I’ve had a number of people ask why I am going for a CI. I’ve made up my mind but I’m surprised how some people see the CI as a bad thing and not a benefit. Faced with a choice of not hearing or hearing better than I do now, it’s a no-brainer. Hearing better will mean I am much less tired and stressed all the time with the effort of communication. I will be able to cope much more easily in all sorts of situations – at the moment, my limit is a one-to-one chat in a deathly quiet room – add a little background noise and I’m struggling, add any more noise or voices and I’m lost. I don’t really sign much at all and only have a couple of friends that are primarily sign language users, so if I did not take a CI then I would be faced with a real struggle to cope in every day life and having to learn sign language if I want friends I can converse with easily.

Here’s a video I came across on the experience of a non-traditional deaf person having a CI, i.e. one who is pre-lingually deaf and therefore not usually considered for implantation. Which is hopefully going to be a similar experience to the one I will have after christmas. My surgeon says so much depends on the rehabilitation process … well, I’m not afraid of hard work, never have been …. so watch this space!

And, an ASL user’s comment…