I was 6 or 7 years old when I started having recurrent ear infections.  It was all due to allergies.  Nowadays, my allergies have lessened to only seasonal and I don't even take any allergy pills any longer, but my hearing loss got affected back when I was a child.  My first and second grade teacher(s) were concerned that I couldn't hear or pay attention to them.  Finally, my family took me to a hearing doctor and it was confirmed that I had hearing loss.  Since then, I was fit with hearing aids for both ears.  It's severe to profound type of loss, and although I learned to speak when I was a child, I could not pronunciate certain sounds well, such as "ch" for "chocolate" --or-- "sh" as in "shampoo".  The hearing aids simply allowed me to hear traffic and voices, but I was not able to decipher words when I was in meetings.  Thus, every time I go to our weekly-meetings, it must be captioned.  I also have a membership with Netflix for captioned-movies, otherwise I wouldn't know a word  they are saying.  Either way, I am highly interested in finding out more about a cochlear implant, and would love to hear your story!    UPDATE #1: I was already scheduled for surgery on JAN 23 2012 with activation on FEB 13 -- this was for the right-side, which was implanted with CI24 Contour Advance.   ------------ Also UPDATE #2:  I became bilateral recipient, and was implanted on JAN 23 2013, a year later to the exact date!!  The left-side was implanted with the CI422 Slim Array. ----- And both implants were paired with the Nucleus 5 CP810 external processor!!  ----  About My Activation Experience:  It was difficult (actually - quite challenging) to adjust to the sounds and noise of the cochlear during the beginning months, but now I have gotten used to it.  Read my blogs to get up-to-date, as several have photos in them!!!!  (-: