Can you share with us how you lost your hearing and the journey to your implant? “My name is Fiona and I am a professional ballet dancer and teacher with a cochlear implant. I was born with full hearing and always passed all my yearly hearing tests with flying colors. When I was 12, I noticed … Continued
“I was born with bilateral, congenital hearing loss, and in July 2010, an episode of severe anemia resulted in a sudden decrease in my hearing sensitivity, tinnitus and disequilibrium. Two months later, my symptoms resolved except for the hearing loss. Although I had been born with severe to profound hearing loss, the loss of the … Continued
“It was May 2020, just after the world shut down for the covid pandemic. We were at the hospital to welcome our second child wearing n95 masks and being tested for covid before entering. It was already a much different experience than when we had our first child. Abigail ‘Abby,’ was born without complications, and … Continued
Start the conversation with empathy When approaching the conversation about hearing loss, it’s a good idea to start by sharing your concern for your loved one’s well-being. If hearing aids aren’t helping them feel like they’re living their life at 100%, then they may need help acknowledging that it’s time to take the next step. … Continued
“My name is Chet and I have been an employee with Cochlear for three years. I am one-year Bimodality implanted wearing the Cochlear™ Nucleus® 8 Sound Processor on my right ear and a ReSound Nexia™ on my left ear. I was promoted to an Upgrade Solution Specialist in November of 2023 and was previously a … Continued
In 2019, our worlds changed forever. Our beautiful baby girl was born. We named her Willow. For months we had talked about how our lives were going to change and imagined how wonderfully different life would be. She was so beautiful and so perfect. Every screening at the hospital indicated that she was healthy, but … Continued
“I just celebrated my 18th birthday. For 17 of those years, I’ve been able to hear thanks to my cochlear implants. I was born with profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss due to a connexin 26 genetic mutation. My parents were both carriers, but they didn’t know about it until I had genetic testing. I was … Continued
“When I was 3 years old, my parents noticed something seemed off with my language development. I had been learning words like most other children my age, but then I started losing that vocabulary. It got to the point where I had forgotten people’s names and when my parents would call me, I wouldn’t respond. … Continued
“I was born deaf. At only 12 months old, I underwent surgery to receive my cochlear implant. My parents actively sought out different options to help me and found Cochlear to be the most effective and efficient devices on the market. I have not known life without my cochlear implant. Coming to terms with my … Continued
“Brielle was born with hearing loss in her right ear. The doctors kept telling us she had fluid still in her right ear and to try different positions when feeding to help absorb. A few weeks later we were referred to our local Children’s Hospital in Portland. We were unsure of what this meant but … Continued
“My journey with hearing loss officially began at a young age, 4 years old specifically. When I was around the age of 2, my mother brought me to the pediatrician to ask why my speech was developing so slowly but the doctor dismissed the concerns at the time and chalked it up to me just … Continued
Strengthening Connection with Will and Denise Will first noticed his hearing loss during his time in the military. His family consistently noticed that everything around him was getting louder and louder; things like the TV and the radio. His coworkers encouraged him to go to the doctor and get his hearing checked. Will finally took … Continued
“I was born with a severe-to-profound hearing loss in the developing country of Indonesia, where resources and opportunities for the deaf are limited. The best medical advice given to my parents at the time was to wait until I was 4 years old so the doctors could run hearing tests. Which meant the first four … Continued
“Do you hear that? Total silence. Nothing but quiet. No birds chirping. No car engines roaring. ‘Click,’ like a light switch turning on, the cochlear implant allows a deaf person who is living in a world of total silence to be able to hear. Cochlear implants are electronic devices that help people hear when they … Continued
“At the age of 17, during my senior year of high school, I developed a perforated eardrum (basically a hole in my eardrum). Post-graduation I had my first ear surgery to try and close the perforation, but this surgery did not work. I then went on to have my second ear surgery to try and … Continued
“Our youngest son, Liam, failed his newborn hearing screening two separate times while we were still in the post-partum unit at the hospital, after his birth. The hospital had us come back about a week later, where he failed the test a third consecutive time. A follow up with his pediatrician led us to a … Continued
“In June 2022, my alarm went off for what I thought would be a typical day. I quickly realized, however, that something with my right ear felt off. I was experiencing a lot of pressure and could not hear as I normally did. I went to Urgent Care later that day, was told there was nothing … Continued
Dr. Arun Joshi splits his time between clinical care and management of Cochlear Hearing Centers in both Houston and San Antonio. Dr. Joshi knows first-hand the important role companions play when deciding about a hearing solution. In this interview, he tells us why loved ones are such an integral part of the patient experience, and … Continued
“When they first laid my daughter on my chest after she was born, her right side was facing up and I noticed right away her ear looked ‘different.’ I immediately pointed out her folded little ear to my husband and his response became our anthem: ‘It’s OK.’ Since then, each and every step we have … Continued
“We learned of Hayden’s hearing loss the summer of 2020. He had always been a calm, happy baby, but we suspected something was wrong when he didn’t react to fireworks going off in our neighborhood on the Fourth of July. He had passed his newborn hearing screen at the hospital and there is no family … Continued
“24 years ago, after my birth, I was given a newborn screening where it was identified that I had profound bilateral hearing loss. It was and is idiopathic; to this day, I still don’t know the source of my hearing loss. What I do know is, my hearing loss has never been able to define … Continued