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The following is copied from an email I received from a friend of a friend, who began wearing her CI as an adult. She blessed me by her willingness to answer my questions (in black) for the sake of my learning more about the Deaf and HoH cultures and wanting to share that information with my blog readers. While I am sure that these questions would have very different answers if the respondent had began wearing a CI as a child, this is still one valid perspective ~ a place to start our investigation. At the conclusion of her answers to my questions is a link she provided to me to another story of an adult in a similar situation that was published in the Los Angeles Times. If you go to that story, you will also find links to other related stories on Deafness.
Thank you for your interest in our CI investigation and in this deaf project blog.
How would
you describe what your ears hear?
·
My ears are completely deaf, but I hear with CI very comparable
to the hearing people, except for the music and TV sounds, and few other small
limitations
What is
your basis for this description? ie. can you hear some sounds or voice without
it or from one ear only? I noticed that not everyone with a cochlear uses two,
some only use one. I wonder why.
·
I am deaf on
both ears and hear absolutely nothing without my
CI, I may feel some vibrations depending on how intense that sound may
be. I have only 1 CI on my left ear. The reason for implanting 1 ear
is because I
was used to hearing out of my left ear, since I had 'some' hearing in my
left
and had 'none' hearing in my right ear
Can you
please tell me a brief history of your hearing loss as well as of the
affects of wearing a cochlear? *specific questions follow:
Was it
placed at birth before speech developed or afterwards due to illness or
accident (prelingually/postlingually)?
·
I was supposedly born hearing, but at the age of 2 my neck
became stiff on right side and slowly started to lose hearing because of the
nerve damage...at age 7.5 years old I was fitted for my first hearing aid, and
heard with my hearing aid pretty well, again some limitations like loud places,
far away people talking to me...
Do you
speak clearly or do people have trouble understanding you?
·
I speak clear, however I do have very little Serbian accent and
it's only noticed on harder words...
Do you
remember the "therapy" you needed to use the cochlear?
·
What's therapy? I never needed one, I heard sounds very well
from an instant when I got my CI.
What was
that therapy like?
·
N/A
Were you
able to keep up in school? fall behind? excel? feel like an outcast?
·
I was able to keep up in school with my hearing aid (ha), I had
good grade. When I moved to the United States
at the age of 14, I had to learn English with my ha and that was very
difficult, many words sounded exactly the same like pot & dot, unless used
in a sentence... I overcame that and learned the language. I did well in school even though I was in
most ESL classes. Went on to College and
graduated with Bachelors Degree.
·
Did I feel like an outcast? Many times and many different
situations...
Did you
have a choice in the use of a cochlear or did your parent(s) make the decision
for you?
·
prior to suddenly losing all my hearing at the age of 25, I was
already aware of CI's, so when doctors could not help me anymore, I went and
researched all about CI and made the decision to go with Advanced Bionics in
CA.
Do you
know if the decision was influenced by doctors or if the decision was ever regretted
by them?
·
It was my decision, I wanted to hear so bad, I didn't want to be
'deaf', my kids were so little and I could not hear them, I could not teach
them how to say new words, my daughter was only 1 month old at that time and my
son was only 19 months old at the time of me suddenly losing all my hearing
If you
made the decision later in life, have you ever regretted it?
·
I absolutely have no regrets, I love my CI
Do you
use ASL? Do you consider ASL your first language?
·
No, I do not use ASL, I've never learned it in either Serbian
nor English. I consider Serbian as my
first spoken language, and English as my second language. I do regret not having an opportunity to
learn the sigh language in Serbian language.
When I moved here, I always had so much to do that ASL was never on my
list because of my busy life.
Lastly,
do you enjoy music with the cochlear implant?
·
I have to say I do enjoy music when I'm in the mood, LOL. I do find some music do be actually
annoying. When I try to listen to the
conversation with my family (for example) I cannot stand hearing music in the
background as it takes it away for me to focus hearing what someone is trying
to tell me, while most hearing people don't have to worry about that.
Hi Kelly,
Here's
2 more additional questions you asked me about... Please let me know if
you have any other questions, I promise not to make you wait this long
on the next question... I just got a brand new android phone with email
loaded to it, so I will be responding much faster...
1. Do you
identify with the Deaf community? Deaf culture? ie. consider yourself
Deaf/attend Deaf events/films?
- · Sadly, no offense to anyone, but I do not associate with Deaf culture, I was raised in hearing world, I heard well with ha, and I heard even better with my CI, so I was never part of Deaf culture, my parents raised me in a hearing world. I do not attend any events for the Deaf....
- · I know of another family in our community where both mom and dad are deaf and use ASL, but their 3 boys are hearing, and I speak to them slowly so that they can lip read me and I can read their lips too and that's how they communicate with the hearing world. They do not believe in CI's, and all of their 3 boys know ASL.
2. If you
do consider ASL your first language, how many in your family learned ASL to
better communicate with you?
- · Nobody in my family knows ASL, or even Serbian sign language, we all rely on speech and we all hear. I consider myself hard of hearing, even though I know I'm legally Deaf....
Again, I
can't thank you enough for allowing me to ask such personal questions of a
stranger; but please know that my motives are pure and I will use any insight
you give me to further my passion to work with the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in
whatever direction God leads me.
Kelly
This is the link to the article in the Los Angeles Times:
http://articles.latimes.com/2000/feb/28/health/he-3373
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