For what I was told, those tiny wires connect to both the hair cells you have in that cochlea AND also touch the inner walls of that cochlea. This is why the implant needs to be tuned frequently when you first receive it. After about 3 weeks of healing from the initial surgery, you go back and they turn you on! They place the receiver over the ear that looks like an over-the-ear hearing aid, and a wire from that unit leads to a magnetic sending unit, that sticks to your scalp magnetically where the inner receiver was installed on the scalp. That inner receiving unit consists of a magnet, and a pack of micro-electronics. Once the signal passes from the sending unit, thru your scalp and into the receiving unit, it goes thru the electronics and up the wire that leads to that electrode installed in the cochlea. So when they first turn it on, and talk to you and test various other sounds etc, they tweak it with a computer until the sounds are more natural. So instead of everyone's voice sounding like Donald Duck, it becomes more human. For some reason, your inner ear is adjusting rapidly over the next few months and you need to go back often to have the sound processor tuned. After a few months things stabilize and you only go back for fine tuning if you yourself deem it necessary. However they always see you at least once a year for the rest of your life and can make adjustments etc.
Trust me when I say this....... you do NOT want to understand the effects of sudden hearing loss has on a person. Then add extremely loud Tinnitus to it!! How I managed to stay sane even in the slightest is beyond me. Then to top it off, no one around you knows anything at all about deafness and tinnitus. So they see you as a normal looking human being who can walk and talk and drive and pretty much function normally, but they don't see the suffering. You lose your job, you go into poverty, you deal with bill collectors in the beginning that adds stress, can't make a single phone call for a doctors appointment or anything, so you must go there in person to communicate, you go shopping and nearly get hit by cars in the parking lot cause you can't hear them coming your way, you become isolated from family and friends cause you just can't hear them, you're out in public and someone begins to talk to you and you must interrupt them and tell them you are deaf.........and they continue to talk to you lol.... just all kinds of life altering crap! Five years ago I was making a good living and no health issues, then boom, you get flipped upside down, claim bankruptcy, lose everything eventually, and struggle to eat from all the stress. You do not ever want to go thru this!
After finding out I was getting the implant last Wednesday, I told my extended family thru emails and text messages. Not a single one of them said congratulations, or way to go, or that's awesome news Mike, or anything positive. So I went from being excited after finding out I qualified, to another frikkin low you can never imagine! Can't really blame them tho, they just do not know what sudden hearing loss and tinnitus is. You really do become isolated and alone in the long run!
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. Never heard it before.
