Daily Life with a Cochlear Implant

In the Morning

I put on my implant speech process as soon as I get up. It takes less than 30 seconds.

If I’m taking a shower first, I wait until after my hair is fully dry before I put on the processor. This is a slight inconvenience because I can't hear anything—even the telephone ringing—until I put it on.

At Work

I'm a teacher who works with children. In a classroom, I sometimes have a problem understanding speech if several kids talk at once.

While I can change the microphone setting, I usually don’t.

Since my implant is new, I’m still having trouble recognizing voices and locating where they come from—especially in the classroom setting. I expect my skills will improve over the next year.

In Public

Since I’ve only been turned on for 2 months, I’m just learning how to use my cochlear implant in social settings.

In a restaurant, I'm okay if only one or two people are talking. If I'm in group of several people, I find it hard to follow conversation, especially if there is music or background noise.

So far, watching TV is hard. I have to really concentrate with the change of voices. Some voices are very soft and others are easily to hear and understand. At this point I still use captions, but I'm slowly breaking away from using them.

I haven't gone to the movies yet. I don't think I have reached that point yet but I hope to soon.

Music doesn't sound the same at all. That is one thing I really miss.

At Bedtime

At night, I usually watch TV in bed. I’m learning to not lay on my side with the speech processor because if my pillow blocks the microphone, I don’t hear well.

After I’m finished watching TV, I take the speech processor off and store it on my night table. This only takes a few seconds.

Maintenance

One thing I don’t like about my brand of cochlear implant is that it goes dead without any warning. I wish it had a warning beep like some other brands. It means I always have to keep spare batteries with me at all times.

Repairs and Replacement

I don’t know about long-term issues since I have only had my cochlear implant for 2 months.