It was during a "chance" conversation (not that I believe things happen just by chance - but that's another conversation!) with my audiologist at a routine checkup in February 2017, that she asked if I'd ever been offered a Cochlear Implant, and informed me that I was likely to be eligible for one. This was big news. At the age of 35, to be told for the first time in my life that I might be able to hear better (woohoo!), but that this would involve an irreversible operation to have a cochlear implant, and months of re-training my brain to understand the new signals coming through the auditory nerve (eek!). No wonder I was left with very mixed feelings.
Back to 2017. So, what did I do when my audiologist offered to refer me for a CI? Well, not a lot! My younger son was just one at the time, and I had no childcare options - the nearest Cochlear Implant centre was in London, so I'd have to leave him for half a day at a time. So I left it for a year, until he was two, and was enrolled at preschool. I did pray, and talk to family and close friends, during that time. And in March 2018 I went back to my audiologist and asked her to refer me to London for a CI. I ended up being referred to the RNTNE (Royal National Throat Nose and Ear) Hospital, due to the usual referral centres being too full. This was unexpected, but I now see it as part of God showing me it was the right thing to do, as RNTNE seems to be widely considered among CI recipients to be one of the best in the country.
Tests, tests and more tests followed, along with appointments with consultants, a speech therapist, a CT and MRI scan, and more tests! The tests were hard, as I did so poorly in them, and became more aware of the limitations of my hearing aids, but they did help to show me that there really is potential for me to hear better with a CI. Finally, in late September 2018, I was informed by the consultant surgeon that "the team believe you would benefit greatly from a Cochlear Implant" - and he asked me if I would like to go ahead with the surgery? I accepted his offer, and (after a long wait) was finally scheduled for surgery in March 2019. And this is where I am as I write, just a week away from surgery, waiting with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation, but trusting that God has led me this far and will be in charge of the outcome...
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**When I was first referred in 2018, one criterion for qualifying for a Cochlear Implant, among others, was the requirement that your hearing loss is greater than 90dB at 2+4kHz (broadly the human speech frequencies) in both ears. Without hearing aids I don't hear any sounds at those frequencies until they reach around 110-120dB (for reference, this is about the volume of a loud rock concert), so I'm well within the criteria. Recently, in January 2019, NICE lowered the criteria to 80dB, same frequencies. While this doesn't affect my eligibility in any way, I do find it reassuring. To me it indicates that CIs are being so successful, the medical establishment believe more people should have them, and that the risk is worth taking, even for those with less severe hearing loss, whom, it could be argued, would be gaining more benefit from their hearing aids than someone with a severe-profound hearing loss, like myself.
Cochlear Implants were never offered to me as a child, when I was a frequent visitor to my local audiology department in the 1980s. CI technology was very new then, and was only offered to people who did not benefit at all from hearing aids. Over the years the technology has improved, as has the skill and expertise of surgeons. Now, it is offered more widely (**See footnote below), and the definition of whether a person benefits from a hearing aid seems to have become much more comparative - the question has become: could they benefit more from a CI than they currently do from a hearing aid?
Back to 2017. So, what did I do when my audiologist offered to refer me for a CI? Well, not a lot! My younger son was just one at the time, and I had no childcare options - the nearest Cochlear Implant centre was in London, so I'd have to leave him for half a day at a time. So I left it for a year, until he was two, and was enrolled at preschool. I did pray, and talk to family and close friends, during that time. And in March 2018 I went back to my audiologist and asked her to refer me to London for a CI. I ended up being referred to the RNTNE (Royal National Throat Nose and Ear) Hospital, due to the usual referral centres being too full. This was unexpected, but I now see it as part of God showing me it was the right thing to do, as RNTNE seems to be widely considered among CI recipients to be one of the best in the country.
Tests, tests and more tests followed, along with appointments with consultants, a speech therapist, a CT and MRI scan, and more tests! The tests were hard, as I did so poorly in them, and became more aware of the limitations of my hearing aids, but they did help to show me that there really is potential for me to hear better with a CI. Finally, in late September 2018, I was informed by the consultant surgeon that "the team believe you would benefit greatly from a Cochlear Implant" - and he asked me if I would like to go ahead with the surgery? I accepted his offer, and (after a long wait) was finally scheduled for surgery in March 2019. And this is where I am as I write, just a week away from surgery, waiting with a mixture of trepidation and anticipation, but trusting that God has led me this far and will be in charge of the outcome...
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**When I was first referred in 2018, one criterion for qualifying for a Cochlear Implant, among others, was the requirement that your hearing loss is greater than 90dB at 2+4kHz (broadly the human speech frequencies) in both ears. Without hearing aids I don't hear any sounds at those frequencies until they reach around 110-120dB (for reference, this is about the volume of a loud rock concert), so I'm well within the criteria. Recently, in January 2019, NICE lowered the criteria to 80dB, same frequencies. While this doesn't affect my eligibility in any way, I do find it reassuring. To me it indicates that CIs are being so successful, the medical establishment believe more people should have them, and that the risk is worth taking, even for those with less severe hearing loss, whom, it could be argued, would be gaining more benefit from their hearing aids than someone with a severe-profound hearing loss, like myself.
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