Includes the following article: When Hearing Aids Aren't
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WHEN HEARING AIDS AREN'T ENOUGH
By: Max S. Chartrand, M.A., Director of Research
Some years ago, a doctor friend of mine lost his
eyesight while attending medical school. Undaunted, he
took advantage of every available assistive device in
the current armamentarium: Braille, big print computer,
wearable binoculars at public events, and ... his
hearing ability. He depended upon his hearing like the
proverbial bat.
One day, as we were traveling together, he said
sympathetically, "Max, I feel sorry for you."
"Why, Allen," I replied, "I was just feeling sorry for
you! You can't even see to drive!"
"That's true," he said, "but at least I can hear. I
don't know what I'd do if I couldn't hear, especially on
the phone. Your burden is bigger than mine."
Strange, I thought. Until I recalled a similar
observation by one who was deaf and blind, a great
modern day thinker, Helen Keller. "Deafness is a worse
misfortune," said she, "for it means the loss of the
most vital stimulus the sound of the voice that brings
language, sets thoughts astir, and keeps us in the
intellectual company of man."
Having traveled the deleterious road to deafness for
nearly five decades, starting with profound mid-to-high
frequency loss into a "corner audiogram," my world
quietly and insidiously disappeared, leaving behind
horrendous ringing, buzzing, and noises of every sort.
Frustration, dwindling opportunities, and labored human
relationships.
Nearly ten years ago I hit the end of the road.
Literally. Like a brick wall. Amplification would not do
it anymore, no matter how loud. Besides, severe
recruitment (abnormal loudness growth) and diplacusis
(cochlear distortion) rendered what could be heard
virtually unusable, if not intolerable, most of the time
when in public.
Speechreading, relay services, a strobe-light alarm
clock, closed captioning, an FM system, and just plain
old guessing kept me afloat ... to a degree ..for
awhile.
A good friend Thomas Mitchell, who began his
professional career with my practice years ago, started
working for Cochlear Corporation in 1986, the people who
brought us the first multi-channel cochlear implant.
Year after year, he encouraged me to take the plunge.
But I resisted. Though a long-time professional in the
hearing health field, I was like most of my colleagues
... about ten years behind on cochlear implants! ...
Experimental, single channel, percutaneous plug, long
recovery, infections, environmental noise awareness, no
speech discrimination. Or so I thought. I was wrong and
woefully out of date.
At Thomas's urging, I called Dr. Fred Owens' office at
Baylor Medical Center in Dallas in September 1993 via
TTY relay. He was booked solid for two months.
"But, I can't wait that long," I told the
receptionist "never mind that I'd been putting off this
call for years!" Can't he see me like... next week?"
A compromise. He could see me in two weeks at nine
o'clock in the morning. Sharp.
Two weeks and ninety miles later, I found myself in his
office. First, a thorough audiological work-up. Then, on
to an associate of Dr. Owens' for the
physical examination, explaining the implant procedure,
etc. Finally, Dr. Owens, one of the masters of cochlear
implantation, made his grand entrance. With little
hesitation he announced, "I believe you'll do very well
with the implant. Are you ready to go forward?"
Affirmative. My question was, when could I take time out
of my busy schedule to have the surgery? Not to worry,
after the MRI, ENG, and promontory tests, the answer
would be, "The sooner the better!"
December 15, pre-op. I'm ready for surgery. No
complications, some post operative vertigo; "that too
shall pass." Hospital stay: 36 hours.
Though back to work in only three days, the most
challenging part of recovery was the anticipation while
awaiting hook-up, January 10.
The hook-up was a strange experience. Hearing electrical
stimulation (versus sound per se) was a little like
wandering around in Alien Nation until sounds became
more natural sounding to the brain. Of course, today,
with the new Spectra processor, sound is so much richer
and more natural that many new users report far shorter
and less strange acclimation periods.
One of the most important lessons I have learned in two
and a half years of cochlear implant use and subsequent
upgrade to the Spectra processoróis that one's
"learning curve" continually rises as technology
advances. Especially in noisy situations, my ability to
understand speech has dramatically improved with the
newer processor, and continues to do so.
Currently, my speech recognition in quiet with the
implant alone stands at about 68 percent, and 74 percent
when wearing a hearing aid in the non-implanted side
(pre-op discrimination was zero percent!).
By using a hearing instrument with the implant, I
experience "summation" (stronger, fuller sound),
"binaural squelch ability" (suppressing background noise
while listening to speech), and somewhat limited
"localization" ability (ascertaining direction of
sound.)
Although there's no appreciable hearing in my
non-implanted ear, by wearing the hearing aid in that
ear I experience-no doubt through tactile
reinforcement-a feeling of wholeness, and of being a
part of the environment.
After a year or so, I also began noting many
"non-acoustical benefits" of the implant too numerous to
list here. But I'll try:
* Feeling part of the hearing world again.
* Less tension in social settings.
* Improved bonding with family.
* Less hassles while traveling.
* Making many new friends.
* Renewing old friendships.
* Intellectual stimulation, more "input" from life.
* Finishing doctorate, graduating with honors.
* Significantly increased professional opportunities.
* Function in previously impossible settings.
* Never missing an elevator again!
And, of course, there's the telephone. A while back I
called home and our youngest answered, "Hello, Chartrand
residence." "Ben?" I asked.
"Yes, Dad ... un, oh, is this ... relay? How are you
hearing me without relay. Dad?"
"It just keeps getting better, Ben. Not perfect, but
better." And, to my blind friend who felt so sorry for
me not many years ago, I can say, "It keeps getting
better, Alien. Not perfect, but better."
Cochlear Launches Consumer Education Programs
As of September 1995, thousands of severe-to-profoundly
hearing-impaired postlinguistic adults in the U.S.,
who've hit the end of the road with hearing aids alone
(40% or lower in open-set sentence recognition scores),
.may now be considered for candidacy for the Nucleus
cochlear implant system.
At the same time, Cochlear Corporation began two public
education and implant referral programs, headed by Dr.
Max Chartrand. The Cochlear Associates Program (CAP) and
Cochlear Network Audiologists (CNA) together form a tuny-supported
network of private practice audiologists, hearing
instrument specialists, and allied hearing professionals
who are organized and prepared to reach potential
cochlear implant candidates.
CAP and CNA are coordinated consumer education programs
prepared to provide the latest information on the
Nucleus 22 channel system- Located in nearly every
community in the U.S., member professionals are ready to
review individual hearing status, and make referrals to
the nearest qualified implant center.
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