Todays thought...The world of Cochlear Implants

Ok so as most of you know, my mama has had a Cochlear Implant. I cannot tell you how proud I am. Well, she has a support group that meets a few times a year and I am thankful to say that I have been able to attend quite a few of these meetings with her.

Todays meeting was a discussion about the history of the Cochlear Implant and while on the topic the question came from the room as to why it is so hard to get an insurance company to approve dual implants...Or...one in each ear. Now it strikes me as funny in the sense that yes, the implants are expensive. However, tell me something, if you can hear, and have never had an issue hearing in the past nor do you now, how important is your hearing to you?

What is it worth to you, for you to have your hearing? $100 - $1,000 - $10,000...Or maybe even $100,000. What is what you are hearing right now, worth to you? If you heard for your entire life, and say you were in an accident, you hit a transformer and it exploded beside you. And you lived, but the explosion was so loud, that you lost your hearing completely. What would you think to be a fair amount to get your hearing back to where it was? What would it be worth to you? To hear birds chirping, or an approaching storm, or even a refrigerator running.

Or let me put it to you in a different kind of question. If you can hear, and you have been able to hear since birth, how would you explain hearing, to a person that is deaf? Go for it. Right now. Tell me, how would you explain the concept of hearing, to someone that has never heard anything in their life. I tell you what, the surgeon that did my mama's implant told me about a website. I checked it out today. I invite anyone else who is reading this to do the same thing. It shows you a little bit about what advances they have made in the science of hearing and will show you a little bit of what it is like to not hear, and then have the opportunity to hear and actually understand what you are hearing. It is the University of Texas Dallas program. The link is http://www.utdallas.edu/~loizou/cimplants/ and again...I invite anyone reading to take a look at this web-site. Read the tutorial. See what it is like. Better yet, challenge yourself. Plug your ears for a day. For 24 hours so that you cannot hear anything. See what you are missing. Then ask yourself the question...What is it worth to you to hear?

Thats all I have to say for todays blog. I recommend anyone taking a look at that site and see what you can learn from it.

Holla!!!