What I Like About My Implant

There are several things I like about my implant, but what I like most is being able to hear. A close second is that I don't have to put it inside in ear, the microphone sits at the base of my ear. With my old hearing aid, which went in my ear, I was constantly getting itching inside my ear from the ear wax that was pushed down by the tube on the hearing aid. What bothered me the most was that I had to take it out and scratch, but sometimes it was hard to scratch b/c how am I suppose to reach into my ear? Sometimes it would happen right in the middle of class, that aggravated me alot.

I also like it that I can charge my batteries, decreasing the amount of money spent on hearing aid batteries (which are NOT cheap). Another great thing about these batteries are that when they are finally worn out after years and years of use(as oppose to weeks for a hearing aid), I can return them to the company for recycling, saving the environment and animals as well as people from the harmful chemicals and metals in the batteries. I am a big "pro" Earth and pro-recycling.

Unlike a hearing aid, my implant is programmable. Which means when something goes wrong or the program gets messed up, all I have to do is go to my audiologist for an adjustment and it can be fixed. Where as a hearing aid only last for 10 years, then you have to buy another one (only if the insurance doesn't pay for it and most don't). In other words, the implant is like a computer: it's programmable and is bound to have random errors like a regular computer.

Another thing: my implant is resistant to moisture, sweat, rain (water), and weather although I have to take it off if I go swimming. My hearing aid was not.

The only big down fall: I cannot have an MRI. If an MRI is needed, I have to get the implant removed before I can do so. But I think with everything that I have experienced so far, I don't regret it. So if I need an MRI? Well, I can do a CT scan, but if an MRI is necessarily, then I guess I will get it removed and then have it put back, but only after consideration.

This past weekend, I was able to hearing another first: while watching LSU baseball in the CWS, I could hear the bat hit the ball on TV! I've never been able to hear that before. I can hear the music in stores more clearly and better than I have in the past too! I was dancing to "Brown Eye Girl" by Jimmy Buffet and "What I Like About You" by the Romantics in Winn-Dixie. I think people thought I was crazy, but I couldn't help it.

All in all, the best thing about the implant is hearing things I have never heard before. And not just hearing things, but to be able to distinguish sounds and words. Some things sound even better than they did before. I think it's a success!