By Shanna Groves, M.Ed.
I recently completed activation of my first cochlear implant after my sensorineural hearing loss progressed to profound more than a year ago. I had lived with undiagnosed hearing loss since childhood. After the birth of my first child, I developed tinnitus and could no longer hear high-frequency sounds. I was diagnosed with progressive bilateral hearing loss more than 20 years ago and was fitted for hearing aids.
I met first with an ENT (ear, nose, and throat doctor), then the audiologist.
At the CI activation, the audiologist prepared me for the experience by calling it a day “all about sound.”
I was told to expect sounds to at first be robotic, synthesized, and pulsing. And that at first, speech might be indecipherable as my brain adjusted to hearing with the implanted device.
The audiologist placed the sound processor behind my left ear. It looks like a hearing aid with a small hook at the top to hold it in place. The processor connects to a magnetic coil that attaches to the side of my head just above the ear and below the scalp. The CI is chocolate brown and matches the color of my hair roots. It is a comfortable fit, more so than the hearing aid that rests behind my other ear.
While the CI was mapped to set sound frequencies, I heard a soft, staticky noise. I later learned I was hearing a rain downpour and thunder coming from outside the clinic.
The CI was programmed at level one, which is classified as “comfortably loud” according to a sound chart, but as my brain adjusts to hearing sounds in a different way and deciphers meaning from the sound, I will be able to transition to program levels two, three, and eventually four. Level four is closely associated with a comfortable hearing volume that is not too loud or soft. The CI comes with a remote control and phone app that I can use to adjust the programs and volume.
My husband sat near me and filmed my reactions to CI hearing for the first time. I was mostly calm, nodding and smiling with each new sound mapping. I grimaced when two of the highest sound frequencies caused an electric bolt sensation to zap my auditory nerve. This was the first time in almost 25 years I heard those high frequencies.
After the two-hour appointment, I was tired and famished. My husband and I had brunch at a restaurant on our way home. While eating, I paid attention to various noises and occasionally asked my husband to help me identify the sounds.
Background noises translated as whooshing, echoey, robotic static.Voices sounded like “Donald Duck robots” speaking through a microphone. A reverberating echo followed each word.
My snapping fingers made a high-pitched pulsing noise.
Ambient noises, such as the rain and air conditioner, sounded like a 1980s music synthesizer. It reminded me of the opening synthesized sequence to Michael Jackson’s 1983 hit song “Thriller.”
Hearing any sound is good for my brain as it makes sense of all the noises. Wearing the CI draws me out of the quiet world to which I had retreated for so long when my hearing loss progressed and made listening a struggle. I can now hear my world.
Here’s hoping the Donald Duck robot voices sound a bit more human soon.
Shanna Groves, M.Ed., is an author, learning specialist, and board member with the Kansas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. She has written two books about hearing loss, currently works as a learning designer for a healthcare IT organization, and is a former special education teacher. Shanna writes about experiences as a profoundly hard of hearing parent at lipreadingmom.com.
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While the cochlear implant was mapped to set sound frequencies, I heard a soft, staticky noise. I later learned I was hearing a rain downpour and thunder coming from outside the clinic.