So as you've probably gathered by the title my name is Kathryn. I'm 16 and profoundly deaf-have been since birth. I came into this world with no hearing, no idea what sound was.
I tried hearing aids for about 6 months but it was pretty obvious that they were useless in my case as I didn't respond to anyone or anything. It was like living in my own little bubble, oblivious to the world around me.
Not being able to communicate with me frustrated my parents, so my mum enrolled at our local college to learn level 1 BSL, meaning that it opened up a whole new world for me and my family, the world of communication. Me being able to tell them when I wanted a drink or if i wanted to cuddle my teddy! I also had a sign language tutor come round to my house and she'd do all sorts of things with me; puzzles,reading books... When I watch videos of those tutorials I realise what a fluent signer I was when I was little. It makes me smile when I see how my eyes just lit up when I knew I'd got the right sign,knowing that I could do anything! I could sign: animals, simple everyday words, colours, numbers, the alphabet, my name and many more!
So I continued to sign throughout my toddler years...but my mum and dad often thought, is this it? Is this the life my daughters going to lead, a world of silence and being heavily reliant on sign language? Will my daughter ever hear? This is what their ultimate goal was to at least give me the chance to be able to hear so they explored many avenues and options, they eventually came across Cochlear Implant's. I had scans, hearing tests and my parents had many discussions with my audiology team to see if I was a suitable candidate and thankfully in the end it turned out I was!
In August '98, at the age of 2, I had the operation and a couple of weeks later I had the switch on. This was it, the moment we'd all been waiting for, was my life about to change? They turned it on, and I turned around frantically and looked at my mum, constantly blinking. I only cried once when they did a really loud sound and I rushed to hug my mum;confused at what was happening, I had heard my first sounds! My mum was laughing and crying;most probably an emotional wreck- my parents were so relieved that I finally had the opportunity to hear! what chokes me now, is that the first time I ever heard my parents was then at the age of 2.
I slowly became more confident with my implant, and my speech slowly began to develop but at the age of 4 I was still a fluent signer, so in reception I had TA who knew Sign Language to maximise my understanding. However by the end of reception I was still behind my peers in terms of speech, understanding and academically so I repeated reception.
From there on in, I just became more confident and eventually I no longer signed and was completely oral, every day I surprised myself & my parents with every little achievement!
So at the beginning of year 6 I began to consider having a second implant, because I felt that it would benefit me in everyday life and also help me to cope with the environment at secondary school. After much deliberation I had it, the date was set for the op; 21st Jan 2008. As the day dawned I became more excited but nervous at the same time! The operation went fine and I was up at ten at night playing with cards with a boy opposite me, so all was okay. The following day, after a sleepless night due to the heavy bandage on my head, I was discharged and thank goodness the bandage was taken off!
4th Feb; switch on. Was I happy or disappointed? I hated it, it just sounded alien and it didn't sound natural but I needed to try and at least persevere.
July 2012: I'm now about to enter year 11 in September and about to do my final year at secondary school! Unfortunately, I have struggled with my second implant and still find it difficult to wear it consistently but I've tried but I'm still going to keep trying and not give up because after years of waiting I'm getting the Nucleus 5 upgrade! I am proud to be part of the deaf community and the hearing community. The only regrets I have are: not continuing to sign throughout my childhood and not taking to my second implant as well as I could've done.
I want to take this opportunity to thank my family and CI team for giving the gift to be able to hear!
