Cochlear implant wafflings

Well hello! I've not blogged for ages - been busy with new house, new dog, married life and all that. However as I tend to blog about major life events (cancer, elective in NZ) I felt it made sense to write about my new up'n'coming journey! Also I have a week off and all I've done is eat my bodyweight in this pear and cinnamon cake with vanilla fudge sauce so this is my last chance to do something productive before being dragged back to medical admissions. 

You may know that back in October I went off to the Freeman to ask them to assess me for a cochlear implant referral; they duly did and referred me down to James Cook (the regional centre). The first assessment entailed a long chat with an audiologist, mainly about my expectations of implant, and whether I met the criteria.

The current NICE guidance for CI in adults is pretty stringent. You have to be a) super deaf (more than 90dB) and b) not deriving enough benefit from hearing aids. The way they quantify this is by assessing how you do on BKB sentence testing. This basically means sitting in front of a speaker which says sentences to you (like "the man is standing under the tree" or "the children like strawberries"), and you repeat back everything you hear, even if it's not the full sentence. 

If you get more than 50% on this testing you are deemed to be using your hearing aids to good effect, and are not suitable for an implant. 

I got 41% this time!

(Back in Nottingham when I was 19 I got 51%. Haha. I'm not sure why this is - maybe the ensuing years of medicine have dulled my brain, or maybe the chemo made my hearing worse??) Audiograms below for any audiology boffins. 

6.11.2006

14.10.14

I have since been to see my key worker, who is a very nice speech therapist. Her job is to assess me and check that I don't have wildly inaccurate expectations of what CI will achieve, and to help me choose which model I would like implanted (if I go ahead). 

I have also seen the surgeon, who is happy that I am medically fit for surgery (despite my rather exciting PMH). Oh and I have had a balance test too! 

After this barrage of appointments and travelling to and from Middlesbrough (massive thanks go to the lovely Mr & Mrs Wood for having us to stay) - the team had their MDT and decided that I was "likely to benefit from a cochlear implant"!! hurrah! 

I thought I should spend a while writing down why I want to have an implant and what I hope it will achieve (have become a bloody annoying reflective type after only 6 months of GP training, ugh). Then I can smugly look back on it all in a year's time!

Why I want a CI:

1. CYBORG!!!! (this is mainly David; he is very excited at the prospect of having a cyborg wife.)

2. I would like to be less tired at the end of a long day of lipreading people. I don't think people who aren't deaf can really know what it feels like to be completely drained and exhaustified after a day of staring at other people's faces and working that extra 50% to work out what they are saying. If I just have to work 25% less that would be so much less draining. 

3. I would like to stop worrying about what it will be like to have kids; this one used to really stress me out but most of my deaf friends have pointed out that kids are very adaptable and very patient with deaf parents, plus if mine don't speak clearly I will just drown them. JOKES. 

4. I would also really really like to be able to have a conversation with someone without having to lipread them! This may be a far off dream currently but if I am given some high frequencies back then I may POSSIBLY be able to:

• call home! 

• listen to a Harry Potter audiobook without having to read the book at the same time - which rather defeats the point of the audiobook

• have a conversation with David whilst chopping an onion without removing bits of my fingers 

• be able to have people round without worrying that I can't lipread so-and-so, and making sure David knows to talk to them so I don't get trapped in a really awkward situation where am attempting to be gracious hostess but have not a clue what my guest is saying (this is a rare one since I have selected most of my friends to be easily lipreadable, but sometimes the rogue mumbler appears). 

I've waffled enough now and the dog wants to sit on my lap. Next appointments coming up - consent appt with surgeon, pre-op assessments, and a device preference appointment with my key worker. Watch this space!