Bob’s Story A World Permanently Lost Regained By Bob Williams I lost 30% of my hearing in three hours on the rifle range in Basic Training in March, 1963.  The medics who examined me washed my ears out to remove the wax and sent me back to my unit.  A few days later I went back on sick call and they did the same thing. I gave up on US Army medical personnel until in Advanced Training I was able to see a doctor for the first time.  He never even looked in my ears. He prescribed nicotine tablets to relax the nerves and sent me on my way. Over a year later, the officer under whom I served sent me to the dispensary doctor.  He spent an afternoon with me and sent me to 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt.  Dr. Cornwallis, an ENT doctor determined that I had permanent "nerve (hair cell) deafness" and he told me that if I lived long enough, given the fragile condition of the hair cells, I would be deaf. Well, I lived long enough.  By the mid 1990s there was nothing left. Hearing aids only amplified muffled sounds. A personal FM system with separate transmitter with a lapel mike and receiver with a neck-loop antenna kept me going for awhile.  But it wasn't long before there was nothing out there that would help. In August of 1998, my audiologist at the Portland, Oregon VA Audiological Clinic suggested a cochlear implant.  I had heard of them but thought they were primarily for children.  She assured me that I would make an excellent candidate and my ENT doctor concurred.  I was told that in order to get it I would have to go to Seattle. "I'd go to New York," I told them, "if I could hear again!" I had the surgery February 1, 1999 for the Nucleus 24.  It all went well but I had an inordinate amount of nausea and vomiting so they kept me at the hospital for over 24 hours. March 1, 1999 I was hooked up.  When Nancy Cambron, my audiologist asked me a question I answered it.  She asked a second question and I answered her. My wife Carolyn was sitting behind me and she asked me a question and I answered it and she gave a big thumbs up sign and shouted, "YES!" The next day I was talking with my youngest daughter on the phone with the phone attachment provided and I was able to hear every word.  We took a tour of Underground Seattle.  The guide was soft spoken and had a beard.  I understood most everything except when he turned his back towards me. I made it an immediate practice to read out loud every day.  I also experimented with all kinds of sounds tapping on whatever was close at hand to see how the sound differed from the way I remembered it. In June of 2002 I received my Esprit 3G BTE (Behind The Ear) processor. There were no more wires to get tangled up in and the thing I liked best was the telecoil switch.  I am able to hear very well on just about any hearing aid compatible phone with the "T" switch. For six months I went back on the air with a radio program I did for many years on several radio stations called "Moment of Inspiration".  I wasn't certain as to how my voice would come across with the cochlear implant. The managers at the station told me that if they were managing a major radio network, they would want the program.  It was A-1 quality. I also perform music with a keyboard doing church concerts and also "Music of the '30s, '40s, and '50s".  With all the different presets I am a one-man band.  I also play regularly for church and teach the Adult Sunday School Class. Our church has an induction loop system installed in the sanctuary so persons with "T" switches can turn their hearing aids of cochlear implants to "T" and get the sound direct.  The loop signal also bleeds into the basement where my Sunday School class is located.  So I use the mike in class and those of us who otherwise struggle to hear get the sound direct. I am anxious to try the new Freedom processor that has just come out.  It's the first water resistant processor and it's directional features should bring clarity in more noisy environments. Already with the Esprit 3G I use the "whisper" feature in a Writing Your Life Story class I'm taking at our local community college.  It minimizes furnace and air conditioner noises and brings in the voice of the person who is telling their story. Not everyone adjusts to their cochlear implants as quickly as I did.  Each case is different.  But my surgeon, Dr. George Gates told me, "I have yet to see anyone whose hearing has not been significantly improved with a cochlear implant."