The Ear Foundation...I have been researching Cochlear Implants in the last few months so much, that I finally thought that my brain would explode! I know that taking in too much information at once can become overwhelming.
Fortunately there was some new things that I was yet to still learn!
I found out a few months ago that there was to be a Cochlear Information day at the Ear Foundation in Nottingham. This I wanted to go to straight away, as there were to be talks from real people. Not people in books, DVD's or YouTube videos which seem to be all singing, dancing and bright lights at the end of the tunnel. I wanted to talk to people who have actually gone through the operation themselves and explain their experiences, the crazy roller coaster of a journey of the up's and down's.
The day came...
The day finally came two weeks ago on Saturday, I thought it was going to be pretty useless, as I felt that I'd made my opinion up and gathered all the information.
Arriving at the Ear Foundation the volunteers were so cheery, I could tell that it was going to be a fab day. Meeting other people in my situation some younger than me and others similar was interesting. Exchanging stories with other teenagers made me feel a bit better. As most of my deaf friends had their CI's when they were young so essentially they don't know what I am going through.
Several talks were given through out the day starting with talks from the three companies (Advance Bionics, Cochlear, MEdel) who provide CI's. Then a surgeon who actually operates with Cochlear Implants went through the procedure and showed small images of the op, slightly gross and aaaawwweeessssommmeee (as my brother would say it) at the same time. To be honest I am glad to know what they could be doing to my head!
Then came dinner, was getting rather hungry since we set off from home early. During dinner it was another chance to talk to families. Once I had my dinner and had another chat with the companies for CI's will gaining lots of freebies which I have since given out to friends and families since I got too much.
Then the afternoon came, the party was to be spilt. People with young children went one way and me with other teens along with our parents went another.
In a separate room, us teens were discussing the problems with CI's whilst still being in education. The chairperson so to speak was a teacher for the deaf from Nottingham, who shared her pupils experiences having the CI operation whilst in education. It was a time to vent out feelings about the situation I was going through, what I thought about CI's and what our own families thought of the CI's. By the end of the afternoon I felt better towards having a Cochlear Implant and swapped numbers with fellow teenagers to keep in contact and advise one another what we have done in the journey and our experiences.
Before leaving a teenager who was my age who had already had two CI's advised me to have it done but with two. This was a constant debate between me and my mam, I only wanted one as I had a small amount of hearing in my right ear left, whereas others and my mam said to have two done as that hearing could soon disappear. The teenager explained her reasoning behind it and slowly by the time I got home I changed my mind!
"I WANT TWO COCHLEAR IMPLANTS" I announced to my mam! A big smile splashed across her face! She was thrilled!
http://www.earfoundation.org.uk/
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