I want to read about your experiences with the Envoy Esteem, your ups and downs, the good, the bad and the ugly. I am hard of hearing and have been for all my life. I've worn hearing aids since I was 4 but I'm really getting tired of them.

I have been in contact with Envoy and now I'm just waiting on insurance and job change before I move on. Turns out Aetna will cover the Esteem. :)

My 94 year old mother has bilateral hearing loss and has worn hearing aids for ten plus years. Through Rush Limbaugh's radio announcement,I learned of Envoy and your product, Esteem.

winarose@aol.com

Great Blog

Is Esteem like the old Soundbridge-- chickened out when they started talkng about brain stem.

Rchard the Lawyer in FL

So glad to see that you are doing well. I always keep tabs on the envoy as I was one of the phase 1 subjects in Seattle. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for me and we had to remove it. Maybe it was phase 1 (this was like 2004...) or maybe it was my anatomy, who knows. I wonder if someday I might try again. We'll see!

Thank you for your telling your journey. I have scheduled to have the implant placed and of course have had doubts. You have helped in letting me proceed.

Alex

Thanks for this blog. I'm in the beginning stages of looking in to the Esteem. It sounds like such a great implant. I actually got tears in my eyes reading your blog- how exciting to be hearing things for the first time. I've had a loss since I was two- I'm sure I'm missing more than I know! I have a question about recovery time- how long did it take you to get back to your normal routine. Do you use a hearing aid in the surgery ear until it's turned on? I have so many questions :-). Thanks for any input!

How about an update on Tony? :-)

bryan

Hello Mandy,

I made this comment before in probably the wrong location to be noticed by you so I am repeating it here with some addition in your recent writings. Hope you don't mind.

I saw you and your sister's video on the Envoy Medical web site some time ago but just now stumbled into your journal. Relating your experience has been the most informative of the information I have found.

I have been evaluated as able to utilize the Esteem implant and I am now in the process of arranging to receive the Esteem Implant procedure. I am scheduled to have the implant December 9, 2010. I have what Envoy considers severe sensorineural loss in both ears. Therefore I have to fly 2800 miles to have the implant by who they consider their most experienced and qualified doctor. I am going along with that extra expense since I don't want to short change the chances of success by cutting corners.

I have been struggling with hearing aids of one type or another for 30 years and never found them much more then annoying. Even with the $6K hearing aids I have now I still have lot of difficulty understanding what is being said. I can never be sure the word said is the word I hear. The possibility that the Esteem implant can increase the word understanding level is of the most interest for me. It is also said to help in noisy conversation situations beyond what traditional hearing aids can handle. What you have written seems to indicate that your experience confirms this.

Your surgery seems like a difficult experience compared to what is described being done now. When talking to the doctor and Envoy one gets the idea the surgery is not a big deal now. I wonder if they have advanced their technique that much since your trial experience.

Also, you have a picture of yourself on your journal after surgery that you say is too dark and is too dark to see what you are trying to show. I saved and enhanced the photo so that the details are now visible. If you would like this enhanced photo I will be glad to send it to you if you make a method available.

Thanks for making the effort to explain your experience with your Esteem implant. As I said, it is very informative, especially the pictures of the surgery site itself.

Continued good hearing,
Dennis

Hi,
I was so exited to see your blog. I was implanted on September 16 of this year and got activated on this past Monday, November 1, 2010. It is was a relief to read your experiences and know that somebody else went through it and came out on the other side feeling happy about it. I am a little overwhelmed right now but I am so excited and already I think I made a great decision! Thanks for all your posts!
Kerry Anne McGuire (age 28)

Hi Dennis

I am very curious to hear about your experience with the Esteem because I am in similar situation and you. I have used hearing aids for 3 decades (age 32) and I am not satisfied with my hearing performance using hearing aids.

Please write to me if you happen to see this.

arni(at)arnirichard.dk

Arni

well, as u say, we are often regarded as snobbish and conversations are just so much of a struggle. I am just wondering how I can improve my self esteem. I don't have the money to do sthg like you did and I don't want it. Is it not possible to cope somehow in a nice an attractive way with hearing aids? I wonder.

I was just implanted this week and found you via the Envoy Facebook group. It was a tensse and stressful month deciding to do this. i live in Pa and flew to Ca to have it done so alot of $ plus the 30,000 had to be taken out of my retirement fund. My Empire insurance would not even cover the cat scan needed to be done to see if I was a candidate. It will all be worth it if I can hear again!
I had tomretire at age 55 from teaching due to my hearing loss. I have been weari g aids for 30 y,ears but things just kept getting harder and harder to hear. Social situations are no fun but hoping when I get activated in next 8 weeks this will change.
My hea d and ear still are in pain from implant but hoping that will be gone in next few days and that my life will start new this year.
I am going back to read all your entries now

thanks for the inspiration I was stressed by work but i learnt that life is about living to the fullest and enjoying every moment.Thanks a million

My father has been losing his hearing progressively for the past 20 years. We can no longer talk on the telephone due to his hearing loss and although his hearing aide specialist has done great things for him, he is becoming more and more isolated from the world... he was always an outgoing, friendly man, but is becoming more and more frustrated with his inabilty to talk with people, and as a relatively healthy, energenic man of 77, is becoming more isolated. Can Esteem help him, or just deplete his retirement funds without improving the quality of his life. Money is less important than the quality of one's life and being able to participate in life has no price tag. Please offer honest information about Esteem. Sad Daughter

Beneficial info and excellent design you got here! I want to thank you for sharing your ideas and putting the time into the stuff you publish! Great work!

I hope you will keep updating your content constantly as you have one dedicated reader here.

Excellent post I must say.. Simple but yet interesting and engaging.. Keep up the awesome work!

You own a great talent of writing.Best of luck and get going.And yes i have digg your site alreadygone78.livejournal.com .

I am in the process of setting up my implant surgery right now. The results of the CT scan should be complete before weeks end and our home equity loan will be processed around May 6 (my b-day). From what I learned when I took a tour of the new Envoy facility in The Woodlands, Texas yesterday, I've been set up to have Dr. Michael Murray perform the surgery! I am excited to the point that last night I dreamt I was having my hair shaved and on the gurney getting prepped for surgery! I was really ticked when hubby woke me up!

Your blog has been so informative for me. Most of it, I cried with anticipation of what life will be like for me afterwards. I really want to go back to college and get a degree.

I've even been asked to consider a before and after video for Envoy on life before and after the Esteem. I am seriously considering doing it.

I want to thank you for all of the time and effort on this blog. Even with the little minor things that happen post surgery, I am not phased a bit. Keep up the great work with the blog and I am going to continue to check back and see if you've posted more.

Sharla

I am a 40 year old pastor and worship leader/musician. I pastor a church in Oregon. My wife and I have three children (two girls and a boy) I have had severe/profound hearing loss in my left ear for about 10 years. Your posts have been encouraging to me. I have had a hard time finding people with whom I can relate. I would like to find out if my hearing loss can be treated by the Esteem Implant. Thank you so much for your posts. Keep up the good work! :-)

I'm currently living with the expensive and (excuse me, but pain in the arse), Oticon hearing aides, and I hate them. The dog ate one which had to be replaced. I'm constantly misplacing them, constantly changing batteries and making certain their spotless.....I have an approximate loss of 50 dB (some at 40 some at 60) and find myself not using them as much as possible. Frankly the ONLY thing I've found them good for is when you use the TV attachment that allows you to really hear the programing......then I find them useful. Otherwise, as I said, a pain...

I am going to be 65 and had perfectly good hearing until last year when the doctors used ototoxic antibiotics on me and failed to advise me that intra-tympanic injections of a corticosteroid could obviate the damage of the antibiotics.....most discouraging...

Just wondering if I should go this route, as $30,000.00 is a big chunk of change or wait and see what develops wit stem cells which seem to pose a highly promising cure on the horizon...I'm told my hearing loss is mild to moderate and I can get by without them, but I hate having to ask people to speak up and or repeat what they've said to me...

Hi

Today only I had a chance to see your blog.Very nice.

Why dont you update any information for the last one year?

Now you are OK.Feeling good?

We are looking into the Esteem for our 17 year old daughter who has had a severe loss since birth. So far, Envoy says she is a perfect candidate. We are waiting to get in touch with Dr. Sam Marzo in Illinois who would be performing the procedure. Has anyone had experience with him?

This post is very useful for me, much appreciated! :)

Hi!

My name is Karina. My mother has very severe hearing loss in both ears, and has used hearing aids for as long as I can remember. I'm 16, haha. I discovered the Esteem implant as I was meandering through the internet, and I stumbled across your blog! I was wondering if you wouldn't mind answering a few questions?

Was the implant affordable? Did your insurance cover anything?
Did the phone hearing improve at all?
If you don't mind me asking, how old were you when the surgery was performed?
Have you overall been happy with how the implant performs in day to day activities?
What are some problems you experience?
Is there anything you think a person considering the implant would need to think about or know?

Thank you so much. I hope you're doing well!

-Karina