What is the difference between Cochlear Implants and Hearing Aids? I kept a diary since I was wearing hearing aids and to my experience when I heard the sound for the first time in my life.
I remember when I was so angry with my mom and asked her why I didn't get cochlear implants when I was a baby. She told me that she would give me a cochlear implant but the doctor told her that I will never get a cochlear implant because my skull was too small for the operation and wasn't a candidate for a cochlear implant. The doctor recommended her to get hearing aids for me. I got my first hearing aids when I was 14 months old.
For 17 years I was using Swiss Phonak Hearing Aids. They are an amazing brand and did help me a lot with languages and to give my brain some exercise by sound waves travel to my cochlea. I felt the sound just went into my cochlea and out not to my brain, maybe very little.
I remember how emotional and frustrated I got when I really wanted to talk on the phone. In my teenage years, I was so desperate to talk on the phone, when I experienced all my friends are talking on the phone. I was hopeless and that was before Mxit came out. I cried so many times and I did practiced on how to talk on the phone and nothing made sense to me and all the sound I heard on the phone was like "bebeboopbebeboop". I even got an FM system, it is like a tiny radio with its own frequency and it has two parts. One part is a microphone that the speaker wears. The microphone sends a signal to the receiver. You wear the receiver on the ears or in your hearing aids. I had to pretend that it was working for me, I didn't want to hurt Phonak or my mother. It didn't actually help me. I felt bad. I even got more emotional when they tried so hard to help me and I remember when we tested the phone conversation at the Phonak in Cape Town, I burst out in inconsolable tears because all I heard was still the "bebeboopbebeboop" and that's when the audiologist told my mom that I should go for a cochlear implant.
I refused to get a cochlear implant because I didn't want to wear a little cochlea box on my chest, it looked awful and uncomfortable for me. This was the old technology model. When the new technology improved, the first-ever new cochlea implants were without a box on the chest just like a hearing- aid with a magnet behind your ear. I looked at the new technology of cochlea implants. At 17 I decided to go for it and asked my mom to take me to Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town. The Audiologist told me that I must go for a test and surprisingly I was a candidate for cochlear implants. The ENT Specialist who did the operation on my cochlea told my mom that the Doctor who told her that I wasn't a candidate, was a lie, I could have got a cochlear implant when I was a baby. Before my teenage years, I was not always keen on that idea and had to make the toughest choices but I wanted to know what is going on around me. I was the first person in South Africa to receive Freedom Cochlear Implants and the 6th person in the world with Bi-lateral Cochlear Implants.
On my first day of switch-on, I was excited but did not expect that the sounds around me are going to be very strange. The audiologist told my family that they must keep me company because she is going to switch my cochlea on. I felt the soundwaves travel to my cochlea and suddenly to my brain like a shock wave, I was shocked, my eyes popped out and I was confused. I looked at my family talking to each other the sounds were like white noise for me. I called my mom "MAMMA". I cried so hard when I heard my own voice for the first time so loudly. When the audiologist switched off my cochlea I felt calmer in my silent world. Every time when she switches on I cried all the time. I told her this is not normal, I can't hear because I was struggling to understand why it sounds like white noise. I began to understand that my brain needs more exercise and that my brain was sleeping for 17 years.
It was a long journey. I had to experience all-new sounds around me and a speech therapist had to help. It took me between 6 months and a year to get used to all the sounds. At 17 my ears were born. I trained to listen to all the words without reading the lips. It is a sacrifice journey. Telephone communication became clearer for me and I could talk on the phone with my mom and brother, only with the people I know. No more 'bebeboopbebeboop"! With strangers' voices, I won't be able to follow. There were so many sounds, it changed my life.
Every 4 years the Cochlea Aids improved with technology and sounds become clearer and fresh. I don't regret that I did not get a cochlear implant at a younger age. I am grateful that I had to experience the difference between hearing aids and cochlear implants. Cochlear Implants is the best decision I ever made. It became my best friend.
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Love,
Marisa xx
Miss Deaf South Africa
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