Hello friends and family,
Today is the one year anniversary of new life with my cochlear implant. It truly has been an amazing year. Each season brought new sounds and experiences that I will forever cherish. Some of my favorite sounds were the leaves rustling, snow falling on my jacket, rain drops and birds chirping.
One of my biggest fears of getting the implant was that I would lose my identity in the Deaf world and not connect with my friends in that world anymore. I continue to stay involved with Deaf community events and keep close friendships. I greatly appreciate all of my friends, hearing, hard of hearing and deaf for their support along the way. I have learned an important lesson that my true friends will be there for me no matter what.
My life in the hearing world has become much easier. I feel that I am able to have more access to communication and able to follow everyday conversations. I do not feel like I am constantly missing information or working hard like I did before. Sometimes I catch myself being able to understand words in songs or on television without the support of captioning. This is still a very bizarre experience for me.
Lastly, I especially want to thank my loving family for their never ending support throughout this process. It has been a special experience to share with my brother Scotty. I couldn't have done this without you, especially my parents who were there on the day of my surgery and took care of me during my recovery.
Thanks for reading :)
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Dear family and friends, I appreciate all of your support with my decision of getting a second cochlear implant. I owe most of this to my my oldest brother, Scotty who was implanted on October 4, 2002. I greatly appreciate his bravery and sharing his unique experiences with me over the years. I was first implanted on July 31, 2008 and will have the second one on July 9, 2013. Important Posts: 8/4/08 - surgery, 8/16/08 - 1st mapping, 4/24/09 - activation videos.
1 comment:
KC, of course you did not lose me or your other deaf friends. We love you. It's my belief that the CI does not change a person's identity, but rather reveals values that were already there. Someone who gets a CI and as a result becomes disconnected from the deaf community is probably someone who was already placing more value on interaction with hearing people than deaf people. Not a good thing, because that person will continue to be eaten up inside by the hatred of their own deafness, but it happens (as I know you know).
Several years ago, I met a little deaf boy who bragged about how many more hearing friends he had than deaf friends. By that logic, other people should not be friends with HIM because he is deaf. How messed up is that? People like that who get a new tool (like a CI) to make interaction easier with hearing people will either naturally move away from deaf friends or drive away their deaf friends with their "hearing people are better" attitude.
Someone like yourself who doesn't care if a friend is hearing or deaf is not going to lose deaf friends because of a CI. :)
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