It has been a year and a half since my first surgery and I am beyond thrilled with where I am today. By no means is my hearing a perfect 10 or considered "normal", but to me I am able to see a huge improvement today from where we started.
After my first implant was activated I began noticing I was able to hear several different things that I had not heard before. A bird chirping is a high pitch which is outside of what I have the capability of hearing. A fire alarm is something else that is up there in the high pitches. Since my activation the list of things that I have heard for the first time has grown. The list includes several things I never imagined being able to hear! Birds chirping, fire alarms going off, the microwave beeping, the alarm on the house, and being able to hold a conversation in the car are just to name a few.
While I've heard many new sounds I do have a top three things of my absolute favorite things that I'm able to hear now. The waves crashing on the beach was the first thing I wanted to hear. Yes I've been to the beach prior to surgery and "heard" the waves, but the clarity and the crispness of the sound itself is truly indescribable. My second favorite thing I've heard a whisper. Growing up I hated playing telephone because I could never hear what the person next to me was trying to tell me. I can remember several times when people would come up to me to tell me a secret and I would end up frustrated because a whisper was not something I was able to hear. Right after my first activation my family and I took a trip to Oklahoma to see extended family. We went to visit my grandfather and the very first thing when I went to hug him he whispered in my ear. Now funny thing was it was the wrong ear at first so I switched over so my implanted ear was to him. But I will never forget being able to hear him very clearly whisper into my ear. Third of my top three things would be being able to hear a heartbeat. Most people can put their ear to someone's chest and hear their heart beating. When I wore hearing aids that was never a possibility. Putting my ear against anything would cause the hearing aid to whistle or give off feedback. Now with my implant I can hear without the feedback and it is so clear. On top of that just recently I've discovered I can hear with a regular stethoscope! This is huge for me. Going through high school in the clinical rotation program I was never able to participate like everyone else. I has accepted the fact that a stethoscope was never going to be my friend. I would have to use an automatic blood pressure cuff instead of being able to learn the manual way. I had wonderful teachers that worked with me and helped me in anyway they could. When I advanced to nationals in a home health aide competition my teachers were able to get me access to an amplified stethoscope which helped but wasn't very easy to use. After high school when I wanted to go into nursing, one thing I was afraid about was having to use a stethoscope on a daily basis. Recently I've decided I want to go back down the nursing path. While I'll be taking it slowly and working my way up from CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant), I still will one day become a nurse. It might have taken me a while to figure this out but I know this is where my heart is. I begin a CNA course soon and one of my fears was having to work with a stethoscope again. In preparation for this course I revisited my clinical teachers from high school. I wanted to try and figure out if I was going to need to invest in an amplified stethoscope. But sitting down with one of my teachers I tried a regular one first and was able to hear clearly. We were both so very excited!
I am continuously amazed by the things I am able to hear. It truly is the little things that have made able the difference. Not only specific sounds but in general the sound quality is incredible to me. I've gained back a lot of my confidence. I no longer dread going new places and meeting new people. For the most part I'm able to hold a conversation with almost anyone.
I've truly been blessed to be able to receive both of these implants. It's exciting to be able to hear new things and understand things better. While my hearing is not perfect it is continuously improving and for that I'm very grateful. I will never have perfect hearing but I will always cherish what I do have and the advantages of have now. Thank you for all of the support I have had and continue to have from everyone around me. I couldn't do it without my parents, family and friends.
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| My grandfather and I |
