Bilateral?

Well I've given this a LOT of an thoughts... heres my list of Pros and Cons. My appointment with surgeon to discuss about going bilateral is on July 9th 4:15 ET.

PROS
* Same design as other implant.
* Work together and sound same.
* SAFE!!!
* Good chance of right ear (dominant ear) doing a LOT better than left ear.
* Music MIGHT sound better.
* Easier time localizing where sound's coming from. (I do so poorly at that LOL)
* Been around for 20 years.
* Do better at listening in noisy evironment.
* Higher score in Speech Discrimination test.
* Extra ear!
* Feeling of balance and full sound experience.
* Low failure rate with freedom implant.
* Familiar design and device.
* Possibility of right ear can tolerate more decibels gain so it have lower decibels in audiogram than my left ear. (lower than 30 db)
* Upgradeable.
* very effective.
* If right ear did become dominant again, it could be good thing. (Doing better job at listening)
* Give my right ear a chance to become useful again.

CONS
* Miss out future new design, technology, stem cells, whatever crazy medical stuff for deafness.
* Possibility of losing the music appreciation for heavy metal and rock.
* Killing the residual hearing.
* Surgery risks.
* Achy incision for long while.
* Possibility of it overpowering my left ear and uses right ear as 'main ear'.
* Wearing heavy processor on both ears.


I'm thinking, since the design of the CI I have now is proved to be safe and effective, I'd rather to have safest technolgy that is very effective over the new fancy technology or medical stuff in the future that will improve hearing, more natural sounds and more depth in hearing.... I'm DEAF! I wouldn't know what is natural as long its clear and understandable I'd think thats natural and normal for me. I Just dont want to have all those scary unknown and unnecessary risks involved with brand new CI design, Its like throwing yourself in the unknown with potential of having all those risks like eyes twitches, overstimulation, failure, ribbon style could accidently slice the cochlea wall? just everything too new and risky in future with no long term study on it or anything. So I'm thinking let get what is available now since its safe plus its upgradeable. so what you think?

Oh hmph...

I decided to put CI back on and put it on 2 for volume and sensitivity yesterday so far no pain or any problems only slight discomfort on incision from the weight of processor thats all so I increased to 5 for both, so far, so good. Look like I only needed an break thats all. I still need new mapping some part of speech sound muffled and I cant hear fire alarm again. so I'll call to makes mapping appointment.
thanks for sending good thoughts for me :-)

Bad News

I haven't update anything since mainly because I was stuck. I didn't experience new sounds, heard people talking behind back or any of miraculous CI moments for a month and half now, and last 2 weeks I haven't wore my CI processor because I'm experiencing sharp pin-prickling sensation inside head if I hear certain sound like heavy metal, long exposure to loud noise, or whatever and few days later the sensitivity seem to increased so even on volume and sensitivity set on 2 it still hurt inside my ear and almost every night when I take CI off on day I wore them when I'm sensitive to sounds I get this headache-like pain located only left side of my head (implanted side) and during those 2 weeks break I get mild aching pain on the incision part that extend over the ear and the magnet spot.

Its extremely frustrating with all those discomfort I've been experiencing I don't know whats going on and on the top of them all my low score on listening test I posted while ago start to take toll on me I'm feeling depressed, stupid and wondering whats wrong with me, why isn't my score as high as all other bloggers I read about having high score on it after 3 months and everything, it just sucks. My surgeon isn't answering my emails, my audiologist took a week to reply and said she want to try put in new mapping in and see if it helps but she don't know about the pain so I'm waiting on surgeon's response in emails. UGH!

I hope it go away and get fixed soon so I can hear again, I dont want to miss the crickets sound everyone heard with CI out, and the fireworks, ocean waves crashing, seagulls, all summer sounds....