Interview of Cochlear Implant Recipient

Ann Armstrong
Senior Administrative Associate Biomedical Engineering UT Austin
I lost my hearing as a result of Meniere's disease
which is a
progressive disease that attacks the inner ear
affecting both hearing and balance
I was diagnosed with Meniere's back in the late 80's
at which point I had perfect hearing in both ears
My hearing began to deteriorate
and I started wearing hearing aids
in my right ear right. My right ear went first in about 1993.
and the left ear began to disintegrate
and i started hearing aids in in both years one in the left and one in the right
probably in 1994 or 1995
The hearing
continued to disintegrate until I had
no hearing at all in the right ear
fluctuating between severe and profound
deafness in the left ear
I got my cochlear implant in 2004
At that time, in 2004,
it was very difficult
it was not the usual procedure at the united states to do two CIs
plus I still had enough hearing in this ear that this ear at that point
didn't really qualify
barton
now, in europe
two CIs are done characteristically all the time
my insurance would only pay for the one CI at the time
and probably
since i still have a tiny bit of hearing in this year i would rather keep
as much natural hearing as I can
as they explain to you it's not normal hearing, it will never be normal hearing
things sound sometimes tinnitus, I mean, things sound sometimes tinny
I have a new processor, a new outer processor which is the new Harmony
and you go in and then they do what is called maps which is basically the
computer program that works with you in the tones to see how we all you can do with
speech discrimination
I've only had this one for
about four or five months so we're still in the middle of the process
of programming, so my speech discrimination is still not very good with this one
unfortunately, I lost music. I used to be an an actress and singer
I can still
All music sounds good cacophonous to me
I can no longer distinguish pitch
Everything sounds just as loud as everything else
If its like a single instrument
sometimes I can follow it. If you get any kind of complexity
like an orchestra piece or even a chamber piece I can't
distinguish it at all, it just sounds like noise
I think I have
it's either four or six. Okay
thank you very much