Part 8 - Dinah's Cochlear Implant Journey

Constant Gains - Part 8

I am writing this on Dinah's birthday, as we prepare to go out for dinner. Over the last 12 months, during her rehabilitation with her cochlear implant, she has improved month on month.

As Pat said before we started down the implant route:

"It gets better and better. Instead of your hearing getting slowly worse, it improves every month, every year"

This cannot be stated hard enough. If you are thinking of a cochlear implant, you have probably had decades of deteriorating hearing. It is depressing - for me anyway - to always be getting slowly worse, struggling a little more every year, having to work harder to hear in noise. Hearing aid technology has occasional improvements that make a difference, but they are often simply keeping up with your deterioration. For those of us with profound loss - where hearing aids are still helpful but you are reaching the end of options - life is simply hard and social interaction can frequently be embarrassing and draining.

To find out that cochlear implant hearing improves month on month, with gains that keep coming, is so encouraging. I have seen this myself with Dinah.

1. Switch on - she's hearing but it's strange and indistinct (no worse than hearing aids for her!)

2. Rehabilitation - speech is becoming more human, struggling less in noise

3. Confidence in hearing. Using the phone with a direct connection to the mobile. Trying hearing accessories like TV streamers.

4. Abandons bimodal hearing aid as the cochlear implant is now better on its own.

5. Hearing ability has overtaken that of someone using hearing aids

In one year, she has overtaken my hearing ability, despite me being 30 years behind her in terms of my biological deterioration. Despite my top-shelf hearing aids, Dinah has hearing that I can envy, and I am delighted for her.

Notably, when we went out for dinner 5 months ago I was talking to my sister. We have always struggled in restaurants and if it is a noisy one Dinah is reliant on lipreading rather than hearing. This time, Dinah was looking at her mobile phone, sat between us.

Normally she would be oblivious to what was being said. When she looked up, I started to fill her in on what she had missed, only to find she'd heard it word for word. This is incredible.

She is hearing me in places like her kitchen where she always struggled. I can call her on the phone, which hasn't been possible for 15 years+.

I don't want to overegg cochlear implants and make them sound like a miracle, but they really are a saviour. I am looking forward to mine now! I want to wait til I retire so I don't have to worry about the rehabilitation period, but I want to hear the birds again.

Tonight we will celebrate again with dinner in the same Chinese restaurant, and compare how she has progressed.

Coming soon: Dinah will add her final comments after her 12-month hospital review.