Happy 15 years of sounds to me!

Today, on 24th February, in 1994, I recieved my first cochlear implant at the age of 9, having gone profoundly deaf in 1993 with no indication of happening. My parents were distraught to find that I was profoundly deaf but there was a light at the end of the tunnel with a new device called a cochlear implant!! My parents may have had to fight to get the insurance for the ci but Im glad they did! Nowdays, a cochlear implant can be a regular occurance compared to when I first had mine. I sound so old in cochlear implant experience terms! Its good to know that other people can have the same experience as I am having and have their hearing back or just discovering the first sounds they have heard in their lives!

To get from being a shy child with a bulky processor like this...

to a confident woman( if somewhat cheeky!) with a behind the ear(BTE) processor!!

is a remarkable thing in science and it's getting better every year! Although, I haven't recieved the new Nucleus Freedom yet! but I look forward to trying it out and see if the sound quality is even bette

I may have lost my first cochlear implant in 2000 but I received another of which I still have embedded in my left ear which still provides with me with wonderful sounds such as music, voices, laughter even my dad playing his guitar and birds tweeting in the morning! There's always some bad sounds though such as the lawnmower or the hoover! It's like a drill through my head but I never seem to want to turn it off! Thank god I can just switch off and get some peace sometimes though!

Finding out HOW I went deaf was a relief too with the mitochondrial condition I was born with because we had gone years without finding out exactly what happened, there was just no explaination from doctors when I first went deaf, they were baffled! But we found out eventually even if I did have to go all the way to Newcastle and get another doctor out of it!!!

I have had ups and downs as well with the non-budging ear infection and exploratory operations but it is now gone a few years after it first started and I'm finally starting to come to terms that it's actually gone and there was or is no threat to the cochlear implant in my left ear!

I think i would have been a totally different person with out the implant as my mum was explaining to me once, she would have had to enrol me at different junior school, different high school etc and I never would have met the people i have!
This evening, I celebrated my CI anniversary with some pancakes as it's pancake Tuesday woop! hehe I like mine with lemon and sugar yum!!! :D