Cochlear Implants

 I came across something I'd written on my Facebook page in 2015 (at the bottom of this post). I can't believe it's only been 8 years. since the Cochlear transplants, which have given me the gift of hearing again for the first time in over 20 years. Most people have one transplant, I received two simultaneously.

The dual operation was carried out by two comparatively new surgeons and overseen by the consultant. The 3-hour procedure entailed cutting behind the ears and peeling back the hair and skin before drilling a hole and attaching an electrode fitted with a magnet behind each ear. Records show the youngest person to have a cochlear implant was a 6-month-old baby girl in 2014. Today in Scotland, the youngest person to have a Cochlear implant was a 6-week-old baby girl. The oldest person was a man aged 103! The surgeons who performed my miraculous surgery were a young man and a woman. I've often wondered who did which ear. There's no outward sign of the electrode and magnet on the left side of my head above the ear, the right side is positioned higher on my head and sticks out. they both work perfectly but one is better handwork. Until comparatively recently my 'party trick' was to attach forks or dessert spoons to my head, but the magnets attached to the exterior cochlear were causing pressure pains. Now my party trick has been reduced to attaching teaspoons instead.

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Written in 2015

Dear World,

I've waited so long to hear you again. To hear laughter and join in. To dance in rhythm to music. I've yearned to sit with family and friends and converse freely, not feign comprehension and interest when the reality was I heard nothing nor could I see to read lips, I was there but unintentionally excluded., I existed but did not live.

The indescribable joy of listening to my grandchildren talk and laugh, voices I'd never heard before. The peace and happiness of sitting by the window and listening to rain splattering against the panes. To wake to the sound of birds chirping and calling to one another.

Please I beg. Don't make the sounds I hear negative, full of sadness or prejudice or hate, nor let the voices of News Reporters drone on about how many more innocents have been slaughtered through mindless greed and power-obsessed demons.

How I yearned for 'normality' and re-engagement with the world outside. Yet, I would willingly choose to be permanently deaf and blind again if it would make a difference in this beautiful world tainted with screams and blood, negativity unfairness cruelty and injustice.

Dear world, I pray to make the sounds that echo around this hearing world positive and good and of happiness peace and love. In truth painful as it would be. I would happily live enclosed in a world without vision and hearing than in a world of hate.

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