MY JOURNEY BEFORE THE COCHLEAR IMPLANT

I was born a hearing person.When I was three,my mom was taking the maid home for the day and a drunk driver hit her car head-on.My sister and the maid were in the back seat and I was asleep in the front seat of the car with my mom.No one but, my mom and I were injured. She had the steering wheel pinned on her chest...I rolled off the seat into the grove box.At the time of the crash there was a boy and his dad that help me out of the car and I never had a chance to thank them.My head was cut open from my right eye to the back of my right ear and I also had trauma to my head.They did not believe that I would not make it through the night.They said lo and behold the next morning I was sitting up playing with toys and they were in shock and could not believe it.At that time I had loss all the hearing in my left ear.They told us that I might go deaf in time, so as I grow up I had hearing tests to keep an eye on my hearing.I also had a bad arm and leg on the right side from the trauma to my head.I was blessed by God and given a second chance in life.



I was hearing just fine in the right ear and at the age of 28 things were good.One night I went to bed and the next morning I got up and noticed that something was wrong with my hearing. I called the doctor's office and told them what was wrong and they told me not to worry,that it may be wax in my ear and for me to come in so they could check it out.When he looked there was no wax in my ear at all and I knew that this was bad.They did a hearing test and found out that I had lost 50% overnight.The Doctor said that my nerve in my ear was getting weaker and that I would have to get a hearing aid.At that time I could hear some things but had a hard time understanding what a person was saying to me.I had to move back to Nashville to be close my brother and my sister.They set up for me to meet a Dr.Schwaber at vady about two years later. I met Dr.Schwaber and took my medical records of my hearing tests with me..He said that he would like to do some test to see if I qualify for the cochlear implant and found out that I could if my hearing got worse.He said that we only do the good ear and I had 40% at that time.


In mean time I went on with my life.One day I stopped at a truck stop to get gas and there I met John.We talked and we started to date.About a year later he asked me to marry him.we were married on April 8.1995.


One day John asked me how I lost me hearing.I told what happen when I was three.He asked me if the crash happened on March 3,1963 and I said "Yes" with a shocked look on my face. He asked where the crash was and I told him. I ask"Why" and he said that he and his dad helped a little girl that day and come to find that he was the boy that helped me out of the crashed car and is now my loving husband!


Two years after we were married,I noticed my hearing was getting worse and I and had to get new hearing aids,amplified telephones and the a VCO phones as the years passed. It was getting where I could not understand or hear on the phone.

Each day my hearing in the right ear is going down and at this time I have 28%in that ear. but with a husband that loves me for my heart and blessed me with two wonderful sons and step-children, we have our good time and bad together.