This One Decision Led to Increasing My Hearing Ability

There is something other than hearing aids for you to hear better

First, this is not meant as an advertisement for an ear implant. I’m telling my experience with hearing loss so you understand there is help for your hearing loss. I receive no monies from my hearing implant provider.

I was deaf, but not now

I’m seventy-eight years old. I know what I’m talking about. I’ve lived it.

Ludwig van Beethoven, though deaf in later years, continued composing beautiful music. On his deathbed he said:

I shall hear in heaven.

Most of us do not have to wait for the pearly gates to swing wide to hear better, thanks to modern day technology.

This is my story

In 1965, I began twenty-two years working in the local plant of an international company. The pounding presses did their dirty work on me. Over the next thirty years, my hearing ability decreased. Now fifty-six years later, I’m deaf.

One evening before bedtime, my wife told me not to forget my flippers when I came into the bedroom. “What do you mean, Flippers?” My dear wife corrected me, “I said, slippers.” Thus began my descent into not hearing consonants. It’s like clipping off the first and last letters of words. So, I heard ‘flippers,’ not slippers. We still laugh remembering, flippers.

My hearing loss began a long line of expensive hearing aid purchases. Most health insurance policies do not cover the cost of hearing aids. Mine did not. I progressed through in-the-canal, in-the-ear, then over-the-ear hearings aids. My hearing loss was turning severe, especially in my left ear.

My audiologist told me I had the most expensive hearing aids available. There are none on the market that can do better. Boy, I already knew I had paid top dollar, but I dearly wanted to hear. I asked, is there anything else to help me?

My audiologist said, “Since you have Sensorineural hearing loss there is something.”

Sensorineural hearing loss is the most common type of hearing loss. It can be a result of aging or exposure to loud noise.

“There is one alternative that will increase your ability to hear. But, it requires surgery. Are you ready to consider?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked?

Cochlear implant

Bright and early in the morning of September 20, 2019, my daughter drove me to the hospital for day surgery. I would be having a Cochlear implant.

The surgeon cut into the skin above the ear. He then attaches a magnet on my skull. This is not brain surgery. He attached 22 wires around the cochlea of the inner ear. Hey, I’m not a surgeon, my description may not be right on, but you get the point.

It was to be a two-and-a-half-hour surgery, but turned out to take four hours. The surgeon explained to my daughter that I had a thick skull, so it took time to chisel a hollow deep enough to fasten the magnet. So, I’m thick-skulled. I can live with that.

The photo looks worst than it was. Don’t hesitate after seeing my photo. This was two years ago, No scars remain.

After a month of recovery, my audiologist gave me the Cochlear appliance to wear. The inserted magnet connect to it. I did not instantly hear. It took two months of clicking by the computer to activate each of the twenty-two wires to my Cochlea.

But, Wow!

I can hear better now than I have for thirty years. My left ear went from hearing 13% to 92% of the sounds I wanted to hear.

Oh, there’s a plus. Unlike hearing aids, Medicare covers this procedure. My health insurance covered the remaining cost. Of course, check what Medicare covers before you proceed.

Let me be clear. There are hearing implant providers other than Cochlear for you to consider. Please consult with an audiologist, not a hearing aid seller, for what’s best for you.

It took a long time for me to consider having this implant. I have never regretted having this procedure. This is what I wrote in May of 2019 thinking about an implant.

I hope my story has helped you understand there are choices available for you to hear again. Birds chirping, grandkids’ happy talk and your spouse will love you more.

As always, it is your choice.

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By the way, here’s more about what aging does to us when we’re not looking.

Thank you for reading,

Richard