Bionic Ear Blog

<Deep breath> Whew. Found out today that I should get hooked up the week of August 11. What a week that’s going to be considering my oldest starts school that week. Still waiting for the phone call about the time of the surgery.
It’s lucky that I am doing this while on maternity leave. The stress of the surgery leaves me unable to think straight right now. Plus, after the surgery … I don’t know how well I’ll be able to understand people without sound. Yes, I can wear one hearing aid, but my left ear is unreliable and doesn’t handle being the only ear hearing. That’s why the right ear is getting the honor of the implant.
Though I do lipread, hearing aids enable me to understand more than if I didn’t have them on. Just ask Paul. He can tell you I understand him less with my hearing aids off than when I have them on. It was fun (not) in the past month when I had to have each hearing aid repaired. The back up hearing aid is just not as good. Figures — I spend my last month as a dual-hearing aid wearer with uncomfortable and lopsided hearing. It’s back to normal now, but I’m trying to swim a lot this weekend since I won’t be able to swim for a few weeks.
It’s a good thing I am doing this now while I have a young baby. It’ll be an opportunity to hear the baby in a new way. But it also means not really hearing the baby for at least a month. Hate to miss his coos and laughs. I just hope I will be able to hear normally before the baby is one-year-old. Don’t know how long it’ll take before I can hear comfortably with the CI.
So nervous. I’ve got a life long history of dizziness that has gotten worse as I get older. Some have said the CI made it worse while others saw improvement.
Those who know me… know I hate the unknown. 2003 has been the year of the unknown.

Unbelievable. We get a call from the hospital’s finance office asking how we want to pay and if I am outpatient or inpatient (it’s outpatient, unless there is a problem). Well, from what we understand, insurance was supposed to pay for the whole deal. According to the hospital, this is the first time an HMO has ever not paid for the whole thing. Go figure.
We call the insurance and the popular answer to our questions is… <drum roll> “I don’t know.”
Just what I need… another roadblock to a stressful and difficult year (besides the birth of kid #3, of course).
Thanks for letting me blow off steam here. I cussed while writing this, but this is a G-rated blog…

Here are my audiograms from 1988, 1992, and 1999.

1988 part 1
medium large

1988 part 2
medium large

1992
medium large

1999
medium large
The conclusion? I’m gosh darn deaf. Seriously, my hearing hasn’t changed since birth. Maybe a drop.
Other test results:
Lipreading and hearing test — 100%
Lipreading / no hearing test 70%
Lipreading / hearing test — lousy
Took a look at four words and listen for one word — got all but one right (the one I debated for a second) without asking for repetition.
Hearing loss: 90-110 db
Hearing aids: 60 db
Average hearing: 10-30 db with 30 db being a whisper
We won’t know how much of a difference the CI makes for a while. After the surgery, I have to wait three to four weeks before getting hooked up. So, I’ll be in silent world during that time. Once I get hooked up, what I hear won’t be anything like what I will hear a few months from now. It takes time to get used to a new way of hearing. Remember learning to ride a bike? Drive a car? Put on contacts for the first time? It took practice. Hearing aids and CIs are the same thing.

Date: July 21, 2003.
So? I get a cochlear implant.
The victim: my right ear.
33 years after I was diagnosed with a profound hearing loss, I’m taking a step towards to hearing better. My hearing aids have been good to me. I could hear music, voices, rain, dogs barking, and babies crying. After much research and talking with the doctor, I have learned the cochlear implant is supposed to help me hear better. I can’t imagine what that means because I think I can hear a lot of sounds. The only thing I can’t do, and that’s the holy grail, is hear what people say without lipreading (talking on the phone, for example).
The cochlear implant is not a guarantee I’ll be able to talk on the phone. I might be able to or I might not. It could take six months or one year. Who knows. There are many variables when it comes to figuring out how much a person will benefit from a coclear implant.
On July 1, I was flabbergasted when I realized it was only three weeks to the surgery. I began to panic and get cold feet. It’s now one week away and I’m nervous. I’m about to embark on a life-changing experience… for the good, I hope.