I am a cochlear implant old timer! I am an adopted child with no known family history. My initial hearing loss with no hearing in my left ear was detected after I was in a car accident when I was 2 years old. Although no newborn hearing tests existed when I was born, my Mom feels it was the accident that caused the hearing loss due to my problems hearing after the accident. Over the years, it was determined that I also had a mild progressive hearing loss in my right ear. I did not start wearing a hearing aid until I was 21 years old. When I was 25 years old, I got a virus that resulted in total deafness over a two month period. I learned sign language, took lipreading classes,got a hearing ear dog, and learned to cope with my silent world. I thought it would be Heaven before I could hear again. I couldn't have been more wrong. I got Heaven on earth when I was implanted to the N22 in 1989. It took 3 months for most voices to sound normal. I was blessed with the help of my husband, children, and friends who helped me to make sense out of the noisy world and learn to use my cochlear implant to the best of my ability. Over time I learned to use the telephone and listen to music with a radio cassette player and patch cord in addition to recognizing speech and environmental sounds. In 1998 I was re-implanted in the same ear to the N24 due to the failure of electrodes. I have been blessed over the years to have had 6 different speech processors. Each new speech processor has helped me to expand my abilities with my cochlear implant. I love using my Freedom speech processor and love the fact that the rest of my body may age but my cochlear implant will never be obsolete. I look forward to what cochlear implant technology with bring in the future. May 2008-Now my ci story has a new chapter. I've recently gone through auditory testing and a CT scan of my un-implanted ear and am waiting for insurance approval to be implanted in that ear. I've had a lifelong dream of wanting to be able to hear out of two ears. So I'm cautiously optimistic to become bilateral. I know that this long deafened ear will require a lot of work and effort should my dream come true but I'm willing to take this challenge should it happen. August 2008-Insurance approved my having ci surgery last month. My ci surgeon gave his consent in late July. I have a surgery date of Nov. 5, 2008. I'm looking forward to seeing what the future will hold bilaterally for me!

 

Nov. 5, 2008 was the day I had ci surgery in my left ear, which has now made me bilateral.  I'm now one day post-surgery and am doing well.  I have 5 weeks to wait until activation.  One of the best parts about the surgery this time is that I was able to have my right speech processor on before surgery and in recovery.  What a difference it is to be able to communicate, especially in recovery when one feels very drugged!  I'm looking forward to what my bilateral journey will be like now that I have the surgery behind me. 

 

June 2009-I'm living my dream of hearing out of two ears with my bilateral cochlear implants.  This is quite the ci journey as my new ear, having been deaf for 54 years, felt sound as vibrations upon activation 6 months ago. It has come a long ways since those early days. I'm definitely a poster child for patience, persistence, positive attitude and prayer when it comes to this new ear. Even though the new ear is not as skilled as my old ci ear, it is amazing how my brain can take two different signals and produce better hearing.  I love being bilateral. Voices and environmental sounds are richer, more vibrant and my brain much prefers to listen with two ears. I'm developing sound localization skills.  Music is so much better with two ci ears! I am blessed indeed!

 

January 2010-I've been blessed to be able to upgrade to the Nucleus 5 for my left Freedom ci ear. I'm very happy with my Nucleus 5 for my young ear, which has come a long ways in the past year. It still lags behind the older ci ear but that is ok.Together both ears provide me with a rich, vibrant sound. The Nucleus 5 is giving more clarity to sounds which I think is very important for this young ci ear.