I can’t believe I never explained the cause of my hearing loss and the history. That’s one of the first questions I ask others. I was born profoundly deaf 90-100 db loss, and it was nerve-related (sensorineural hearing loss). My parents figured it out when I was about six months old because I wouldn’t react until they were in front of me. Since I was the youngest of three kids, they knew I should’ve been able to respond to sound by then.

At that time, my parents had two choices: oral or sign language. They didn’t want to send me to a residential school for the deaf, so they enrolled me in speech therapy, and a ton of it. I went to Easter Seals, Callier Center, TCU, speech therapist in my elementary school, Bluebonnet Elementary School and private speech therapy.

They didn’t want me to lose practice over the summer, so they took me wherever speech therapy was available.
Mom was amazing. She drove me from Fort Worth to Dallas three days a week for for several years (about 60 miles). Of course, I didn’t make it easy for her as I bounced all around the station wagon at a time when children’s car seats were worthless. Thankfully, I never got hurt.

Anyway, I learned to speak and lipread through all this tiring therapy. I admit having a bad attitude at times especially when I was older. (I went until I was 11.) I attended public schools except for 2nd grade when I went to a private school because my elementary school didn’t have 2nd grade.

Instead, kids were bused to a school in another neighborhood. My parents weren’t comfortable with my riding the bus. (Although I’m sure I would’ve been fine as I did it in 6th grade.)To all the teachers I’ve had (well, most anyway), I’m thankful for what they taught me and for their patience.

Hearing aids did work for me. I could hear running water, dog barking, male and female voices, dishwasher, etc. I usually have to be in the same room to hear these sounds. I just can’t understand without lipreading.

It’s like someone who doesn’t know the Russian language. The person can see Russian words, but can’t translate it. My hearing recognizes sounds and voices, but can’t understand what they say. I can talk on the phone a tiny bit — just simple yes / no questions. No conversations.

It’s been three days since I got hooked up. People are asking how it sounds. It sounds like things aren’t loud enough… but if I make it louder, it will not be comfortable. A lot of sounds translate into high pitched sounds as I still have to get used to them.
The most important sound I haven’t heard with the CI is my three-month-old baby. Not even his cries. Thankfully, I did hear his first coos and cries with my hearing aid before the CI. So, at least, I’ve got his sounds in my head.
I can’t stand the sound of running water as it sounds like a continuous high pitch noise. I know, for the most part, what running water sounds like and this ain’t it. It takes time to get used to the CI and wearing it every day brings me a day closer to getting its full benefit. Typing on the keyboard is high pitched like a beep each time I tap. Same goes for the mouse, I hear something more like a beep than a click.
School started today, so I went to the PTA Welcome Back Coffee and meeting. While people were chatting away, I heard a lot of noise and nothing specific. I had to turn down the microphone sensitivity to soften the noise. When the speaker started speaking, I turned it back up. When people talk, it still sounds muffled and unnatural.
If this sounds negative, it’s not meant to be. Just giving the lowdown on where I am today.

How did I feel on the way to the doctor’s office for hook up? Nothing. It was as if we were dropping off a kid or running an errand. Just didn’t want to have expectations and let things happen as they go.
Pam (the person working with me) talked a few minutes about the CI and other things. She put the receiver where the magnet is located just above my ear to the right. It took a few moments to get it to connect with all the hair in the way. She easily put the microphone behind my ear.
Here comes the fun. I probably looked like a nervous person having one leg propped on the chair and a finger on my lips. I’m so tired after all the vertigo and nausea I’ve experienced for three weeks that I was on guard for noisy sounds.
She ran a series of tests on different channels on the internal processor (the mic was not turned on, therefore I couldn’t hear any outside noise) asking me to let her know when I heard something. It sounded like cloudy noise or tunnel noise with a heartbeat fluttering in the ear… thump thump thump. A couple of sounds had me flinching because they were uncomfortable and new. We finished the internal test and moved on to the external component.
Pam warned me to be ready for static that lasts a few minutes. I braced myself as I didn’t know what to expect and my poor head had been so abused. She turned it on and it was noisy, but I tolerated it fine. No one spoke during this time, thankfully.
She started talking and I could hear different sounds reflecting her voice. But it doesn’t sound like the typical voice. More like a sound that appeared when she spoke and she spoke softly to help me get used to it. Time passed and I adapted to her voice. My mom started talking and I could hear her. While this may be an exciting moment for some, it isn’t exciting for me yet because I heard her voice far better with my hearing aids than the CI. Then, Paul started talking but I couldn’t hear him at all. Of course, we made the joke that I’ve learned to tune out the husband.
The baby cried during the session because he was in the middle of his feeding being burped. He doesn’t like it when he has to take a burp break and cries. I didn’t hear him and haven’t been able to hear him well enough to define it’s him.
After the jam session on my poor ear, Pam showed me how to use the processor. I’ll be glad when I move to the behind the ear processor. Right now, I have the processor on my shorts, but when I go to the bathroom I have to adjust it or take my ear down with the shorts.
We left. In the car, I recognized music and Paul’s voice. After we got going on the road, I couldn’t hear Paul or my voice anymore. I played with the processor and couldn’t get it working. I gave up and waited till we got home. Sure enough, as soon as we turned off the car, I could hear voices again. I figured out that most of the sounds drowned out as we hit the highway.
I’m tired and feel headachy. The sounds have been different and noisy. But I am going to keep the CI turned on because the more it’s on, the faster my brain can adjust to the new way of hearing.
I promise to get excited once I get used to the hearing and it’s better than the hearing aids. The hearing aids did a lot of good for me, so it’ll take time. In fact, I am more comfortable with it now than I was this morning. It’ll improve each day. Time for Tylenol and ginger tea.

I am feeling a little better today after getting a prescription for my heartburn and drinking a homemade ginger drink. Ironically, the ginger drink also gives me a heartburn, but not to the severity I had experienced a couple of days ago.
Just got an email from someone whose son experienced vertigo for several weeks after the CI surgery. He said that an occupational thereapist worked. So I am looking into it.
Hook up day is tomorrow. I don’t have any feelings about it right now since I’m so worn out from the side effects of the surgery.

I’m PO’d now. It’s been almost three weeks and I am still not feeling well. It is not all because of the implant. I’ve had heartburn and reflux, which kept me awake most of the night last night. I desperately want to feel better, get back to work, and get the kids ready for school. Went to the doctor today and got another prescription (joy, joy) plus I’m going to try the ginger drink remedy.

There’s much confusion on what a cochlear implant will do for a person’s hearing especially since many variables come to play. Before I started looking into CI again (we went to House Ear Institute in LA and had looked into it wayyyyyyyy back in 1984 when it was one channel or something), I thought CIs were just a glorified hearing aid, or a super hearing aid. People who could NOT wear or benefit from hearing aids were benefitting from CIs. That’s not me. I was happy with my hearing aids since I could hear the sounds I needed to get through my day.
The Holy Grail, as I mentioned before, is to be able to hear without lipreading and talking on the telephone. It may or may not happen or to a varying degree. People who weren’t born deaf and lost their hearing as they got older are more likely to experience this Holy Grail than those who were born deaf. Alas, there is no measuring stick. That’s what made the decision to have the CI done difficult. No one could make a promise of what I’ll be able to do with the CI in comparison to the hearing aid.
The doctor told me that I’ve got a 98% chance of success with the CI. What does success mean? It means I’ll hear better with the CI than with my hearing aid. Just how much and how well is the question. For instance, with my hearing aids, I can hear the dryer buzz ONLY when I’m in the laundry room. The CI might enable me to hear it from other rooms (Darn! No more excuses of not being the one to get the laundry because I didn’t hear the buzzer.).
As to when will I know… it could be six months… a year. Beginning day one of getting hooked up, my hearing will change and adapt every day. So this blog won’t end on hook up day.
Whenever I have time (Ha! Three kids, work, volunteer, sleep, etc.), I’ll be doing audio therapy using Web sites, the tv with captions, and family. In other words, I’ll practice listening and intepreting what is said without lipreading. In the beginning, I’ll need to rely on text along with the audio to get a feel for translating sounds into words.

No, this isn’t about a computer virus. I’m sure you hear enough on that. Instead, it’s a Meryl virus. Looks like I may have come down with a stomach virus or something of the sort that isn’t contagious since no one else in the family has been hit with it. I doubt it has anything to do with the surgery since it came down almost two weeks after the surgery. I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever leave the house again. OK, maybe that is a bit extreme, but it’s getting old to be stuck in bed.
Paul was so nice and brought my computer into the bedroom so I can get something done when I feel up to it. Hate falling behind. This has been one heck of a summer for me health-wise.