted in same ear. Electrodes migrated, so reimplanted again in the same ear.. I feel I'm not doing tooooooo badly...


HINT (open set) Sentences at 3 months: 100%
HINT (open set) Sentences at 6 months: 98%
HINT (open set) Sentences at 9 months: 100%
HINT (open set) Sentences at 18 months: 98% (Grrr)!

In background noise +10db SNR at 3 months: 92%
In Background noise +10db SNR at 6 months: 96%
In Background noise +10db SNR at 9 months: 83% (gone down!)
In Background noise +10db SNR at 18 months: 90% (back up a bit)

In background noise +5db SNR at 3 months: 24%
In background noise +5db SNR at 6 months: 47%
In background noise +5db SNR at 9 months: not tested
IN background noise +5db SNR at 18 months: 38%

CNC Words Alone at 3 months: 63%
CNC Words Alone at 6 months: 65%
CNC Words Alone at 9 months: 68% (Slowly improving)
CNC Words Alone at 18 months 60% (gone down)

CNC Words Alone Phonemes at 3 months: 82%
CNC Words Alone Phonemes at 6 months: 83%
CNC Words Alone Phonemes at 9 months: 87%
CNC Words Alone Phonemes at 18 months: 75% (Gone down)

So no real improvement still in my opinion! I still struggle enormously in background noise, and still did much better with my original implant the N22 before it failed. I also feel that the sound quality of the Freedom has never been as good as the N22. It's much harsher.

But this is still miles better than being totally deaf, so in those terms, I'm happy to be implanted and hearing!

8 comments:

Linda said...

hmmm interesting, did Beth have any idea on why it's gone down a little

Anonymous said...

I didn't see Beth after Penny, so no, not yet. I suppose they will say the testing is different from Auckland to Chch, so I guess we wait until my 2 year mapping, and then see what happens from there at that test?

kim said...

Awesome stats.

Anonymous said...

You are one of .001% to have re-implanted 3 times. What caused it?

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous. The first implant worked for a good 15 years. In those 15 years I had wonderful hearing. Then it failed. I was re-implanted, and the old electrodes were sent to Australia where they found a tear in the silicon.

The second implant never worked properly. It was found that the electrodes simply migrated out of my ear - something that is extremely rare. Docs think I may have had swelling, and then when the swelling went down, it pulled the electrodes out.

This third one is my current one and everything okay again.

Anonymous said...

Robyn,

So you had pre-existing clinical trail with Cochlear Implant. I think the current is going to help you more. You're lucky to restore your hearing after removing it to a new one.

Thanks for sharing and it's extremely rare case.

DAve Beaty (davincipoppalag) said...

Sorry it's not as good..but glad it still works!! You didnt seem to pop round ot 2draw for your birhtday so I came here to say Happy Birthday Robyn!

Lissa said...

This is pretty good Robyn. I hardly have any HINT tests.