I had normal hearing growing up and we believe a severe case of mono and high fevers triggered what became a progressive hearing loss. By age 29 I couldn't hear the phone ring and started wearing hearing aids. Twenty years later I was only able to understand by reading lips and my family encourage me to have a cochlear implant. 

I received a Nucleus Freedom implant Nov. 2005 at House Ear Institute in Los Angels, CA. Within 10 days I was able to understand people talking from the next room. At 30 days, I had 98% speech understanding of sentences and today I test at 100%! It has been an AWESOME experience, but everyone is different.  Today, some people are doing that on the day of their activation!  It's amazing to read the stories here at the Community! 

I started working for Cochlear in July 2006 as the Awareness Manager for the Pacific North West.  I was promoted to Senior Awareness Manager in July 2010 and cover our Pacific West Region  I also support two other Awareness Managers and assist our Denver office with the development of programs for the Cochlear Awareness Network. It's a GREAT job and I love what I do EVERYDAY!

I upgraded to the new Nucleus 5 processor in Spet. 09 and the world sounds even BETTER!  Things sound closer with the Nucleus 5, crisper and clearer.  I also didn't use my programs much with the Freedom because I could function pretty well in noise but with the new ZOOM feature I make it easy on myself and switch to my Noise program when the environment is challenging.   It is amazing how much easier it is to understand people talking and it takes so much less energy to hear!

Knowing what I know today, I couldn't be happier that I chose Cochlear!  Please let me know if I can answer any of your questions about this amazing technology!

Linda