From hearing aids to cochlear implant

From hearing aids to cochlear implant is a guest blog by Kirsteen Allison. Kirsteen is a working mum in Scotland writing about her cochlear implant and experiences of deafness 2012/2013.

For the best experience, you can start to read from the beginning.

Six weeks on

It’s been about 6 weeks now since I got switched on and it feels much longer. I’ve adjusted really well, in fact sometimes I forget I only have a cochlear implant in one ear! It’s improving all the time. I can hear music playing when I go to the shopping centre, I can hear the […]

Four programmes

Yesterday I had my 1 month check up at the hospital. I was in a much better mood this time as the beeping was gone and everything sounded much more normal. I was much happier this time around which the clinical scientist commented on! She not only adjusted my current maps (or programmes as I […]

Three weeks post switch on

It’s now nearly 3 weeks since I have been switched on. It feels like longer, which I suppose is a good sign! The beeping has nearly gone, so yippee! I returned to the cochlear implant centre six days after switch on and I was in quite a bad mood. The beeping and squeaking was driving […]

Switch on day!

Watch a short subtitled video of me at the hospital on my switch on day! I entered a small consultation room with my dad and a video camera that Hearing Link had given me. The physicist (the guy who put the ‘electric drill’ through my ears a while back!) set the cochlear implant up. He […]

Side effects

Here’s me talking about my implant – after surgery but before switch on. The night of my operation, I was trying to read my Kindle but found the words were all blurry. At first, I thought that perhaps I was tired, or the lighting was not good, but I realised it may be a side effect […]

Surgery

The next morning, I had been told I would be taken down to theatre at about 8.30am. I had not been allowed to eat since midnight and I was starving! Two nurses came to see me and take me down to theatre. They checked my identity and asked some general questions about my health. The […]

Pre surgery

I went into hospital in the afternoon of 31st July. I was met by a receptionist just inside the entrance and she checked my identity, asked if I had any dietary or religious preferences. There was a funny moment when she asked if I wanted a visit from a minister. What a way to install […]