Denise B.

Tell us a bit about yourself

My hearing journey began with single-sided deafness (SSD) in my early thirties. I began using a hearing aid in 1992. My hearing progressively declined on the right side until I had little hearing left. In 2008, I lost the hearing on my left side overnight and became profoundly deaf. This total hearing loss was sudden and catastrophic for me. I couldn't communicate, use the phone, understand music, practice yoga, all things that made life enjoyable, and I was struggling to keep my job as a college professor. When I learned about cochlear implants, I took everything about them on faith. There was not a volunteer community available at that time and most of the information came from the audiologist, who was wonderful. I received my first cochlear implant in 2009, and my second one in 2017 on my other side. It was wonderful to hear sounds again. Speech took a bit longer, but it was a miracle to hear again.

As a volunteer mentor I help people learning about cochlear implants by sharing my experience, explaining what to expect and sharing the challenges and strategies that I used to overcome the learning curve. My advice to new recipients is to practice, practice, practice. It gets better over time and every time you use the sound processor your brain is working to learn new sounds.

Watch Denise's video