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11.26.2008

1 verses 2 Implants?

Jon and I already went through the excruciating decision-making process whether or not Alexander should receive one or two implants. He uses his hearing aids well, but the question has always been,
"Will he do even better with 2 implants verses 1 implant and 1 hearing aid?"
We decided we would go with 2 implants.
And then we went back to the hospital for some final testing yesterday.....
One of the tests included a sound booth test. This is only his second booth test with hearing aids. He scored the same as when he did the first time, which is the good news. The consistency in his results put me in a tail spin. He is getting really good information through his hearing aids. Conversation level is usually around 50-60 dbi and Alexander is picking up noises in the 30's and 40's in the low tones.
It is plotted out on the audio gram below. He responds to noises at the line and below.

So after a long night of more research, calling and questioning every CI person I know, we decided to go with only one implant and we'll keep one ear with an aid and we will reevaluate in 6 months.

I feel really good about this decision. It is not cutting edge, but Alexander is fortunate enough to be apart of a small group that can get good information from his aids and be a candiadite for an implant.

4 comments:

MB said...

Wow, that's great. I am a big fan of bilaterals when necessary but it seems like he has some good residual hearing and will do really well with just one.

If I may be nosy, what are his unaided levels?

monica said...

Monica, he scored in the 80 to 100 range. What about your little one?

Drew's Mom said...

Thanks for leaving your comment on Drew's blog. We love Mallene! You'll have to tell her we say "hi". We were very sad to see her leave, and sadly we have had a drastic decrease in services from our team since she left this summer!

I am glad that you have made a decision, and are at peace with it! Drew had no benefit from his hearing aids (still in the 70 db range aided), so the decision was pretty easy. If he would have gotten benefit, we probably would have only done one. And you are right, your son is in a very good area - able to receive he benefit of his /s/ and /sh/ sounds with a CI, but able to keep the benefit of natural hearing with his aid.

From the ticker it looks like surgery is on Tuesday. Good luck! This is an amazing journey!

MB said...

Marielle tested at 70-80 at our last booth test. But then with speech recognition she was around 60. So who knows!! Somewhere in the severe category but not severe enough for them to approve a CI.