About Me

Hello everyone, my name is Barbara Davis and I livOntario,Canada. I was born with Usher Syndrome Type 1 which meansamprofoundlydeaf and have retinitis pigmentosa. The diseasecandamage the retina, and cause tunnel vision until somepointinadulthood when full blindness often occurs. My mom found out Iwas deaf when I was almost 2 years old. I wore hearing aids in both ears, but I couldn't hear any sounds, I could feel only vibrations. I wore hearing aids from 2 years old till 10 years old, but I gave it up because I feel it didn't benefit me at all. When I was 17 years old I was interested in trying the hearing aid again, so I went to audiologist to have my hearing tested. The test showed that my left ear had 110 DB and my right ear had 95 DB. I was so surprised! I wanted to try hearing aids so I could hear plain noises in my right ear. I couldn't hear anything in my left ear. I thought I would practice every day in order to improve my listening and to understand speech. However, it didn't work that way. If I didn't wear the hearing aid, it was hard to lip-read. If I wore the hearing aid, it only helped me to understand lip-reading. I could hear how many syllables the words were, but not the words themselves. I couldn't understand speech, or use the phone. I couldn't hear it at all. I couldn't hear anything around me like the door bell, or the phone ringing. I wore it from 17 years old till 25 years old. I gave it up because the loud noises hurt my ear and the ear mold was bothering me. The ear mold always caused my ear to be sore and develop wax. When I was 40 years old I become interesting in having a Cochlear Implant(CI), so my family Dr. referred me to a CI clinic on July 1998 but I cancelled the appointment one month prior because I heard there were so many pros and cons. I never talked about it again for 2 years. On December 2000 I joined 3 different e-mail listings to learn from them. I realized that there were many improvements in technology, so I decided to go for it. My family Dr. referred me to a CI clinic and I finally went to the first appointment on February 22, 2001. I had several different kinds of hearing tests which showed that both my ears are over 120 DB, which was worse than I thought. Amy Ng at Sunnybrook hospital told me that I wouldn't benefit from a CI since I didn't previously benefit from hearing aids. She said I must have been able to understand speech without lip-reading at some point in my life, and I haven't been able to do that. She said since I was profoundly deaf for 42 years, I wasn't likely to be a CI candidate. I told her that she was wrong, that I had researched a few profoundly deaf people who since birth hadn't benefit from hearing aids, but did benefit from a CI. She told me that she had never heard of that. I gave her Jason Curry's web site address so she could read his story. She was interested and read it herself. I also told her that I did a lot of research by reading people's web site stories and asking them many questions by e-mail. She warned me that my CI surgeon wouldn't approval me to have a CI surgery. I got a new appointment to see the CI surgeon on March 9, his name is Dr. Julian Nedzelski M. D. He read the report that said I was born profoundly deaf and didn't benefit from hearing aids, so he turned me down. I gave him a few people's stories, about how they were born profoundly deaf and benefited from a CI. He didn't agreed with me and told me that he had never heard that. He also told me that no one in Canada had implant profoundly deaf adult if they didn't ever benefit from hearing aids, and that is why he didn't think it would benefit me. I continued to confront him, and asked him to let me go ahead with the final testing. He said no, but when my audiologist Amy Ng stepped in, she asked him to let me go ahead, and we would set-up counseling with her for a serious discussion during my next appointment. The Dr. agreed with it, but I was in such turmoil at that time. I got 2 new appointments, one June 20, to have a cat scan, balance test, and counseling with Amy Ng, and another appointment in July 13 to see Dr. Julian Nedzelski on whether or not to approval me as a CI candidate. So I decided to go ahead and seriously research more in-depth, and find an excellent article. I e-mailed Advanced Bionic to help me to find this very important information.


	Success To Hear \| home About Me \| Need Approval \| Tactaid \| Difference Between Deaf Culture And Cochlear Implant \| Cochlear Implant Found To Help Deaf-Blind Patients \| Deaf-Blind Shown To Benefit From Cochlear Implant \| Favorite Links \| Other Links \| Contact Me About Me (I was denied) Hello everyone, my name is Barbara Davis and I livOntario,Canada. I was born with Usher Syndrome Type 1 which meansamprofoundlydeaf and have retinitis pigmentosa. The diseasecandamage the retina, and cause tunnel vision until somepointinadulthood when full blindness often occurs. My mom found out Iwas deaf when I was almost 2 years old. I wore hearing aids in both ears, but I couldn't hear any sounds, I could feel only vibrations. I wore hearing aids from 2 years old till 10 years old, but I gave it up because I feel it didn't benefit me at all. When I was 17 years old I was interested in trying the hearing aid again, so I went to audiologist to have my hearing tested. The test showed that my left ear had 110 DB and my right ear had 95 DB. I was so surprised! I wanted to try hearing aids so I could hear plain noises in my right ear. I couldn't hear anything in my left ear. I thought I would practice every day in order to improve my listening and to understand speech. However, it didn't work that way. If I didn't wear the hearing aid, it was hard to lip-read. If I wore the hearing aid, it only helped me to understand lip-reading. I could hear how many syllables the words were, but not the words themselves. I couldn't understand speech, or use the phone. I couldn't hear it at all. I couldn't hear anything around me like the door bell, or the phone ringing. I wore it from 17 years old till 25 years old. I gave it up because the loud noises hurt my ear and the ear mold was bothering me. The ear mold always caused my ear to be sore and develop wax. When I was 40 years old I become interesting in having a Cochlear Implant(CI), so my family Dr. referred me to a CI clinic on July 1998 but I cancelled the appointment one month prior because I heard there were so many pros and cons. I never talked about it again for 2 years. On December 2000 I joined 3 different e-mail listings to learn from them. I realized that there were many improvements in technology, so I decided to go for it. My family Dr. referred me to a CI clinic and I finally went to the first appointment on February 22, 2001. I had several different kinds of hearing tests which showed that both my ears are over 120 DB, which was worse than I thought. Amy Ng at Sunnybrook hospital told me that I wouldn't benefit from a CI since I didn't previously benefit from hearing aids. She said I must have been able to understand speech without lip-reading at some point in my life, and I haven't been able to do that. She said since I was profoundly deaf for 42 years, I wasn't likely to be a CI candidate. I told her that she was wrong, that I had researched a few profoundly deaf people who since birth hadn't benefit from hearing aids, but did benefit from a CI. She told me that she had never heard of that. I gave her Jason Curry's web site address so she could read his story. She was interested and read it herself. I also told her that I did a lot of research by reading people's web site stories and asking them many questions by e-mail. She warned me that my CI surgeon wouldn't approval me to have a CI surgery. I got a new appointment to see the CI surgeon on March 9, his name is Dr. Julian Nedzelski M. D. He read the report that said I was born profoundly deaf and didn't benefit from hearing aids, so he turned me down. I gave him a few people's stories, about how they were born profoundly deaf and benefited from a CI. He didn't agreed with me and told me that he had never heard that. He also told me that no one in Canada had implant profoundly deaf adult if they didn't ever benefit from hearing aids, and that is why he didn't think it would benefit me. I continued to confront him, and asked him to let me go ahead with the final testing. He said no, but when my audiologist Amy Ng stepped in, she asked him to let me go ahead, and we would set-up counseling with her for a serious discussion during my next appointment. The Dr. agreed with it, but I was in such turmoil at that time. I got 2 new appointments, one June 20, to have a cat scan, balance test, and counseling with Amy Ng, and another appointment in July 13 to see Dr. Julian Nedzelski on whether or not to approval me as a CI candidate. So I decided to go ahead and seriously research more in-depth, and find an excellent article. I e-mailed Advanced Bionic to help me to find this very important information.