Disaster Strikes!

6 years later, in 2000 I suddenly caught an ear infection which might only seem a little thing to anyone but an ear infection can be a disaster for cochlear implantees. It has to be treated as an emergency! I was given ear drops and antibiotics by my cochlear implant doctor Mr Raine but to no avail, the ear infection stayed. Mr Raine decided to put in a few more wicks with cream on in my ear over a few more months. When the infection did'nt go, he decided to do a few exploratory operations but in 2000 when I was 15, Mr Raine asked for my mum's permission during an operation to take the cochlear implant out because it couldn’t be saved because of the ear infection. It was NOT because of the cochlear implant. When I woke up from the operation and my mum told me what had happened, I was very upset because I loved my cochlear implant. I loved listening to my family and friend's voices and I worried that I would never hear them again. I would find out later when i was 19 years old that I had a condtion called Multiple mitochondrial DNA deletions and that my energy genes did'nt work, this was a factor in why I went deaf in the first place and why I had the ear infection so long which led to me losing the cochlear implant.

I was at high school,Year 10 and in the middle of doing my mock GCSE's. I had the fantastic support of the deaf base I had at my high school and they helped me with notes and what the teachers were saying. I had the news that I could get a cochlear implant in my left ear. It would be a thinner magnet in the ear and more modern than the last one. I was sooo pleased about this!! Although, I was back in my silent world for 3 months while I recovered from losing the one on my right ear. I had brilliant help from my family and friends who wrote notes for me and let me know what was going on. I could also lipread.