Catherine Cooper: Researching the risks of getting a CI

Most of the risks you listed above are typical to any surgical procedures. Infections happen, hence the loads of antibiotics we take. Etc..Etc..

Point I’d like to make though, why worried about losing the remaining surviving hair cells? You’re still going to lose them anyway…so what have you got to lose when going for CI?

Some random responses to some of your fears:

Permanent facial paralysis WAS a risk many years ago when the implant process was fairly new. They work very close to the facial nerve even today and what they do now is fit a miniature alarm that sounds before the surgeon even approaches the risk zone. Your consultant should be able to reassure you about this. I was told about this before my operation two years ago. On a recent Ch4 programme they showed such an alarm being fitted at a hospital different from mine, so I would think it’s common or universal.

I had no issues – not even taste disturbance or anything like that – from the facial nerve. Sometimes taste disturbance may happen just with the proximity to the facial nerve but not actually touching it, but this goes away with time in most people affected.

The dizziness may happen as a result of any ear surgery, not just having a CI. I was braced for awful dizziness and in fact didn’t have any post-surgery or subsequently. I did have very slight vertigo issues at height for a while as I adjusted from having no sound input and being 100% reliant on my eyes for balance, to incorporating unilateral sound input in my balance mechanism. The end result is that my balance is actually better!

If a manufacturer goes bust, I would expect it would be bought up by its competitors or a business with which it is a good fit (e.g. hearing aid business) rather than their customers being left adrift.

It was a no-brainer for me – no hearing to lose at all. And I still agonized over it. Two years down the line it’s been the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

You need to look at the pros AND cons. My cochleas and inner ears were severely ossified because I had meningitis at the age of 6 months. Therefore, hearing aids never helped me because my inner ears and cochleas were solid with new bone, I was implanted last February, when the surgeon scraped away the new bone and and inserted a split electrode array that is suitable for ossified cochleas. Now, for the first time in 54 years, I am able to hear people talking, background noises and enjoy listening to music. Prior to the implant, I had a very bad balance problem, but my balance was immediately restored after the op, because new bone had been scraped away from inner ears, allowing fluids to return, which stabilised my balance. I can hear my first grandchild’s cry and I have so many positive things that I could say about my implant, but I won’t go on. I had slight numbness to the face after the op, which disappeared the next day, and I didn’t suffer any sickness or dizziness. So, I think that the majority of cochlear implantees do very well after overcoming initial problems which can happen, just like any other major surgery. I spoke to as many cochlear implantees as possible before my op, and only two were failures, however, one subsequently had a successful CI in her other ear. Before the implant, my audio gram read at 120 decibels, and at my last hearing test it was reading at 45 decibels. This could still I prove because I am still having rehab and programming.