The following story is one person's experience with a cochlear implant. Your experience may be very different. Success with a cochlear implant is influenced by many factors including how long a person has had hearing loss, the age a person receives an implant, medical and anatomical factors and more. Please consult your cochlear implant professional and/or the Bionic Ear Association with questions.
I had such a slow, gradual hearing loss at first that I did not realize I was losing my hearing. The hearing loss was discovered during a physical exam that included a hearing test. After various tests and x-rays were done, it was determined that I had bilateral labyrinthine otosclerosis or simply, a hardening of bone in the ear, which is a hereditary condition.
When I stepped out of the audiologist's office with that first pair of hearing aids, I was astounded by the noise outside on the street. Then I realized just how gradual my loss of hearing had been.
The hearing aids worked well until my late forties. I began to notice that I was hearing speech but could not understand what was being said. I began to avoid social situations and got very good at pretending I could hear what was being said. People thought that I was a very quiet person. I also would laugh when everybody else did, but I didn't know what was so funny. I bought a number of assistive listening devices, which lost their effectiveness as my hearing declined. I just kept getting more powerful aids until there were none that were powerful enough. The hearing in the right ear declined to the point where I could not tell when a hearing aid battery died.
I learned about cochlear implants at hard-of-hearing conventions where the manufacturers set up booths to show the hardware and to provide information. I also attended all the workshops on cochlear implants that were offered at the conventions and visited the manufacturers' websites. I decided it was time to start the process of getting an implant. The first doctor said that my hearing loss was not severe enough and I didn't meet the candidate criteria. I had to laugh at this-my hearing too good? I couldn't hear! I waited for a year and then saw another doctor who was so supportive and enthusiastic about how a cochlear implant could help me. I passed all the screening tests. For the first time, I was glad my hearing loss was so severe because I was finally a candidate for an implant!
Then, I had to select an implant. I had a great deal of information provided by the manufacturers and had all my questions answered. I visited one manufacturer to see just what components made up the implant. Where were they manufactured? What were the outstanding features offered by their implant? How much research was being done to improve the implants? The people were so helpful and went out of their way to give me all the information I needed and to answer all my questions. It was a very easy decision to make once I had all the information; the Advanced Bionics device was the one for me.
Before the surgery, the doctor explained in great detail what he would be doing during the implant surgery. I was looking forward to being able to hear again. The surgery took a few hours. I had just a small area of my head shaved,and I had no stitches. I guess the doctor used some sort of super glue to put me back together. I was able to wash my hair three days after the surgery.
Recovery was very easy for me. Three weeks after the surgery, the implant was activated. Hearing the first tone was an incredible experience. The first visit to the audiologist allowed her to test each of the channels individually to make sure they all functioned.
Here is where everybody will have their own reaction to the sounds that they first hear. To me, the sound at first was very robot-like and mechanical. I heard speech, but couldn't really understand what was being said. But the sound quality improved over time. Learning to hear with the implant is an everyday adventure. You pick up some new sound or hear something that you were not able to hear before. One funny thing to first hear was the sound of what I thought was someone typing using a typewriter. I could not understand what that sound was-it turned out it was the birds chirping at the feeder! My dogs sounded like one of the battery-operated mechanical dogs barking. Everyday got a little bit better than the day before.
What my audiologist is able to do with my processor is amazing! At each programming session, more adjustments are made to my implant. The sound gets better and better. Or am I hearing better? I am very glad I selected, what has turned out to be, the best implant on the market. That is my opinion. The company's people are outstanding and are quick to respond to my questions or needs. They are always there for support and follow-up on your progress. They care about their implant users.
And how is my hearing now? I know what I am laughing at when somebody tells a joke. My husband is very happy now that he doesn't have to repeat everything twice. My dogs sound like dogs. I could go on and on. The very best thing is to have family and friends notice that I hear much better. They are finding out that I am not a very quiet person-I can participate in social situations. I can hear!
Jackie Wistort