My 25-Year Hearing Journey With Advanced Bionics

And so, at twenty, I was implanted with the Advanced Bionics S-Series cochlear implant (CI) system on my right side. Life was never perfect, but it got better. While I missed how comfortable my hearing aid was in the ear, the CI significantly improved the quality of what I could hear. A friend once asked what it was like to hear with these different devices and I told her this analogy: Imagine you are looking at a TV with static and you know there is someone speaking. The hearing aid amplified the static, while the CI brings out the speech hidden by the static.

For those not familiar with the S-Series – picture in your mind a Walkman cassette player so popular in the ‘80s and early ‘90s – and you can get an idea of what the S-Series looked like. It did not open like a Walkman, but it was about one-third of the weight and height. I wore it clipped to my pants, shirt, or sometimes even my bra when I wanted to wear a dress. It had a cable wire of about eighteen to twenty-four inches that connected to the headpiece. It is similar to the processor used today. It also had a big, bulky battery. Despite this, and the impact it had on my wardrobe – since I basically stopped wearing dresses – it was like a door opened for me. It gave me the confidence to go back and finish college.

I graduated college and began my teaching career. My job brought me many more challenges as I was a hearing-impaired teacher in an inner-city middle school classroom in Atlanta. After two years of struggling to adapt, I left education. I made changes and again learned to adapt in a classroom environment. I returned to teaching after a three-year hiatus – this time in elementary school.

After I returned to teaching, my audiologist told me that a newer sound processor was being made by Advanced Bionics and that I qualified for it. So at thirty-one, I received my second implant on the left side, together with the new Harmony sound processor. And bonus – I was able to trade in my S-Series for a Harmony sound processor on the right as well! The Harmony unit is worn behind the ear very much like a hearing aid, so my “leash” was finally cut! 

Besides the dramatic improvement in the cosmetic and convenience aspect of my new CI system, a new world of sound was opened up to me, now that I could hear with both ears. I no longer had to just smile and nod because I only understood half of what was spoken. I didn’t have to urge kids to move to my right side when they wanted to talk to me, because I could now hear equally well from both sides. I didn’t have to depend on my coworkers to relay information to me. My teaching style changed for the better, and my daily stress levels lowered.  

Several years later, the Naída Q90 was introduced and through the trade-in program, I now have the Naída on the left, and the Harmony on the right, as well as the Roger Pen. Boy, did my students have fun with that one! By this time, I was in my twelfth year of teaching at the same elementary school. The kids knew that I was the teacher with “bionic ears,” as I called them. I was very up-front with my students about my CIs and Roger Pen—at their age, you have to be. The Roger Pen offered them the ability to whisper to me when they needed help. I kept it in a special place in the classroom, and I helped the kids to feel comfortable using it daily in class. It was an invaluable tool when I was working in small groups or having children read their writing to me.

Fast forward about five years, I started to notice a decrease in the hearing quality on my right side. So I made the decision to undergo surgery again on that ear, and completely upgrade my implant, as well the sound processor, to Naída Q90 in May 2020. In other words, my original implant had lasted for twenty-five years! With this new implant, another new door was opened, as well as a goody toolbox!