Karen's Story

I have had two cochlear implants for almost five months now. I received my first one the week of my 18th birthday, and the second when I was 19. The main reason I wanted to get a second implant was that I just wanted to hear. To hear “wholly” on both sides is something I’ve always wanted. I am happy to say that two implants is amazing. I don’t ever want to go back to one. My story is this:

I have had a profound hearing loss since I was born. I wore hearing aids from 11 months old to 17 years old. At that point I met a baby whose hearing loss was diagnosed during newborn hearing screening. Her family asked me to come meet them so they could see that their baby would grow up to be happy and be able to do anything anyone else does. That family ended up helping me. The baby received an implant at 12 months and when I saw her a few months later I noticed that she was hearing more than I was. I began to investigate cochlear implants. I emailed others who had used two hearing aids and had always been oral; I checked out the cochlear implant companies. I asked a trillion questions. I had always done so well with two powerful hearing aids that I didn’t know if I would qualify for an implant. I was surprised to learn that I qualified soundly, that most of what I was getting was through lip-reading and other strategies besides hearing. Because both of my ears were about the same, we chose to implant my right ear. I wanted to be able to hear passengers when I drove a car. I didn’t really have any worries about the first surgery.

Once my first implant was activated I heard more every day. Environmental sounds came first-quarters dropping into a coke machine, traffic, children playing on a playground across the street. Speech came slowly but definitely. Music was wonderful—finally! But I still could not follow conversations with three or more people and localizing was nearly impossible. Also, I could hear nothing on the unimplanted side (my hearing aid no longer helped me because I was used to the clearer implant sound). This lack of ANY sound on the left side was not only aggravating (“Will you move to my other side so I can hear you?”) but dangerous-what if someone spoke or something happened that I simply did not hear? Most of all I wanted to hear on both sides. I had always been a bilateral listener; I wanted to get something on both sides again. So I pursued a second implant.

It took two surgeries by two surgeons to implant my left ear. The first one had to be stopped because of the placement of my facial nerves. My surgeon sent us to Dr. Balkany who had experience in placing the implant with another approach I was VERY scared that my face would be paralyzed. It was the hardest decision of my life. My desire to hear was greater than my fear, so I went ahead with the third surgery. I was very relieved that Dr. Balkany was able to implant my ear safely, and my second implant is actually performing better than the first. From the very first hour I was activated I knew that two was right. Some of the ways two are better than one:

1. quality of sound=a fullness/ wholeness and richness that is hard to describe;
2. ability to localize sound;
3. better hearing in multi-person conversations;
4. better hearing in noise.
5. being able to hear on both sides.

The difference is much more than the 5% that shows on paper. The tests don’t show how much better two is than one. It’s phenomenal having two.

By Sarah, 20 years old

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