I started out on this journey -- the journey that is like no other -- wanting to regain the hearing that was lost to me. Genetics had played out their role in my ears. Deafness was on the horizon for me and most members of my family from way back when. In 2009, I found this community and started down the road to hearing and healing and friendship.

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After the first implant on April 2010, I experienced numerous disappointments. The quality of sound was not what I expected. It was not at all what I had hoped for. Even though I heard and understood speech from day one, it was not what I had imagined. Sound danced along the walls of large buildings and waltzed away in the out of doors. Many, many mappings later, a miracle happened. Almost to the day of my one year anniversary, a big change took place. Voices and all sounds took on a mellow and gentle quality to themselves. Voices did not escape in the wind like they had before. They stayed. They sang their tune into my heart and I was a happy woman.

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I then received a second implant. This time it would be on my better side. It was now August of 2011. On activation day much to my surprise, I heard bells instead of voices. Disappointment lasted only a few seconds. I knew that time would fix it. Several days later the voices appeared. They came from a deep well. But strangely, the two ears together were (are) phenomenal. The two are lovely. The two are sweet. The two are everything I had hoped for. After only one month of being activated, I was tested to hear at 90%. I told my Audi that this number was false. I rate myself in the real world as being 100%!!! Why? Because I never (NEVER) have to say "what?". I never have to strain. I can relax. I can go about my business and actually enjoy all the sounds that are around me. The two ears compliment each other. Where one falls short, the other one takes up the slack. There is harmony and no discord. There is unity. There is balance.

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I believe that every single person's experience is unique. There are no guarantees in this life over anything, much less on how one will hear after an implant or two. For me, the second one was the charm. It gave me a wholeness that was lacking before. It gave me a new direction and every day is a new beginning of some sort. I say grab each day and run with it. Life is too short not to enjoy it and not to be a full participant in it. Thanks to being bilateral, I no longer live on the sidelines obsvering. I am living the life that I was meant to live.