Hear Now: The Miracle of Cochlear Implant: Hearing the Sounds of Life

By Douglas Grady

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 3, 2009
• ISBN: 9781469121024

Douglas Grady

I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in 1980 and have accepted engineering jobs that took me around the country from Newport News, Virginia, in 1980 to Fort Worth, Texas, and to Seattle, Washington, before moving back to the East Coast to Stratford, Connecticut, in 2014. I obtained my Professional Engineer (PE) license to practice in Texas in 1984. My spiritual journey began in Texas when I found The Law of Success. I practiced meditation and received a loving divine energy spark within my soul from God in 1999. I met Marilyn at her chakras cleansing class with John in Seattle in 2011. My family members were devout Catholics; however, my daughters and I were occasional churchgoers, attending a Methodist church in Fort Worth. Being an engineer, I had to see some form of validation in everything to buy into the Bible that had been modified, translated, and possibly manipulated by the powers in control. I found it a challenging proposition to verify the truth of religion because various philosophical beliefs have divided people and over 50,000 Christian denominations for more than two thousand years. However, it motivated me to find the one real truth because there is only one.

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Copyright © 2009 by Douglas Grady.

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Contents

I  INTRODUCTION

II  LIFE AS A DEAF CHILD

III  COLLEGE AND PROFESSIONAL CAREER

IV  DECISION TO GO FOR A COCHLEAR IMPLANT

V  EXPERIENCING HEARING

WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANT

VI  COMPARING AUDIOGRAMS FROM

BEFORE AND AFTER SURGERY

VII  MY VIEW ON DEAF EDUCATION

VIII  NEW LIFE WITH COCHLEAR IMPLANT

Appendix A

COCHLEAR IMPLANT

Appendix B

COCHLEAR IMPLANT:

ORALS VIEW VS. MANUALISTS VIEW

Appendix C

AUDIOLOGY CHARTS FROM NORTH TEXAS EAR,

NOSE & THROAT ASSOCIATES LESLIE LIANOS,

CLINICAL AUDIOLOGIST

I

INTRODUCTION

You may be wondering what triggered my decision to go for a cochlear implant. I started contemplating the surgery after a friend of mine had one and felt reassured because the medical procedure had been proven to work for almost twenty years. I had never considered my good candidacy, but the more I thought about it, I realized that I should give it a try and go for it.

This was back in July 2005 when I was employed as an aerospace engineer for a company building military aircraft at an assembly plant in Amarillo, Texas. I took the job to further my career in structural analysis.

At this time, I was wearing two hearing aids. I had heard about cochlear implants, but I could never imagine hearing like a hearing person. I thought it would just simply be a better hearing aid. It seemed too good to be true, but boy, this implant had proven to be more than that! Now I’m pushing to hear almost as well as someone with a normal hearing. However, as I move forward with the cochlear implant, I’ve learned that the cochlear implant is just an instrument; the real part of hearing is the auditory memory. After being hearing impaired for almost fifty years, my auditory memory was not at the level of a normal hearing person my age. This is why it’s so important to have your child implanted at an early age because her auditory memory is ready to be developed. As my audiogram indicated in chapter 4, my auditory memory was bewildered by new sounds. After I got used to the sounds, then I was able to train my auditory memory by listening to music and audio tapes. The only difference between a two-year-old child and a fifty-year-old adult is that it doesn’t take long for a fifty-year-old to understand the context of the conversations involving multiple words because his vocabulary base is so much more advanced.

With the cochlear implant, I felt normal because people saw me in that light. I’ve been invited to weddings, lunches, dinners, golf outings, and birthday parties to name a few. Also, my professional stature on the job is higher because I can use the phone and participate in group discussions. It’s been more than two years since the cochlear implant surgery; I rate my hearing at 85 percent. I get almost 100 percent when the discussion takes place in my office or where people are facing me. If I’m watching TV, I feel I get 60 percent of the spoken words. Over the telephone, I get maybe 90 percent of the spoken words with the people I know and maybe 70 percent with the strangers. I might get 50 percent or less if I’m talking with someone with a foreign dialect.

In this book, I will identify sounds that I have never heard before. Also, the speech sounds that I never knew. Once, I recognized the sounds in the high frequency nature; my speech took a quantum leap in clarity. Also, I didn’t develop my tongue properly for generating speech sounds. I’m undergoing speech exercises to strengthen my tongue. I wasn’t cupping my tongue for the s sound and not rolling my tongue back for the r sound. I learned that it wasn’t just the hearing that helped my speech, but it was also developing my tongue in the proper way. I will explain the different techniques to improve your speech.

The main intent of this book is to show the readers of what it’s like to be deaf. I would have never known what I was actually missing with my hearing impairment if it was not for the cochlear implant. After having the implant, I have seen a remarkable change in my life. I am, all of a sudden, a visible person. People have invited me over to their homes or out to lunch/diner or you name it. I can look back and figure out the answers to my questions that I had before.

Also, this book can give some insightful information for parents of a deaf or hard of hearing child. As a Dad for two daughters, I know how it feels when there’s something wrong with my child. My oldest daughter had some intestinal disorders when she was young. I felt helpless at the time because she was suffering and the doctors didn’t know what was really wrong. I went through difficult days with some tears, wondering if my daughter could have a normal life. However, she turned out fine.

In addition, some wondered if the child is better off going to a school for the deaf or stay at home and be part of the family life. My mother went through the similar situation when I was a child. She was working for a nonprofit organization, and people were encouraging her to send me to a state school for the deaf. However, she made the right decision of keeping me at home so I can be part of the family. I have talked with deaf or hard of hearing people that went to a state school and some who did not go to a state school, so I can offer some valuable analysis as to which option is best for the deaf or hard of hearing child.

Some parents were contemplating a cochlear implant surgery for their child. Some surgeries have been done as early as six months old. I think this is the best time for the child to acquire hearing and speech at an early age. It is still possible for an implant to be done at a later time when the child becomes an adult. However, I don’t think you would want to put your child in a difficult situation at school with a hearing problem like what I went through when I was a child. Medical technology wasn’t available back in the 50s and 60s, so my parents didn’t have any choice.

I know many parents would ponder this question: can my child have a normal life? My answer to that question is an unequivocal yes! I am a living proof of that! I will explain more in detail later in this book.

Also, I can explain some basic techniques that helped me to benefit from the implant and hear well almost like a hearing person. Some people that had an implant did not do as well as others. It is imperative to go for weekly therapy. I had my first implant in April 2006 and my second implant in October 2007. I can answer some questions like whether a bilateral implantation works better than one implant and also can you have it done both at the same time or is it better to have one done and then the second one later.

Lastly, this book can serve as a guide for aspiring audiologists that are studying to work with cochlear implant patients and hearing patients as well. I can give you some insights since I’ve worked with audiologists as a patient. I can explain the state of mind of a hard of hearing person when I’m trying to understand spoken words with the hearing aid as well as a cochlear implant. I can offer a comparison between the two technologies and which one benefits the hard of hearing patient the most. Sometimes I hear the sound, but I may wonder how I did it. I still go for weekly therapy at University of Tulsa. I’m listening to high-pitched sounds like s, f, p, t, ch, and sh. I can explain what works for me and what does not work for me.

II

LIFE AS A DEAF CHILD

I was born to hearing parents on July 25, 1956 in Teaneck, New Jersey. I grew up with a hard of hearing sister and a hearing sister. Joanne was hard of hearing, and Kathy could hear normally. Joanne could successfully hear without her hearing aid. No one knew sign language in my family. I didn’t begin hearing until I was fitted with a hearing aid at age six. Back then, I had an 85-db hearing loss with more severe hearing loss in the high frequency range.

My mother mentioned that I was born hearing because I made noises. She recalled me being a very noisy baby. She remembers me babbling away from my high chair. They had a name for me, Charlie Bratton, after a character on television who was always shouting and blustering. When I was stricken with a high fever at six months of age, I stopped talking. My mother suspected I lost my hearing at that time.

She recalled being very upset after learning Joanne had a hearing loss. One time, my father wanted to talk with Joanne on the phone; Joanne asked my mother, Why isn’t Dad talking to me! That’s how they found out Joanne had a hearing loss when she was four. Joanne’s grandparents insisted that my parents take her to the doctor to have her tonsil taken out. The doctor removed the tonsil, but Joanne was still having trouble with her hearing.

My mother explained that she lost her hearing in her left ear when she was eighteen years old. She woke up one morning with dizziness and noticed her hearing was gone from one ear. Her doctor suspected she had Meniere’s disease.

My parents, Douglas Sr. and Kay, moved to a new neighborhood in Middletown, NJ when I was one year old. I was a very scared child, and I remember I was very attached to my mother. When she dropped me off at a preschool, I refused to let go of her. I think I was terrified because I could not hear and I had no idea what was going on when my mother let me go.

I attended kindergarten at a local elementary school. I was treated like a seemingly normal kid even though I didn’t have any speech. Perhaps the teacher had already explained to the class that I was hearing impaired, so the kids accepted me more readily. I began going to speech therapy when I was seven with a mother that had a hard of hearing child. I went to therapy for several years. I believe that she did a good job because she never made me feel different than the other kids. She worked a lot on my speech. I can imagine how hard it was for her because I had a severe hearing loss and could not hear any of the high frequency sounds. I thought I spoke normally because I could never really quite hear myself talking. Before I was fitted with hearing aids at age six, I had never heard anything. My hearing loss was below 80 dB, far beyond the conversation level at 30 dB to 60 dB. Despite not hearing anything at all, I still managed to progress through kindergarten and first grade.

FIGURE1.jpg

FIGURE 1—My First Grade School Photo in 1962

When I was in third grade, the teacher had the students read a book in front of the class. I was looking forward for my turn to read because it was something I wanted to do. The teacher, however, let me finish, and I wasn’t afraid or embarrassed at all! I don’t quite remember that well, but I don’t think the teacher asked the class questions after my reading.

Throughout my elementary school experience, they would have a speech therapist come at the beginning of each school year and conduct speech evaluations for every child after school. I remember that I never passed the evaluation and I had to stay after school to take speech lessons. I was very unhappy about that! I would have rather gone home and been able to play outside, but I had to stay after school for speech lessons every year until sixth grade. I didn’t understand because I thought I had good speech and didn’t need to stay after school.

When I was a kid, I sat close to the television set and watched my favorite shows. My favorite shows at the time were I Love Lucy, Hogan’s Heroes, Lost in Space, and some Bugs Bunny cartoon shows. A lot of those shows were action orientated, so I was able to follow the show and would mainly laugh at the gestures of the characters. It wasn’t the words that made me laugh.

From elementary school up to sixth grade, I felt normal and was happy. I never used the phone, and I don’t think the phone rang that many times, but generally,