Children, parents, and professionals in partnership |
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Family Stories: Caroline's Story "Hello, I'm Caroline and I'm a thirty five-year-old mother of four children. I was born deaf at birth due to Rubella and I'm profoundly deaf. Ive always worn hearing aids and only use oral speaking. I grew up in a hearing enviroment but did go to Mary Hare Grammar School for the Deaf. I was fortunate to have speech therapy lessons with a very good speech therapist in London who my parents and I went to every week for five years. I decided to go for a cochlear implant last year after i had tried digital hearing aids for eighteen months. These were better than analog hearing aids but it wasnt enough to hear the sounds of the words or discriminate the sounds. I only heard the low frequencies, not the high ones like Sh or Sss. My hopes from the cochlear implant were to have the ability to hear my children calling me, have better communications at parties, and to depend less lip-reading by hearing the words better. I also hoped to hear high frequencies and to vary my tone of my voice. On February 10th of 2004 I had the cochlear implant operation and the 'switch on' was on March 15th. The hearing therapist tested me with vowels. I heard the Sh and Sss! I was relieved that the implant was working and I cried. I got out of the hospital with my husband, I heard my footsteps dragging on the pavement - I thought it's awful so I pick up my feet more often now! When we went to the shop and I kept hearing a buzzing noise. I asked my husband,'What is it?!!' It was a fan extractor - do I need to hear that?! In the first week, it was unsettling because the loudness can be bit much. It was soon sorted out with remapping sessions. When I picked up my children from School I really noticed how noisy the children were! My daughter gave me a kiss , I thought oh wow, thats a nice sound! To be able to hear my children talking - so clear! When they laugh - its beautiful to hear and it melts my heart! I remembered when I ate my toast for the first time with my implant - I thought 'oh my goodness, its so noisy eating that!' I even cringed when my daughter was eating crisps from that noisy crisp packet! Now I can hear my dog stratching the door when he wants to come in to his relief - he's one happy dog now. My husband thought it was amusing that I asked him to fix the squeaky cupboard doors because they were like that for years! I remembered when I watched a film with special effect sounds - I was transfixed by hearing all the amazing sounds, and my children thought it was funny when I told them to be quiet!. Flushing the toilets in the first few weeks made me want to run out quickly because it s so loud! I'm sure there were a few people that gave me funny looks when I did that. Oh yes, it was even weirder to hear myself weeing - thinking oh my goodness, I cant believe it! I can't stand the sounds of sandpaper and nail filing, it makes me want to say oh its horrible! I did learn to ignore the unnecessary sounds like the radiators etc. I used to laugh at my family getting scared while watching the scary films but they have got their own back on me now! I remembered when I sat in my chair outside hearing the birds tweeting for the first time. I thought it was beautiful but at times now, I do think, when do they ever stop?! To be able to hear all the new sounds has enriched my life for the better and especially for my husband. He just calls CAROLINE when he comes home and I just go to him. Before the implant, he used to go in every room to find me, to his frustration! It can be very useful for my family to call me now, especially when they run out of toilet paper! Beyond my expectations, my speech is more clipped and even my tone of voice varies. I am even able to use the cell phone with my husband for simple conversations. I can't believe it! I've been missing all these amazing sounds and I'm grabbing them with both hands now! I take my hat off to Mothers and Fathers of the children that make this exciting decision and they are the lucky ones! It'll enrich their life for the better. Having the speech therapy lessons and AVT therapy will benefit them in the long term too. I look forward to finding more new sounds as I progress further." By Caroline Constance
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