About 6 weeks after I turned 17, I flew down to Los Angeles with my mom to get implanted at the HEI down there. We went there because at the time very few implants had been done in Portland, and my parents wanted to go with someone who had much more experience (if it was now, I'd stay in Portland -- OHSU has an awesome implant team, and both of my husband's were done there).
After passing psychological testing and some auditory tests, we prepped for surgery the next day. I believe surgery was at about 8:30am and I woke up around 1-2pm, slept on and off, and was finally ready to go home at 6pm. (Nowadays it is even simpler -- husband was in at 10am and out by 2pm with both of his.) "Home" was my Aunt's house who lives south of L.A., and it was a nice place to be. I think I stayed 2 nights after the surgery before finally flying home. Meanwhile I had this huge bandage on one side of my head, and it was very tender, so sleeping was a bit uncomfortable for awhile.
When we got home it was Thanksgiving time and we decided to go to our Central Oregon ranch house for the holiday. I remember that we were given instructions that I could not go more than 5000 feet above sea level while I was healing, and the summit of the Santiam pass is approximately 4800, so luckily we were able to go over!
It was a month before I was able to go to my audiologist to have the cochlear implant put on for the first time. That was an exciting and strange experience. When it was first on and people began talking to me, I didn't hear it, but rather experienced sound as a "flooding" sensation, starting localized in the ear that had just been implanted, and growing until it affected my entire head, a process which took a few days. (Other people I know have described similar things, one person felt/heard it in his heart at first!) This sensation was very weird, and to say I couldn't even recognize my own name was an understatement, whereas before, with my hearing aids I would have heard and understood my name.
Over time I began to experience sound more by hearing rather than by feeling. For months I had to frequently ask people what sound I was hearing -- siren, lawn mower, dryer beeping, etc. in order to learn to match the sound with what made it. (I still do this on occasion.) There was one particular sound that I would occasionally hear, but never had the opportunity to ask someone what it was. It sounded very metallic (robotic?) to me. I had no idea what it was. One day I was in my bedroom and heard that sound again. It was spring, and my window was open. Looking out, there was a bird sitting on a wire, and I could see his beak moving in a way that matched the sound. Aha! It took a long time for the sound of birds to go from totally annoying to something that sounds good, evidence of the constant and ongoing learning that one does with a cochlear implant. And that is never more evident than when I am able to upgrade the external component of the cochlear implant, as new and better models are made, but I'll get back to that.
When I got my implant, I had 2 years of high school left, so that meant 2 more years with speech teachers before graduation. I adored the woman who was with me throughout high school, and she did a fantastic job working with me on learning to listen with the cochlear implant so that I made rapid progress both with listening and with speech (I could, for the first time in my life, hear 'sh,' 'z,' 'ch' and thus was finally able to reproduce them!) We did a wide variety of listening exercises, but the one I remember most is when she would read a children's book to me behind my back and I had to try and pick out words and get the story. These were not familiar books such as "This is the story of Snow White" but were random books. Not easy to do.
Today I still wear my cochlear implant - 18 years now! And luckily the internal component has stayed alive (the warranty expires after 1o years). Each new processor brings an improvement in hearing and new learning of sounds. So glad I got it.
