The big decision

Last fall, I saw a video that went viral online of a young mom who got a hearing implant and cried as she heard for the first time.  It really touched me.  I kept up with her in the news following her activation.  She was on Oprah, and she was given money to pay for her surgery as well as more money for surgery for her other ear.  Her implant was called the Esteem, and it is very different than the cochlear implant.  It is all internal while the cochlear implant is internal and external.  I started looking into this but soon gave it up because it costs $30,000 and it is not covered by insurance due to the fact that it is not yet FDA approved.  

In December 2011, I went to an audiologist to have my hearing tested and have my hearing aids reprogrammed to be louder.  As hearing aids age, they lose power over the years.  My hearing aids are over 5 years old, and I've had them refurbished to try to keep them working longer.  The audiologist told me that my right hearing aid was not working good and it was time to get a new one.  She told me that I would probably be a good candidate for a cochlear implant- the first time a doctor has ever told me that.  She recommended that I be tested at Mayo Clinic.  I started reading more about cochlear implants after this appointment, but I wasn't sure how I felt about having a big device sitting on my head and having what hearing I had left completely cut off.

In January, my parents went to an Esteem seminar in Atlanta to learn more about it, and they took my most recent hearing test results with them to see if I was a candidate.  They found out I was not because my hearing was too severe/profound.  While at that seminar, they ran into a friend of my close friend Laura Martin.  This friend told my parents that Laura was looking into getting a cochlear implant.  I had been mulling over it when my parents told me about Laura.  I couldn't believe the timing!  I thought, how great it would be to go through this together!  (Laura went on to be tested and was approved.  She had her surgery in June.)

So I thought about it some more and prayed.  Then I decided to take the next step and contact Mayo Clinic.  They scheduled a series of appointments for May 15 & 16.  These appointments would determine if the cochlear implant would benefit me better than hearing aids.

I told a close friend, Brenda Finch, here in Verndale that I was going to Mayo to see if I would be eligible for a cochlear implant.  She looked at me with big, wide eyes and said that she has been praying that I would get a cochlear implant since the first day she met me last summer!  She said that I reminded her of one of her heroes, who happens to be my hero as well, former Miss America Heather Whitestone.  She was the first deaf Miss America, who was crowned in 1995.  Brenda has been following her in the news over the years, and knew that she had gotten cochlear implants several years ago.  So when she met me, she felt led to pray that I would get a cochlear implant!  Isn't that wild?  I took that as a confirmation from God.

So Fred and I went down on May 15.  I was tested, and the audiologist could not believe how well I functioned with so little hearing.  She could not believe how well I could speak for a hearing-impaired person.  Then I met the surgeon.  I liked him immediately.  He reminded me of a doctor who makes house calls in Mayberry.  He looked at me in the eye and said that I would definitely benefit from the cochlear implant.  It would help me hear better than hearing aids ever could.  I felt totally at peace, and knew that getting this surgery would be the right thing to do.  

The next step was to have an MRI done so the doctor could see the anatomy of my ears.  My whole life I always thought that the reason for my deafness was because my ears were damaged from forceps that were clamped over my ears during birth.  That was just a theory.  When my doctor examined the results of the MRI, he said that my cochleas were not completely formed.  Normal cochleas have 2 1/2 turns, like a seashell.  Mine had only 1 1/2 turns.  My condition is called Mondini's malformation.  This was very interesting to me!  I had no idea.  It was interesting to see my brain and my inner ears on the screen.

So, after waiting a couple of months for my insurance to approve of the surgery, we scheduled it for August 3!

I believe that this is the miracle that we were praying for. 

In my next post, I will explain what exactly a cochlear implant is, and talk about my surgery.