Welcome to Casí se Muere part two! Part two is a continuation from Casí se Muere posted in December.
After being implanted at Boys Town National Research Hospital, I then had to wait three months before I could be hooked up to the external device. Nowadays people are hooked up within five days of being implanted. You are probably thinking that my reaction was like you see on those Youtube videos where the baby hears her mom’s voice for the first time. Mine wasn’t quite like that, I did respond to the noise, but the noise was something I was not very fond of.
My first processor was almost the size of a note pad. We had to have a seamstress sew special pockets onto my t-shirts so that I had something to hold my processor. Through the years, they progressively got smaller and smaller. Now, they are down to where they just fit over my ear and are barely even noticeable.
Growing up with Cochlear Implants may just be one of the worst and best things that has ever happened to me. I have met some amazing people who I call my best friends. I have been bullied. I have been given opportunities that have changed my life. I’ve been seen as being “different” from everyone else. All of these things have made me who I am today.
Going through elementary school, all the kids just wanted to know what those brown things on my head were and I always told them they are things to help me hear. Some kids would find it amusing and keep asking questions and were curious to know more. Others not so much, they saw me as not being like them and so they would judge me and make fun of me. I have met many people and made many friends because of my hearing loss. There is a program for the deaf and Hard of Hearing that gives all deaf and hard of hearing students opportunities to go on trips and meet other people just like them. When I first started attending these activities it was more I wasn’t much of a social butterfly so I went more just so I didn’t have to go to school. but now any time I get an opportunity to attend one of these activities I do. There is nothing like being able to relate to someone that has the same hearing loss as you.
