First Visit to Mayo Clinic

My first appointment at Mayo Clinic was on February 27th. I had mixed feelings about going through the process. I was nervous and unsure of what to expect. At the same time, I was excited to see the "Mecca of the Medical World". I was very fortunate to have my co-worker and friend, Amy Erickson join me for trip, it made the whole experience more exciting and bearable. We stayed at the famous Kahler Hotel, which was undergoing much needed renovations. Our room appeared to have not been touched since it opened in the 1920's. I wish I could say I was joking, but I am not. It had mirrors on the walls with paneling on the opposite walls and two twin beds. It smelled very stale and musty. Needless to say, we did not sleep very well.

Anyways, enough about the accommodations :). My first appointment was at 8:00 am for the cochlear implant consultation. I met with the audiologist, Ann Peterson. We did an informal interview. She asked me to describe my hearing loss, history of loss in the family and how I function with my hearing loss. Ann explained the process of qualifying for an implant. I would get a hearing evaluation, then go to the hearing aid clinic to be sure my hearing aids were working properly. I guess sometimes people arrive at Mayo and discover that they had inadequate hearing aids for their hearing loss and that is why they do not hear well! I was positive my hearing aids were appropriate for my loss because I have the best audiologist around :).

Next step, if I pass hearing aid check, I would do more hearing evaluations with the audiologist. On the evaluations, I would need to score 60% or worse to qualify for the implant. Then the audiologist mentioned that there may be a possibility that I do not qualify due to how much I can hear with my hearing aids. I thought to myself, "Great! All of this effort and I may not qualify!" I was a little nervous knowing that I may not even have an option of improving my hearing and that I might need to adjust to the way I currently hear. I wish there was a powerful hearing aid out there to just plop on my head. I am a little scared to have something drilled into my skull. Luckily, I had my upper jaw surgery three years ago which they broke the jaw into three pieces then screwed it back together, so this surgery should a breeze. Okay, back to the process of qualifying... Once all my hearing evaluations are completed and done, if I scored 60% or worse, then I can move onto the next step to meet with the cochlear implant surgeon later. If I score 60% or better, then I would return home without going any further.