Sheila M - Cochlear Volunteer

Location: Atlanta area, Southeast Region

Who Has Hearing Loss: I do

Hearing Loss Type: Progressive Loss

Hearing Loss Cause:

Device: cochlear

Personal history of hearing loss Moderate loss:

 

At age 12, my parents took me to five different specialists in the Atlanta area, and all said I had nerve deafness, would eventually need hearing aids, and might possibly lose all my hearing. Requested preferential seating in all classrooms through high school.

 

Severe loss: At age 17, started wearing 2 hearing aids and depended on lipreading. Words were distorted, and I couldn't distinguish the d and t endings on words very well.

 

Profound loss: At age 27, no longer able to understand words on TV, radio, telephone and increased difficulty with voices in person. Began learning sign language in anticipation of deafness.

From age 32 - 42, I worked a full time job and went to college at night. During the first 2 years of going to college at night, I just always requested a seat in front of the professor and did okay. The college said they didn't have funds to provide a note taker or sign language interpreter, so I dropped out for 7 years. When the college became a 4-yr. university, I went back to their special needs counselor knowing they couldn't refuse assistance to me while they were getting federal funds. They gave me a note taker and sign language interpreter to finish my Associates in Business Administration degree. I had an interpreter at church and at work whenever training classes were required. I used a TTY/TDD to make telephone calls at work and home.

 

At age 47, I picked an ear specialist out of my PPO insurance directory because I was experiencing some dizziness. The doctor I randomly selected just happened to be a renown cochlear surgeon. After he examined me for the dizziness and found no cause, he explained the cochlear implant process to me. I had never heard of it before. He said my hearing aids weren't doing me any good anymore and that he could put me back into the hearing world - and he did!

I had a successful cochlear implant on my right ear on September 27, 1995. At that time, I did not have any hearing in the left ear, and I was totally dependent on the implanted ear. My children were in their 20's before I was ever able to talk to them on the telephone!

 

Now I am bilateral after having my 2nd implant on February 13, 2008. I can hear and understand voices on the telephone and am improving gradually by listening to radio and TV. I have a stereo, radio, regular telephone, cell phone, and an iPod with 4,000 songs.

 

The implants enable me to hear my two little granddaughters sing, my cats meow, birds chirp, wind chimes, rain, wind rustling the leaves of a tree. I never heard those sounds with hearing aids. I no longer need a sign language interpreter or TTY/TDD machine, but I am thankful I know how to sign when I encounter deaf folks who are not oral. I love living in stereo!

Atlanta, baby boomer, Georgia, lipreading, music lover, nerve deafness