My Meniere's and now a new life with Cochlear

This could be the most important thread On this forum, a real inspiration, especially for bilaterals.


Who me / Ashley----- you are a hero to many.

 

what a wonderful post to read after a discouraging visit with the audiologist. thank you...thank you...

 

Hi all, been a while, and things have been 120% supereb with my CI until Wednesday this week.
My implant has failed and I am off air totally, deaf as a post. I went for an emergency appt 350km's from where I live and they confirmed it has failed. very rare occurance but it's not good.
Back to Brisbane Wednesday this week and booked in on Thursday for an op to remove the failed implant and replace it with another 1. :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( they don't know the exact reasons why it has failed but I guess once it has been removed and they can't inspect and test it more info will come to hand.

To say I am shattered is an understatment, ??? :-\ :'( I am lost for words, but not much I can do about it, just have to hang in there for another 3 weeks or so and I'll be back on air and hopefully getting as good as a result this time round as last time.It is just under 1 year since my op, and the CI was the best thing I had ever done. It has knocked the wind out of me now though.
The past 11 months with my CI has changed so much for me I would spend upwards to 2 hours a day on the phone some days. Talk to endless number of people face to face everyday, this is something I could have only dreamed about a year ago.

I shall let you all know how I get on after Thursday when I fell up to it.

Cheers.

 

thanks for the update---- please do let us know how it goes!

Hoping it is perfect for you!

How is everything else balance wise? Still good and probably getting better? Hope business is booming as well!

 

There was a voluntary recall from Cochlear. A small number of these devices apparently had an issue with staying hermetically sealed. There are two grounds in the device so the risk of injury is for all intents in purposes nill.

I would miss mine terribly if it failed, until the replacement was implanted. Hope you get fired back up soon!

 

MTM: do you have a cochlear or advanced bionics? Why did you choose the one you did? Someone says AB and someone says Cochlear very confusing about which one to choose and reading the literature only makes it more confusing!

Do you have one CI or both ears?

 

Yes I heard about the recall, moisture was getting inside the unit and shorting it out, but mostly from what I was told it happened within a few months of getting implanted, not nearly a year. oh well, just have to wait and be patient with it all.
my left ear is gone as far as sound is from it, before my original CI my aid gave me some relief in my left ear, now my left is off the radar and I can't hear any better with my aid.

If had a wrotten headache for the last day and a bit and can't take anything other than panadol for it, panadol doesn't do much for me.

 

I seem to recall that they have a 2 year warranty? Does that also help with the procedure?

 

Seeing as it has failed it is a warranty job anyway, just not sure exactly what $$ I am up for yet as there is all the little extra bits and pieces, plus I have a 700km road trip to do for the op and then again each time for a 1 hour tuning appt after switch on.
Cochlear has agreed to cover the op and implant, but just exactly what they don't cover is yet to be seen.

 

Finally switch on today, the past 3 weeks of zero hearing has been hard, both on me and my family and with work, so today we start the ball rolling again in about 1 hourts time. ;D ;D ;D ;D Can't friggin wait.

 

Who me/Ashley: hoping and praying it goes well. Keep us updated.

Give us an update!

 

All good ,,,,wwwwwwoooohooooooo, switch on went faultlessly, implant is all in the right zone of the cochlear.
After 3 days now i am prolly 70% good as to where I was when the unit failed, A few sounds are yet to come around but i am more than happy with where I am at after just 3 days, already on the phone after I left the clinic and have been on the phone quite a lot since. Audiologists are very happy to with such a quick response after the reimplant. ;D
Back for another appt next Friday and they think I'll be able to skip 1 and take it to a fortnightly trip then monthly straight up, which will be good if I can save 700km trips each week.

 

I have a Med El implant and had a problem where my internal device was giving a false indication of a serial number mismatch and it would shut down for 8 hours. This was happening everyday after wearing it for about 8 hours. Once they determined why this was happening, rather than repair my internal device they reprogrammed my external device to bypass the serial number check. Now I have to have any reprogramming to my external device done in Austria. But on the positive side I am not having any problems and am not needing any programming changes in the planned future.

Piggy

 

One of the best threads for all those suffering!

Who me/Ashley is a hero to many and an inspiration to all.

 

Hey Who Me,

I'm sorry to hear about the problem with your CI. Glad to hear the new one is working well. I'm still very pleased with my results.

Best regards,

Jim

 

I am glad you did so well. More patients on this site should take advantage of
surgeries that can get your life back.

I had a VNS 10 years ago and got mine back.

Joan

 

All is good at my end. New implant is as good as the old 1, just a bit bigger bump behind my ear. Got a 4 month map in 3 weeks time for the new implant, don't think they'll get much change from the map. But I am happy.

 

A great read for all the newbies---- there is a life after mm even of you loose all hearing and balance---- this man is an inspiration.

 

This has been a very inspiring story.

 

Yep--- it should go in the database.