Hi I'm New

[Jeff77]

Hello everyone, I just wanted to briefly introduce myself. I lost my hearing at age 2 from spinal meningitis. Shortly after the meningitis I regained some hearing in my left and right ears. I used a hearing aide in my right ear and did very well with it (had about 20% hearing without the aide). In my left ear I have around 4% or less. I started having tinnitus about 10 years ago when I started losing my hearing. It started to occur more frequently and would interfere with my ability to understand speech. As you can probably tell I am speaking in past tense because I just recently got a cochlear implant in my right ear and the surgical procedure destroyed the remaining hearing I had in that ear.

Since activating the CI, I am experiencing the worst tinnitus I have ever had. It is also a different sounding tinnitus in addition to the tinnitus I already had before the surgery. After wearing my processor for a few hours I notice it coming on, then I have to take the processor off because it seems to be the cause of it. The tinnitus continues and gets worse for 6-8 hours after having it off. Anybody here have anything similar?

 

[Nick Pyzik]

@Jeff77 , glad you've taken the time to join this site!

I'm really sorry to hear about the troubles you've had with your hearing in the past and I'm happy you made the decision to correct your hearing problems with a CI. Unfortunately it sounds like it hasn't worked as well as you thought it might. If there is ringing involved with your CI then it has to be auditory nerve issues or the ringing could be due to the destruction of your remaining hearing (hair cells + nerves connected to it) in your left ear. Do you know if the Tinnitus is more on the left ear or the right ear?

Have you heard about the current discovery with CI's and the Auditory Nerve? This would be really helpful for you when it becomes a real treatment. The more nerves connected to your CI, the better your pitch understanding and all that will be!

http://www.medgadget.com/2014/04/el...uditory-nerves-improve-cochlear-implants.html

 

[Zorro!]

So sorry to hear this news. I hope things eventually settle down with the CI. You're in my thoughts.

 

[Jeff77]

Nick Pyzik I have it in both ears, but the particular buzzing/ringing in my left ear is much different than what I am hearing in my right implanted ear. What you are saying about the auditory nerve makes sense. It has only been 2 and half weeks since I had the implant and less than 2 weeks since I activated it, so some of that tinnitus is expected Im sure. I have heard about regrowing hair cells, but thought that was 10 years away at least. Thanks of your response.

 

[Jeff77]

So sorry to hear this news. I hope things eventually settle down with the CI. You're in my thoughts.

Thank you, I have to give it some time Im sure.

 

[Nick Pyzik]

@Jeff77 That's interesting that the ringing/buzzing is different in your left than your right since you said you feel like you lost the rest of the remaining hearing in that ear.

Hair cells are in fact being worked on to be regenerated in patients that need better hearing. The drug CGF166, which is gene therapy, is being worked on by a pharmaceutical company called Novartis. They've been running a clinical trial for the gene therapy drug and have had some great progress with the treatment. I've actually been talking to one of the candidates from the trial who has been continuously losing his hearing up until now and only had about 5% left in each ear. He said the ear he got the treatment in has been picking up new frequencies more often now and is excited to see what's to come of it.

Now I would like to say that's great news for you and that I think you'd even have a great chance with being able to be apart of the clinical trials going on for CGF166, but since you have a Cochlear Implant I'm not sure it would be possible. The CI does not use any of the hair cells in your ear no matter how many there are. The CI is only in association with the Auditory Nerves you have and that's why the article I posted above would be great for you since the more nerves you have working with your CI the better quality your hearing would be from it since it's made to bypass the cochlea and it's hair cells itself.