Hi everyone, this is Dan up in Toronto Canada. I'm a 53 yr. old man, HOH with severe-profound hearing loss. I've been "lurking" on the board for the past month or so but decided just now to register.
A little background info (I'll try to be brief): I grew up as a normal hearing person, though suspected from my teen years that my hearing wasn't so great. My mom has suffered from hearing loss since she was in her 40's (82 now and still going!), as did some of her brothers.
My hearing loss became noticeable when I was in my 30's. when people started to sound "fuzzy" on the phone. I began wearing HA's when I was 34; almost 20 yrs. ago now. At first it was just my right ear, then my left side started to go and I began wearing aids in both ears. Diagnosed with senory-neural hearing loss, and it has been progressive (been wearing Phonak "Eleva" on both sides since summer 2007).
I got along more or less okay with the aids; of course I had some difficulty on the phone, in noisy environments, etc. but I was functioning pretty well until late May 2008, when I had a by-pass surgery. My left ear had always been the "better" ear, with considerable more hearing than my right side. After the surgery, my left side got noticeably worse, and became almost as bad as the right side. This development impacted my ability to hear and understand other people quite a bit. It became impossible to use a normal phone, and I had to start using a TTY.
Fast forward to the present: After a year of consultations and further testing, I was just implanted with a CI (Advanced Bionics) on my right side last week, on November 17/09. Naturally I'm still in "healing" mode. I don't have an activation date set yet, but hopefully it will be before Christmas.
So, that's my story. Not sure how active I'll be on the board, but hope I can make a positive contribution. Thanks for reading!
A little background info (I'll try to be brief): I grew up as a normal hearing person, though suspected from my teen years that my hearing wasn't so great. My mom has suffered from hearing loss since she was in her 40's (82 now and still going!), as did some of her brothers.
My hearing loss became noticeable when I was in my 30's. when people started to sound "fuzzy" on the phone. I began wearing HA's when I was 34; almost 20 yrs. ago now. At first it was just my right ear, then my left side started to go and I began wearing aids in both ears. Diagnosed with senory-neural hearing loss, and it has been progressive (been wearing Phonak "Eleva" on both sides since summer 2007).
I got along more or less okay with the aids; of course I had some difficulty on the phone, in noisy environments, etc. but I was functioning pretty well until late May 2008, when I had a by-pass surgery. My left ear had always been the "better" ear, with considerable more hearing than my right side. After the surgery, my left side got noticeably worse, and became almost as bad as the right side. This development impacted my ability to hear and understand other people quite a bit. It became impossible to use a normal phone, and I had to start using a TTY.
Fast forward to the present: After a year of consultations and further testing, I was just implanted with a CI (Advanced Bionics) on my right side last week, on November 17/09. Naturally I'm still in "healing" mode. I don't have an activation date set yet, but hopefully it will be before Christmas.
So, that's my story. Not sure how active I'll be on the board, but hope I can make a positive contribution. Thanks for reading!
