Move over cyborg queen! The Ambling Rambler sets new CI record at -5db!

Move over Deanna Bono the Cyborg Queen with her record 10db! Robyn Carter, the Ambling Rambler sets new CI record at -5db! I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw her audiogram! Thanks DeafLissa90 for the link to her audiogram and blog!

Check with Guinness world records, you could be famous! 

Her amazing CI score! Great blog, thanks for sharing your story! She lost all her hearing years ago so no residual hearing was sacrified.

She included her audiogram. I extrapolated/estimated additional frequencies to show the full range of 11 audiometric frequencies.

I have devised a foruma to calculate hearing. Ill explain it fully in another post. 

125Hz=0db HL
250Hz=5db HL
500Hz=0db HL
750Hz=5db HL
1000Hz=10db HL
1500Hz=0db HL
2000Hz=-5db HL
3000Hz=5db HL
4000Hz=10db HL
6000Hz=10db HL
8000Hz=0db HL

LFA=5/3=2(2×0.6=1) *normal*
MFA=10/5=2(2×0.3=1) *normal*
HFA=20/5=4(4×0.1=0) *normal*
OFA=40/11=4 *normal*
WFA=1+1+0=2 *normal*

Her current aided audiogram with CI. I rounded the db numbers to the nearest whole number. According to my math, she hears normally across the board! In fact she hears better than most hearing people, at least as far as quantity and thresholds goes! That is one amazing CI result you got there. Nothing worse than 10db and several with scores of at least 0db! Your record will probably last a very, very long time!

Furthermore, I was told that 10db was the best possible CI score and that 0db was impossible with CI and for the matter, with HA. I will need an official HA test to confirm the 0db aided score at 125Hz. However at that frequency, I hear better than hearing people. I don’t have enough residual hearing to achieve 0db at above 250Hz. However I am interested in those with only a mild/moderate HL getting their HAs programmed for gains equal to their HL and ending up with 0db aided.  Don’t you want to hear great at 0db?

I would be very interested to see how it was possible for her to achieve this record breaking CI results. Her audiologists and surgeon(s) should investigate and discover the factors contributing to such a steller result. They then can learn and share the knowlege with others and help improve CI technology. This will allow more people to end up hearing better with CI over what the best HAs with maximum gains could offer. It would also decrease the number of people who hear worse after CI, especially the borderline candidates with plenty of residual hearing and who should benefit great from HAs.

More information on stem cells to treat/cure deafness and diseases.

source1

The difference between he and I is that a symptom of his MS involved the loss of hearing. His hearing improved dramatically after the first treatment. Richard returned because scientists there believed they discovered the stem cell responsible for inner ear hair growth. His return involved the hope that his hearing would be improved even more.

source2

This was repeated again intrathecally and then an extra 3 million CD 34+ & CD133+ concentrate for inner ear nerve hair growth.

7. Risks are very minimal. The very small percentage of patients that have issues are nerve bruising at the spinal cord site but goes away in about 24 hours. Preston had this but I did not that. There are no side effects, how can there be? We as humans are composed of stem cells and if they body rejects it, it is simply eliminated out of the body. PERIOD! It is not a drug. Some have side effects from every single medicine but not with stem cells.

On Feb. 15-28th I return to Costa Rica for another treatment. ICM will be trying two new experimental treatments. One includes using the stem cell CD 133+ that was proven in Israel last Dec. to improve inner ear nerve hair growth. Since MS robbed my hearing we will now try a concentration of this stem cell to see what it can do. It was included in our original stem cell treatment and I have had to have my hearing aids turned down 4x.

source3

recently ive been reading so much about the future and the future of technology…..man, as someone once said before on this board, there really hasnt ever been such a good time to have tinnitus! all the research and funding going into tinnitus and deafness is higher than ever before, and we’re constantly getting news of stem cell/gene therapy research into these areas – the scientists are ON it!!

I know how awful tinnitus etc is, but guys, we’re making so much progress at such an increasing rate…there WILL be a cure for all these aural conditions soon enough! im no futurologist or anything but from what ive read about the exponential progress of technology in the futur…man, its SURELY relasitically just a matter of years away!!

I mentioned stem cells/gene therapy as personally i’m concerned mostly by hearing loss, which either stem cells or gene therapy will cure, within a decade (i base this on the research i’ve done thus far). i agree that the cure for tinnitus may not be based in one of these approaches, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be cured very soon. Diseases are most definitely on their way out…

source4

Dennis finally got time to post the answers regarding treatment for the deaf. Id be interested in seeing what the doctors and experts say about anecdotal reports of people who are having their deafness(sometimes in conjuction with other conditions/diseases) treated/cured now!

Ive seen anecdotal reports of deafness being treated/cured several times since 2007. If this is really true then we can expect human clinical trials by 2015-2020. Perhaps it’s too risky and expermental to be done on healthy humans today but it may still be done on humans that have serious diseases such as MS. They can treat both the MS and deafness together with taking the risk only once. When they establish more safety, that’s when we will see deaf clinical trials.

We will probably see such clinical trials in other countries first then later on in America. I will keep searching the net and get more news. Some experts are now forecasting 2015-2020 for human clinical trials to restore some hearing loss. If the anecdotes are any indication, we won’t have to wait as long as feared. There still is no date yet on when human clinical trials will begin but once we have a date, itll be around the corner.

I applaud the brave souls who will risk their hearing, health and even lives being the first clinical trial subjects. Ive read that demand will be fierce with thousands applying to get into the first trials. I am not a risk taker so ill bow out and eagerly await the results of pioneers. When a high degree of safety is proven, ill try to join the later trials(phase II or III)

Update: I read more and found out that having *too* many hair cells actually results in a hearing loss as bad as having too few! Too many also increases the risk that some hair cells could become cancer! So yes just like CI, those with too much residual hearing may in fact hear worse after stem cell treatments!

However I also read that methods for halting the growth of hair cells is being developed to minimize this problem of ending up with excess hair cells. Even if you do end up with a few too many, it should be possible to kill off the extras with loud noise. It remains to be seen how much of a hearing loss is required to be a candidate, however I see no reason the severely and profoundly deaf won’t make good candidates.

Good Wikipedia on Cochlear implants

People were getting CI before FDA approval and even before clinical trials. Even if it takes around 30 years to see clinical trials for stem cells to treat/improve deafness, there will be thousands of people who seek that treatment well before the first clinical trials. We are already seeing a few dozen people getting stem cells for their deafness, expect that number to rocket in the next few years. I will be following closely to evaluate results and safety.

Update! Another anecdote!

Stem cells!

My son has CP and severe to profound hearing loss. We went in 2007 and 2008 in
China for umbilical stem cells treatment. One of teh outcomes and they have been
many was the improvement in hearing loss. Each time I decreased teh power of teh
hearing aids. From their case studies they say in 6-7 treatments you recover
your hearing loss.
 
I also know they had several patients with no vision that after one treatment (
6 injections) started to see with glases. This is something you may want to look
into. There is a group BIA4kids on which lots of parents went to China for
treatment of neurological and degenerative diseases including hearing loss and
lack of vision.

My HAs have been reprogrammed. 5db aided at 125Hz, 98% speech score!

I have talked for a few months about getting my HAs reprogrammed and finally I got them reprogrammed! One of my HAs suddenly died, but the other is going strong. The dead one will be sent in for repair/replacement. Many others have experienced this bug with their Naidias dying on them. I learned alot more about hearing loss and hearing aids when I can see all the reprogramming going on.

I posted about this in a previous post. My speech comphrension has increased and my best score is a whopping 98%, higher than many with CI who took this test. I constantly score around 85% which is a 15% improvement just from boosting the lows! More gains has brought out extra loudness and makes it easier to hear!

The funny thing is “John” and “Joan” both sounded identical before my HA was reprogrammed for more gain and before I kept training my brain. Now I can differnate the two most of the time.

Im still stuck unable to distinguish between “has” and “had” although I hear both words. My dad says I need to listen closely for the hissing “s” sound. Can you hear that sound with either HA or CI? How do you score on the above speech test, see my earlier post for a link.

My dad said a bunch of numbers such as “four hundred sixty six” or “six hundred fifty two” and I got it right most of the time. Fifty and sixty still give me trouble for now, gotta keep training my brain to tell the subtle differences!

Red dots: My unaided hearing for both ears.
Blue dots: My aided hearing for both ears.

The difference is amazing! Reprogramming my HAs for more gains has gotten my low frequency aided thresholds down to normal hearing, quantity(but not quality) wise. I hear (low frequency) sounds that my mom, dad and brother don’t hear! When there was a thunderstorm, I could hear the pattering of every drop of rain on the roof! I heard thunder before my mom and dad did! It was a loud, rumbling sound!

I am still learning what makes some people with similar audiograms get more benefit from HAs than others. My audiologist says it has to do with training your brain and he says I need to keep training my brain or I won’t properly understand speech.

If everyone is different, why can’t others train their brain to understand speech(provided they still have a measurable amount of residual hearing, such as similar to mine) I do know you still need to train the brain with CI to improve speech. Hopefully you can train your brain in your HA ear to hear lots of environmental sounds and a good deal of speech. Can your HA be reprogrammed for more gains? It’s made a big difference for me in my experience. Ill be sharing it in my blog.

Right now, it’s mostly the S and F that I can’t differnate although I hear both of them, they sound the same! However if someone says “snake” and “snakes” I can tell there’s an extra S. But between “fun” and “sun” they are so similar. So yea even with me hearing mostly low frequencies(nothing much above 1000Hz) I still am able to convey a high percentage of speech information. I read that frequencies of 2000Hz and up only account for 10% of speech.

I will post more as I learn and get fine tuned programming on my HAs

Some answers thus far about stem cells for the deaf!

My friend Dennis went to the HLAA and he was kind enough to provide some answers while chatting with me. He was too tired and busy to post the answers right now but will do so in the next few days. I am posting what answers he gave me so far.

He says the 3 doctors don’t know for sure on the timeframe but they say 25-50 years just to shut people up who keep nagging the docs and to please those people who secretly hope that stem cells for the deaf does not happen “soon” or even in their lives. I talked to another friend who agrees with me that culturally Deaf people fear that any treatment/cure would destroy their culture so they are hoping everyone stays deaf as long as they live.

The docs did say that testing is currently done on mice and chickens and will move on to monkeys. They said: monkeys are next within the next 5-10 years
human trials take a minimum of 7-15 years. So yea most of us will be alive when the time comes. We will learn alot more before 2020 when trials begin on monkeys. Right now enough is known that deafness can be treated someday.

It’s too early to know how many DB improvement, the doctors couldn’t even answer that one. However it’s known that chickens which can regenerate their own hair cells still end up mildly HOH(25-40db HL) after they are deafened with ototoxic drugs. The new hair cells which were regenerated by chickens are of lesser quality and fewer in quantity than original hair cells. I personally am going to realistically expect a 20db improvement. It will take a very long time before technology can restore profoundly deaf people to normal hearing(maximum 25db HL) but a partial restoration alone is great, youll be able to benefit from HAs again or benefit much more.

There’s actually 3 different methods currently being researched. One is “implantation” of stem cells, two is “turn off the stop growing triggers” the third is to try to get support cells to turn into hair cells when hair cells die off. Ill find out more on the other methods soon. It’s possible one or more of those methods could be used in humans before stem cells.

I would give it at least 10 years before one or more methods to restore some hearing to the deaf is ready for human clinical trials. In the meantime, there’s powerful HAs out there and for those with no residual hearing, there’s CI. You can read my previous posts to learn more about HAs and CI.

*update!* HLAA links with PDF answers! 

Friday, June 19, 2009
9 a.m. – Noon: Research Symposium, An Update On the Latest Hair Cell Regeneration Research

Cochlear Regeneration: A treatment for severe hearing loss in our lifetime?

George Gates, M.D.

Hair Cell Regeneration-Where Are We & How Did We Get Here?

Douglas Cotanche, Ph.D.

Can We Regenerate the Mammalian Audtory System?

Neil Segil, Ph.D.

Vestibular System Reconstruction

Hinrich Staecker, M.D., Ph.D.

I got 75% correct for online sentence matrix hearing test!

Take the online sentence matrix test!

65db loudness as measured with SPL meter
male voice
normal speed
no noise
25 sentences

Scored 72%. First time I got a 63% with 10 sentences. Score about 5% less with female voice. Score around 40% with some noise and 25%(chance) with lots of noise. Is this considered a fairly decent score? What did you score and under what settings? Do any of you have a link to other online speech tests?

I tried again, same settings but 10 sentences. No repeats and got 73%

***The above results were from March. I took it again in June and scored 75% consistently with male voice, normal speed, 10 sentences, repeats allowed***

Good questions one should ask about stem cells for the deaf.

Someone and perhaps others are going to the HLAA where the topic is “An Update on the Latest Hair Cell Regeneration Research.” 

I have several questions id like to forward to the experts. I live out of state and therefore can’t afford the long trip, but those attending could forward my questions as well as come with their own. The questions will of course be about stem cells and any other methods that can treat deafness and restore some unaided hearing.

1. Alot of us are very curious on any educated estimates on when stem cells will begin human clinical trials. Reading around puts the estimate at around 10 years from now or near 2020. What about trials on larger animals than mice, such as rabbits, cats, dogs, apes, etc? As for human clinical trials, how does one get in and do they pay full costs or get a discount for contributing/participating in valuable research?

2. Another thing of particular interest is the extent of improvement one can realistically expect. What would be the requirements of candidacy and how will the degree of hearing loss affect the degree of improvement? To what hearing level is realistic, how much of a hearing loss will one have afterwards? How many DB improvement is expected and will the improvement start first in the low frequencies? 90% of audiograms are sloping with the best hearing in the lows. Can the procedure simply be repeated to achieve additional improvement or is it a one chance deal where you are stuck(at least for a while) with whatever you get?

3. What are the estimated costs, how much cheaper will it be than CI? How will insurance factor in? Will it be affordable for the middle class or just the rich?

4. What risks are expected? Do the risks extend beyond the ear and hearing? Is it expected to be safer than CI? Is all existing residual hearing preserved with stem cells, meaning there’s no “two steps ahead, one step back” problem?

5. What will happen to those who have a CI(or two) how much will this complicate stem cells and how will it affect the results? I have concerns about this and it’s one reason I am saving both ears as I want the best possible results by keeping my ears intact and preserving all residual hearing. Some of us are also concerned that support for CI will rapidly become nonexistant once people start getting stem cells. Will CI become obsolete shortly afterwards?

If I have more questions, I will ask them here. Id like to know where I can find CC(close captions) videos of this upcomming seminar as well as review previous seminars?

Deaf treatment by stem cells likley to begin human clinical trials in 2015-2020

I talked to someone who has some knowlege on this. He said to expect human clinical trials in 2015-2020 timeframe. Give it another 5 years after that for FDA approval. He says it’s a question of when, not if. I read articles that state clinical trials for stem cells to treat some forms of blindness will begin in 2011. So it’s logical to believe that we will see such clinical trials for deafness a few years after. Certainly not 50-100 years like some Deaf people would like to believe.

I also asked him about the fate of CIs and he says CIs will be obsolete when the real thing becomes available. Itll be a third the $50k cost of CI, safer, better, natural and very popular. Most hearing parents of deaf babies will give them stem cells to improve their hearing. The CI companies will either go out of business or start offering stem cell treatments.

I then asked him what about all those with CIs, he says they will still be able to get stem cells and won’t need their CI anymore. I asked him wouldn’t results be better on virgin ears that still have residual hearing? He doesn’t know that one. However from sources I read, they believe it’s better to save your ears for stem cells. Itll be easier to improve hearing when you have existing residual hearing than to start from scratch with none.

He says it’s too early to determine what role insurance will have in this. Im guessing insurance will pay for those who are deaf while those who are HOH will need to save up. If insurance considers stem cells for deafness an elective procedure, I will pay out of pocket and dad will help me afford it. I was raised 100% oral and my parents would love to help me hear better. They have been training my ability to understand sounds and speech since I was a baby.

We both know that HAs, CI and stem cells are an individual choice. I will respect other’s choice in return that they respect my choice to hear better with stem cells. He did tell me and I fully understand that deaf treatment will be controveral just like CIs once were but are almost fully accepted today except when forced on babies. He says culturally Deaf fear that stem cells will eradicate their way of life. Well, they don’t have to seek a treatment for their own deafness. Im sure there will be some born deaf or late deafened who choose to be that way and join the Deaf culture. 

For those of us who choose stem cell treatment, I am going to be realistic by asking for a 20db improvement. When that techology starts out, expect a partial improvement. Perhaps in another 10 years the technology will be mature enough to get many people to normal hearing, as defined of 25db or better. No one yet knows the extent of improvement and we may not know till human clinical trials begin. But don’t expect normal hearing for a while. Even when it was done on animals, they were still hard of hearing but no longer profoundly deaf.

Those who were born profoundly deaf and never heard a sound in their lives will definately not be interested. I know a blind person who was born that way and that person does not wish to be cured or to ever see. That person does not miss what was never seen. I never heard much in the way of high frequencies and probably never heard above 3000Hz. What little high frequency hearing I had when I was younger is gone, today I don’t hear much above 1000Hz. I have made a post about high frequencies not being very important.

I talked to another one of my friends and he agrees with me. He says the highs(2000Hz and up) are annoying and sound like a shrill squeaky sound that gets squeakier as the pitch increases. It has an “eeeee” sound quality. My dad says anything above 2000Hz is just useless noise. It makes me wonder why some are so obsessed/desperate to hear the highs. One of my friends with a CI who now hears the highs says I really am not missing out on much.

With that said, id much rather hear unaided and improve the lows but ill be fine with satisfying my curiousity on what high frequencies *really* sound if I happen to get some ability to hear highs after stem cells. I hear unaided at 65db HL at 250Hz so perhaps ill be down to 45-50db at that frequency. I wonder how much people with this moderate HL hear unaided.

Take the piano thud test! How high can you hear?

Take the test!

The above is a great test. Test it with your best HAs(left, right, both) with the volume dial or button turned to the max. It should work for those with CI as well, but you won’t get to test for cochlear dead zones as it’s a moot point. Your CI just bypasses the dead zones and stimulates the auditory nerve directly with electrical pulses. You can test if you can hear the high frequencies with CI. For those with HA, you need enough surviving hair cells to amplify. For those of you who are hearing or have a mild hearing loss, you can test unaided. For those of us who are deaf, we can’t hear enough unaided to get a proper assessment of our cochlear dead regions. 

Unaided, I can’t properly hear anything but the lows. It’s not loud enough even with the speaker cranked to the max. You will want to use a desktop speaker and turn it up to the max. If the speaker distorts terribly, turn it down a couple notches, but make sure it’s loud enough for your HA to pick up the sound!

Try it with the speaker 3 feet away then hold the speaker near your HA. For me, the results were the same since my speaker is loud enough to reach my HA’s SPL limit either way. Experment in different ways and obtain your best results. Make sure you properly adjust your speaker and try to test in a quiet room, turn off any other sources of noise.

This will both test what your HAs are capable of as well as your ears. It’s also great for testing cochlear dead regions. The tone should be loud and clear like a bell and last the full 4 seconds. The pitch should ascend logically with each key(both white and black) sounding different. If you get the following, suspect a cochlear dead region(and possibly a poorly programmed HA)

1. The tone does not last the full 4 seconds, it fades away faster.
2. The tone is very faint or you just hear a thud or nothing.
3. The pitch sounds off or wrong or is the same across keys.
4. The tone sounds garbled, distorted or noiselike and not musical.

The highest I could hear at all for left ear: 967Hz then I hear just a thud.
The highest I could hear at all for right ear: 1046Hz then I hear just a thud.

The highest I could hear for both HA: 
932Hz for the full 4 sec. At 967Hz it was heard for 3 sec. At 1046Hz it was heard for 2 sec. At 1108Hz and 1174Hz I heard it for just a second then silence. Above 1174Hz, I heard just a thud sound. I hear somewhat better with both HAs than with each alone.

I find it odd that I hear up to 932Hz loud and clear but it goes downhill fast from there. Below 932Hz sounds just a bit louder with each descending key. The volume drops off rapidly with each ascending key above 932Hz. Perhaps I don’t have enough surviving hair cells at around 1000Hz and none a few dozen Hz above that. Ive always wondered how much of a HL before you get to that point. Perhaps no HA is powerful enough above 110-115db HL.

I will repost my audiogram:

125Hz: 60-65db HL
250Hz: 70-75db HL
375Hz: 80db HL(home test)
500Hz: 90db HL
625Hz: 100db HL(home test)
750Hz: 105-110db HL
875Hz: 110db HL(home test)
1000Hz: 110-115db HL
above 1000Hz: 115db-120db+ HL, possible cochlear dead region.

I will learn more about this from reading around and from your results and explanations. Feel free to leave a comment with your own results and ask questions.

I had brief tinnitus a moment ago, it sounded like brrrrrr!

I don’t have a problem with tinnitus but do experience it briefly once in a while. Most of the time, the world is silent without HAs. I wasn’t wearing HAs when this tinnitus occured. It lasted for about 10 seconds and was heard louder in my left ear(which is the very slightly worse ear) The sound was like two tones, a 750Hz and a 125Hz tone. Ive read that sudden tinnitus or any changes in tinnitus usually means you have lost more hearing. Ive very gradually been losing my mid frequencies. Ill have to scan all my audiograms and post them but ive posted some of my audiograms so far. When my HAs are reprogrammed hopefully next week, ill find out more.

So exactly how good are the best HAs? The facts and my experience.

I will find out more in a few days when my HAs are reprogrammed and will share my experience on that and how much better I hear. What I currently hear is shown below:

250Hz(75db HL) and 500Hz(90db HL): I hear low frequencies up to 500Hz very loud. I can still hear those from the other side of the house!

750Hz(105db HL): I still hear this tone very loud but notice it’s half as loud as the 500Hz tone. I can hear this tone from the other room!

1000Hz(110db HL): Much softer than 750Hz, about half as loud and about a quarter as loud as 500Hz. I can still hear 1000Hz from the other end of my room!

1250Hz(115db HL): Less than half as loud as 1000Hz, this tone is quite hard to hear even if I put my ear to the speaker. I can’t hear it from more than about 3 feet away.

1500Hz and 2000Hz+(115db-120db+ HL): Most of the time, 1500Hz is inaudible. On a good day, I hear it from a few inches away at threshold levels. 

I am personally surprised by that disparity, once I reach 110db HL, each few db above that quickly fades into nothing. But I hear sounds very loud and well at levels below 110db HL, even the 750Hz tone I can hear very well! I have a piano when when I play it, there is a small difference in loudness between the low(first set) and mid frequency keys(second set). It’s when I get to the high frequency keys(third set) that I can tell a noticable volume decrease between each key. My parents do not experience this however for any keys. My dad only experiences this for the last few highest keys since he has a moderate high frequency loss. But for me, the last dozen keys are silent, and the keys before that are very faint.

Some possibilities and theories:

1. Perhaps the dynamics of the ear changes at 110db and up. Below 110db HL, there still is enough functioning hair cells that can be stimulated/amplified. Once you get to 110db and up, there is so few, if any hair cells. Ive read into cochlear dead regions where a very loud sound actually stimulates adjacant hair cells and this does give the person a perception of hearing. The sound may be noiselike, very distorted, off-frequency, felt as a woosh, or simply very faint.

2. I wonder if it’s a limitation of HAs but after trying my old HAs from 1998 and comparing my new HAs from 2008 with neither giving me hearing above 1250Hz, but the new HAs making sounds at 1250Hz and below 2-4x louder, yet still not being able to give me anything usable at 1500Hz, I suspect it’s my ears.

3. I am able to get a response on the audiometer at 1500Hz, 2000Hz and sometimes even 3000Hz in the 115db to 120db range. But I don’t recall hearing any shrill tones or whistles. It’s likley I heard a low frequency distortion that came from the audiometer and/or due to the cochlear dead region phenomenon. I also hear the same distortion comming from my speakers at 1500Hz, 2000Hz, 3000Hz, 4000Hz, etc. It sounds like “ehhhh” like humming or static.

4. I will find out more when I ask my audie about this and when he reprograms my HAs. He did say that at 120db, HAs cease to become useful. I can ask him what about at 110db, 115db and in between 110db and 120db.

5. I do know that the pain threshold as well as UCL(uncomfortable level) occurs at or around 120db. Thus even if you could attempt to amplify a 120db loss with an insane amount of gain/SPL, it won’t be pratical as there’s zero dynamic range, would not be comfortable and might even cause damage to adjacant functioning hair cells.

———————————————————

On another note, given the max SPL of my HAs(Phonak Naida V UP) as well as the UCL/pain threshold, the worst unaided audiogram(assuming no cochlear dead regions) someone can have and still hear anything is as follows:

frequency/db HL/SPL HL/HA max SPL dbA/dynamic range

125Hz: 95/120/123/3
250Hz: 105/121/126/5
500Hz: 115/127/130/3
750Hz: 115/125/135*/5
1000Hz: 115/124/140*/6
1500Hz: 115/125/135*/5
2000Hz: 115/127/130/3
3000Hz: 110/126/128/2
4000Hz: 100/116/119/3
6000Hz**: 85/106/110/4
8000Hz**: 60/86/90/4

Above 4000Hz can’t be aided with my HAs, however you can give transposition/soundrecover a try. This shifts the high frequencies down as low as 1500Hz from what I heard.

* My HA is capable of above 130dbA SPL, however for many good and obvious reasons it’s not recommended to exceed 130dbA SPL. I assume all SPL figures to be “A” weighed.

** A different HA meant for mild-moderate HOH people is capable of going up to 8000Hz. HAs for profound losses don’t go much above 4000Hz for many good and obvious reasons.

I will have to find out what SPL my HAs have been set at. I can tell you right now that I am happy with the SPLs up to 1000Hz. I barely hear anything at 1500Hz and I am going to find out if it’s my HA or if my cochlear dead regions start around 1500Hz. Ill also find out what’s the min dynamic range required to get usable aided hearing. I do know it’s more than 1db, probably at least 5db. If so, subtract about 5db from the worst unaided audiogram.

There are no 120db HL figures above since my audiologist said a 120db loss can’t be touched/aided by any HA. For those with 120db HL, it may in reality be 116 or 117db since you didn’t respond to a 115db tone so the next increment was 120db which you responded to. You may also have the SPL set to 132-136 dbA. Some people experience discomfort and risk damaging their residual hearing but they feel they have no choice. I do have a choice for the low frequencies and don’t need insane amounts of SPL. I would rather not hear 1500Hz than hear that frequency with the SPL turned up to uncomfortable levels. HAs should never be uncomfortable and right now they aren’t for me. My audie is going to try for more gains and even SPL and that will depend on comfort levels. Maybe I can get a couple db more, well see.

I would get a CI myself if my low frequency hearing got much worse to the point where HAs ceased to be useful. I have no high frequency hearing and little mid frequency hearing but a decent amount of low frequency hearing and that’s where most of my benefits come from. 75% of sounds and 60% of speech takes place at 500Hz and below so I don’t feel I am missing that much by not hearing any high frequencies. I still have some mid frequency hearing so I can hear more than 75% of sounds and 60% of speech. I have read some good articles on the usefullness of those with left corner audiograms who have mostly or only low frequency residual hearing. Ill post about that some other day and link to the article.

I am tired now, ill keep you guys updated with any new facts and experiences. Thanks for reading, feel free to comment and I shall respond.