Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by throwaway07Ju19 2507 days ago
Thanks for sharing your story and glad to read about your positive experience. Just a comment regarding your advice to others.

I went to bed with perfect hearing and then woke up with 90% hearing loss in one ear (sudden nerve deafness). Some of it has come back but the gain is not flat across frequencies. It is incredibly disorienting. I was almost hit by a car the other day since I now look in the opposite direction when I hear a car accelerate. I no longer enjoy listening to music and it limits my ability to be witty in casual conversation since I now often second guess what was said. Music sounds weird.

I know a hearing aid would help but I don't want anyone to know I have this problem. Hopefully my brain can just recalibrate the frequencies especially since I have one pretty normal ear.

Regarding your suggestion. I believe a good cochlear implant has about 22 channels. A healthy human ear can discern 300,000+ frequencies. This is why cochlear implants are only given to totally deaf patients. The technology is no where near where it needs to be used on patients with hearing loss.