Life after a cochlear implant revision - How removing my child’s old CI changed her life for the better

When we received word that my daughter’s cochlear implant (CI) was failing, we were terrified. What would it mean for our daughter? She has had been doing so well. She received her first CI at age two. At that time, there was a huge gap in her receptive and expressive language compared to other children her same age. Once she was implanted and receiving weekly auditory oral therapy, she took off. I could see the language gap closing!

There are two types of failures. The first is a hard failure, which happens when someone is suddenly without sound. There is no communication between the external and internal devices. Then there is the soft failure, which is more difficult to recognize. Soft failures are generally determined by a noticeable decrease in hearing performance. For us, it was our daughter saying “what” more often, her audiogram looking different, and her mentioning the crackling sound she was hearing.

Even though I knew her device was failing, I was scared to have it taken out. What if her revision surgery had complications? What if her ear would be damaged and she’d be unable to hear again with a CI? Would it be like starting all over again, and take months or even years of intensive auditory rehabilitation to get back to where she was prior to her failure? These were some of the questions that ran through our minds.

When she received her CI two years earlier, a removal procedure was the furthest thing from our minds. We knew we wanted our daughter to have a CI even though there was a lot of controversy surrounding CIs in infants and young children in the small community where we lived. All the research we had done told us that the earlier young children received CIs, the better the outcomes.

We were able to get her scheduled for her revision surgery quickly. We weren’t sure what to expect, but things went as smoothly as the first surgery had. She was back to her usual self within 24 hours of the surgery. But the question in our minds still lingered regarding what rehabilitation would be like post-activation. Activation day couldn’t come soon enough!

To our surprise, activation went very well and she was understanding speech and language during that initial activation appointment. She was thrilled to be able to hear again within a few weeks. Her auditory verbal therapist and teacher of the deaf felt like she was back to where she was prior to her need for revision surgery. We had expected months of auditory rehabilitation to get her back to where she was, but she was doing incredibly well!