Cochlear implant offers Helen

Katikati resident Helen Ware reckons she can hear things she’s never heard before since having cochlear implant surgery 10 months ago. “Not until I got the cochlear did I hear what my nches sound like. ey do little ‘peeps’.

“So not only am I getting new sounds, I’m getting them at a volume I’ve never had before. It’s like a whole new world has opened up.”

But the 56-year-old doesn’t want readers to think a cochlear implant is an instant x for those who are deaf or hearing impaired.

“ ere’s this public perception that you turn on the cochlear – you can hear! e number of times I’ve had to tell people – that is not how it works.”

When Helen’s cochlear was turned on, there was only static. She’s spent 10 months trying to retrain her brain to identify and listen for sounds. “I’ve meet some incredible people at Hearing House – they do amazing work. So does Hearing Support BOP.”

Age six

Helen’s hearing journey began at age six. She’d fallen onto a concrete-based playground, landed on her back and hit her head. “I saw a hearing specialist and, yes, I had a hearing problem – much to my horror I got a hearing aid at age six.”

At that stage her right ear was her good ear. Her left ear was her bad ear. In the Christmas holidays, aged 11, Helen saw specialist Bill Baber – a cochlear implant specialist – after showing a sharp drop in hearing ability. “He put me in hospital on bed rest in a general ward.

“It was a horrible experience. MRIs weren’t a thing back then but they ran all the tests they could. After that when I got up I was dizzy and kept telling mum: ‘My hearing aid is not working’.

No warning

“A week later Mr Baber realised my good ear had gone deaf – no warning, just gone!” She received a hearing aid for her left ear –to amplify the hearing she had left. “With a hearing aid I had 70 per cent of hearing in one ear. Without it, I had about Amazingly, Helen was mainstream-schooled, she did ballet and even played sports such as netball. “Imagine playing netball where there’s 30 courts and whistles going everywhere and I have no directional a thing back then but they ran all the tests I 30-40 per cent.” as sound!” that

All of her jobs were initially frontline, customer service roles. “At that point I was very much ‘I do for myself...’ I didn’t consider myself deaf. I identi ed as hearing impaired.” She got married, had children, separated, worked full-time. Life went on. But in 2011