WEBVTT

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[music] The sounds that touch

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our lives are often taken for granted

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but for those who experience a significant
loss of hearing, they find they are missing

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something more. You just
kinda feel like an outcast

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and you kinda feel like you\'re a
pain, if you draw attention to it.

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But yeah, that can be pretty, um,
pretty lonely to be there and

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to miss everything around you. You just,
it used to make me feel more disabled. I

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used to feel like if I just sat there
quiet and invisible, then it would just

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be easier, you know? You feel like you\'re

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too hard to be friends with.
It\'s too much work and I

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think I was probably a difficult
person, um, in that regard

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to, to socialize with and I think
a lot of people can\'t relate.

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I think to a large degree I
was in my own little world

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and just doing my thing and I guess, to a degree,
you don\'t know what you\'re missing, but that\'s

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just the way it is. [music]

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Well, I come from a family of, of

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four. Um, I have one brother and
two sisters. I\'m the youngest.

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Out of the four of us, two are deaf and
two have perfectly normal hearing.

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Um, growing up, it was, um,
it didn\'t really show up

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until we were a little bit older, myself in
particular. I would have been in elementary

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school, maybe in the mid-grades, five, six,
seven, somewhere in that ball park. So

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we would be what you call post-lingular
deaf. We were born with hearing, how

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much I don\'t know. The earliest
recollection I have of

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a problem would be when we
might have been youngsters

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and Janice always spoke
very loudly and obviously

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now that was, the reason
was she couldn\'t hear

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herself speaking and we
actually briefly had a nickname

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for her. We called her Foggy,
Foghorn, because she was so loud. And

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at that time, there was
nothing much we could

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do, uh, about this other than to advise

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the teachers so that they would get
preferential seats, uh, seating in

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school, towards the front of the classroom
and also that the teachers were

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aware that they were, they had this
serious hearing problem and would

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give them a little, um, make
an extra effort to, um,

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make sure they were hearing what
the teacher was saying. It,

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it doesn\'t matter if you sit in the front of the class.
It\'s not a problem of volume, as we found out later

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on with the various diagnosis. So here you have your
teacher writing on the blackboard with her back

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turned to you and things like that. It didn\'t matter
that I was sitting at the front of the class. You,

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you still could not hear. So it\'s not one
of volume, and this has been something

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I think throughout my whole life, in
trying to get people to understand

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my hearing. It wasn\'t as severe,
then it got progressively worse. In

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her high school years, it was worse and I, I
forget what stage they had to drop French

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because she was lip reading so
much and those words were strange.

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But Janice\'s survival
mechanism was, was athletics.

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She, she just threw herself into
athletics, was very good at it.

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Was, is an extremely athletic person and,

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uh, well, she won athlete of
the year in high school twice.

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Uh, I was very engrossed in
sports and I love sports and, and

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I think I was very gifted and that became
a real crutch for me, something that I

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really, really loved. So I was between being
engrossed in sports and totally focused on that

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and kind of being oblivious
to, to my surroundings.

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As Janice\'s world slowly
grew silent, Melanie\'s own

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life changed without warning. I was 15

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when I lost my hearing. I
just woke up one morning

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and it was gone. I was staying

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at a friend of mine\'s house and
she had walked in the room and

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started talking to me and all I
could see were her lips moving

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and, well, so that\'s pretty much of a
shock. You know, I was going, what are

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you doing? And she\'s what?
And she\'s talking away

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and that was what happened.
A damaging virus left

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her permanently deaf in one
ear, with only 30% hearing in

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the other. It was really
difficult in school to hear,

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um, the teachers (inaudible)

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but I was very outgoing before
it happened and I had a lot

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of friends and, you know,
just very outgoing but when

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it happened, I moved and I knew nobody and I was very… withdrawn
pretty much about it because it was really hard to hear people and

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understand what they were saying. I think
anybody who develops a disability,

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something else kicks in to make up for it
and it, it was just a natural progression.

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Nobody taught us how to lip read. You just
learned because it\'s a survival thing. I think

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reading lips just becomes kind of a given
thing that, when you lose your hearing, you

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just tend to do it to help you understand what
everybody is saying and if you can\'t hear

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them, it helps you follow
the conversation a lot

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better. It\'s not just the lip reading. It, it\'s
everything that ties in. Your body language, um,

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you know, how people\'s eyes are, their smile. You
know, if their smiling, obviously something funny

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is being said and it becomes
an anticipation thing and

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that\'s what it becomes. When you lip read, you don\'t hear
everything or you don\'t get everything. Out, out of a sentence of

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10 words, I might only get half of that if I\'m
lucky. So then it\'s a matter of you have to put it

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together. Communication was difficult but

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Melanie\'s limited hearing did not
hinder a growing relationship.

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Actually, Melanie I met, um,
in a bar environment and

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after we met, we, we exchanged phone numbers
and, and when I called her, Melanie had a tough

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time on the phone and my voice
is, is not the deepest voice or,

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but on the phone, she really
struggled as far as, um, hearing

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me. So that was the first indication
and then as, as we started to date

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and, and see each other, I really
noticed, um, she was struggling and, and

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different environments were, were
tougher for her. In August of

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1985, Ken and Melanie became
husband and wife. I think

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my goals were to get married and
have kids, live happily ever

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after. Janice also embarked
on a new adventure.

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She left Ottawa to join her
siblings in Calgary, Alberta. In

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my own eyes, I wasn\'t deaf. I was just hearing
impaired. This was when I started going to

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night school. I remember actually, you
know, they were going around in one class,

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I, I think it was financial accounting and, and they
were asking people what their aspirations were and most

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people were going well, I wanna be the supervisor
or I wanna be the manager and I remember saying I\'m

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gonna be the company president. For
eight years, Janice struggled,

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taking one class a semester. She had to
read more and study harder than others

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to compensate. I\'m very proud of that.
It wasn\'t easy and it took it\'s

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toll on me. I was very tired then and stressed.
You know that feeling when your, your

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chest is tight or your neck is tight? I think I
was like that for 10 years. Basically speaking,

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all this time in my, say from 20 to 30,
where you\'re really struggling to, to find

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that opening to get ahead, to, to get
that better job and it was a constant

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period of stress and, and the
constant get knocked down and

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get back up again and try again. Get knocked
down again. Have that door closed in your face,

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say no. I\'m sorry, you can\'t do that.
Even with the certificate,

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Janice was often denied opportunities.

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I had gotten to the point I
couldn\'t respond anymore, really.

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So they had this job posting
system and I\'d applied

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for every accounting job that came out
that was over my head and I was constantly

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watching people who had less education than I
did, less experience than I did getting the job

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and that hurt. Oh.

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Janice\'s darkest moment came when,
during an emergency call, she

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failed to hear loud knocking
on her apartment door.

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So that\'s when it really hit home and,

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and I thought to myself, you can\'t go on like this
anymore. I mean, I knew yeah, that things could

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happen. The smoke detector could go off while I\'m
sleeping. You can\'t hear it. You\'re gonna burn,

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right? That\'s all there is to it. Little,
all the little things in life that we

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all take for granted, whether it\'s door bells
or alarm clocks or, or your microwave beeping,

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whatever. So that moment, I

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decided to get a dog.
She was German Shepard.

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Her name is Belle. A lot of the stress
went away because I didn\'t worry as

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much anymore. Yeah, and she was best thing at that
point in life that ever happened to me. [music]

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With the birth of their son Jaron
and a few years later Marshal, Ken

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and Melanie faced a whole new set of
challenges. To help care for her sons,

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Melanie bought special equipment
designed for hearing impaired mothers.

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I\'m sure there were times that maybe
they may have cried a minute or two

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longer than others because
of my lack of hearing.

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Ken is a really light sleeper and when

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they were babies, he used to get up in the
middle of the night. As Jaron and Marshal grew

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older, Melanie\'s main concern became
how she would be able to communicate

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with them. Jaron, from a very young
age, became very articulate,

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learned to talk at a young age and

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I truly believe it was because of,
um, Melanie\'s hearing impediment

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that he started speaking
early and very, very clearly

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in order to communicate with mom.
Where Marshal,

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the second child, actually he, he
didn\'t talk for the longest time

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and actually we thought that there might have
been potentially an issue with, with his hearing

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but it, as time went on, it was probably
more with his, his older brother would

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do all the communications for him and he
didn\'t need to talk. But as far as Jaron,

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it was, he spoke at a very young age
and very articulate, so I think

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that was one of the side effects. [sil.]

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One area that I find fairly
frustrating is at the dinner

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table and I can\'t even hear what they\'re saying
to each other. If they want me to hear it,

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then they say it loud
and look my way. Mommy,

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I can\'t do everything unfortunately.
I think

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I\'m missing so much. They have
so much to say to each other

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but if I say what are you guys
talking about? Oh nothing.

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Melanie, Ken, and the boys

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developed a way of communicating that
allows Melanie to participate in family

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time. Hey, I should be able to help you with that.
I\'m pretty good with that kind of thing, aren\'t I?

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Tell me things then I\'ll tell you
if it\'s man made or natural. But

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the slow, loud and face to
face communication that

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makes up this controlled environment is not
always possible in the outside world. Well,

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if she doesn\'t understand something
and she says pardon or something, I

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tap her and say what the other person said

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and she can obviously hear
me better than the other

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person, so that\'s how I help her.
I help her on the

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phone sometimes and, like,

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if, like, she doesn\'t
understand a person, I

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would sometimes help her,
help her understand.

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I find that the biggest thing, and I
never even realized it, but a lot of

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people, when they realize that, that someone
is hearing impaired or in Melanie\'s case,

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that if I\'m around, they will
look to me to talk to her

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as an interpreter instead of
themselves trying to communicate

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to Melanie. So that\'s, that\'s quite

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frustrating for her and, and obviously if it\'s
frustrating for her, it becomes frustrating for me

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because I hear about it afterwards.

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We fall back now in our life
with the, with the children

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and becoming very involved with the
children\'s activities and sports and so on.

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But even when Melanie will go to see

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the children\'s soccer games, she\'s very,

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I can\'t say alone, but she, she doesn\'t
partake in all the conversations that the

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other moms and dads are, are talking about
with the game and, and so on or, or whatever

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the topic of conversation is. So
it\'s very restrictive in that sense.

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Although surrounded by family and friends,

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Melanie still feels isolated in
her own, silent world. [music]

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For over 10 years, Janice
lived alone which often left

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her feeling isolated and out of touch.
Uh, when you\'re young, you see other

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people, um, getting engaged, getting married
or whatever and, and I didn\'t exactly have a

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terrific sparkling life and, and, uh, social
life, that kind of thing. But you\'re also, you,

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you have this thought in the back of your head, you
know, I\'m deaf. You know, who, who\'s gonna wanna marry

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me? And I certainly didn\'t
wanna, uh, I didn\'t do

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sign language. I never learned it.
Just, I read lips so

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well, I never needed to, but you have that thought process
and, in a minor way, even though, it\'s, it\'s not a

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blatant thought or whatever, but
you just kind of think what

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are the odds, I don\'t know, of finding
somebody and who, somebody who\'s gonna put up

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with my handicap because it\'s, it\'s
not easy to live with a deaf person.

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To bridge the distance between
herself and others, Janice

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installed a teletype device for the
deaf that finally allowed her to

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communicate with the outside world. Janice

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gave me the phone number, uh, a
1-800 number and then I would

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phone this, get the operator on the line, um,
and she would say, ask me what number I was

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calling and who I wanted to speak to and, you know,
give her the number and Janice\'s name and, uh,

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give her my name and right at the
beginning, the operator told me

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that, uh, don\'t worry about it. Just don\'t
even think that I\'m there. I\'m, I\'m not here

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but you can\'t. You know, really, uh,
you can\'t just say anything and,

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um, expect not to feel

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funny talking through a
translator really but, um,

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yeah, I managed. I, I did it. And the first
time wasn\'t easy. You know, asking for a woman

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that, on, on a date through an
operator was, uh, difficult.

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Soon after their first
meeting, Janice and Michael

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developed a strong bond that would bring them
closer than Janice ever thought possible.

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You start feeling a little bit more hope.
He was a breath

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of fresh air and he reminded me
of my athletic abilities and, and

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that life should be fun too.
It\'s not all about work. We

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were engaged and married May, 1990. [music]

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By the time her sons were old enough
to be in school, Melanie made

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the decision to go back to the workforce.
We\'d been fortunate, uh,

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enough with a family unit around us
that, um, her brother, who has his own

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business, has been very supportive of
Melanie, that she can carry on working and

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be part of the working world. Yes, her
hearing has definitely deteriorated

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over the years and probably more so in the
last five to ten years, where it\'s, it\'s, has,

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has digressed so to speak.
So Melanie is, is a very

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intelligent lady. She, she
is very dedicated and hard

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working but if you can\'t communicate,

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not too many employers will hire you to, to,
to see how good an individual is or in,

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in our case, Melanie. I don\'t know
any other hearing impaired people.

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Um, I think

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that it would probably come down to
me becoming a better lip reader,

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doing a lot of writing down in note pads.

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Um, I honestly don\'t think I would learn

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sign language because I honestly don\'t
think anybody I know would learn it.

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They would say they would
but it\'s like learning

00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.999
another language. I mean, it\'s not like
it\'s going to be simple. It\'d be a

00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:29.999
lot of work. In order to
maintain a connection with

00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.999
family and friends, Melanie relied heavily
on email, a modern comfort that is

00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:39.999
impersonal and limits human emotion. In the

00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:44.999
1970\'s, a device for the hearing impaired
known as the cochlear implant was

00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:49.999
introduced. In July of 1989,
this procedure was being

00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:54.999
done in Calgary, Alberta. Actually,
it was my dad. I think he was

00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:59.999
watching the news, 6:00 news one
night and the gist of it was now

00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:04.999
they\'re doing it here in Calgary.

00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:09.999
I initially met with the girls at the Audiology
Center and they\'re the ones that pointed

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:14.999
out to me that I only had about 2% hearing.
They can\'t do this

00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:19.999
for just anybody. It\'s for nerve deafness. You have
to be a suitable candidate and that can only be

00:20:20.000 --> 00:20:24.999
determined through testing and they said
absolutely you\'re, you\'re a very good candidate

00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.999
for this. And they, they\'re very careful in,
because they don\'t wanna get people\'s hopes too

00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:34.999
high but at the same time, they wanna give you some
optimism. So they told me you\'re gonna be able to hear

00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:39.999
birds sing. Well, I\'ve never heard a bird
in my life up until this, ever. Things,

00:20:40.000 --> 00:20:44.999
you know, people take for
granted and, um, I, I just

00:20:45.000 --> 00:20:49.999
had a hard time understanding that. You know, I, it\'s
like you wanna believe but you\'re, you\'re afraid to

00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:54.999
and they said the telephone\'s
a possibility. By chance,

00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:59.999
Melanie learned of the cochlear implant.
Her meeting with Dr. Park, the cochlear

00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.999
surgeon, would be the final step
in a long process of testing.

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
It seems like it\'s amazing technology.
It\'s come up with this.

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
A couple people that I did
meet say that it just changed

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
their life completely, being able to,

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:24.999
being able to use the phone
again, being able to, um,

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:29.999
just communicate with everybody and

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.999
to be able to do things self-sufficiently again
and not have to rely on people around them.

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
How are you? How is your lip reading? Are
you pretty good at lip reading? A little. A

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
little? Yeah. Yeah? So how do you,
then, mainly communicate? Do you sign?

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
Do you write? (crosstalk) Twenty. Twenty
years. Yeah. How do you communicate

00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
with your husband? Just lip reading.
I don\'t do very well, though either.

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:59.999
It\'s kind of... The deafness,
how did that progress

00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:04.999
over the years? I understand you had... In order
to be a candidate, one must receive little to

00:22:05.000 --> 00:22:09.999
no benefit from a hearing aid and
use speech as a primary mode to

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
communicate. I learned, well most of

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
it, but I think it was about 70%. Right.

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
So that\'s about 20 years ago, eh? Twenty
years. You said 20 years ago. Also

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
important is the availability of a
strong resource team of family and

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
friends that is willing to guide the patient
through months of hard work involved in

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
learning to hear. She has a tough
time with family, um, or on the

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:41.999
telephone, she has a terrible time.
It made it (inaudible)

00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:44.999
a lot harder for me than other women.
(crosstalk) Yeah. Yes, very much

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
so. Yeah. I don\'t answer the phone.
It was a

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:54.999
real relief because I think when I first
heard I was a candidate for this,

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.999
it was still kind of, I don\'t

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
know. It didn\'t really feel like I was going to be because
I can still hear a little bit with my hearing aid

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
and everyone was saying
yes, I think that you\'re

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
definitely are a candidate for this but I think a
big part of me was still thinking, ooh, I don\'t

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
know. The small device,
implanted in the cochlear,

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
or inner ear, converts sound into electrical
impulses which are picked up by the

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
brain, allowing an individual to hear.
They\'re little bands, okay? Little shiny

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
bands. Those are the contacts, okay? Those are
the electrodes. There are 22 active electrodes

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
there and that goes into the
cochlear, where, inside the cochlear

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
and those contacts will directly stimulate the
nerve. (crosstalk) The brain. Do people feel

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
it in there? No. No. There\'s just...
No, it\'s not felt. I think as far

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
as my excitement, I, I mean, I\'m happy

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
for her and I think after the, the
operation is, is when it will become

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
much more exciting for myself,
watching her grow, learn to talk,

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
or learn to listen, I guess. Um, her being

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
able to communicate, um, in
any environment and, and

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
just, then maybe we can get out and,
and socialize more, have friends

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
over more. Although the
operation has been performed

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
for over 25 years in over 50
countries, it does not come without

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:31.999
risk. The (inaudible)

00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:34.999
comes and, and comes out here. The, the

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
nerve\'s within a millimeter
of where I work. Um, but this

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
is surgery of millimeters, really. For a fraction
of millimeters, so we\'re not talking about

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
large spaces. Right. You wanna do this,
don\'t you? Hmm? You want the operation,

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
right? Can we do it without the operation and just
make it work, make it happen? Sure, sure. Can

00:24:55.000 --> 00:25:03.000
we forgo the actual cutting and... Well, you\'ll be sleeping. We don\'t ask you to help.
You\'ll be dreaming. Yeah, we don\'t ask you to help. That sounds good. That\'s the hard

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
part. Yeah, yeah. Even after
a patient has been tested,

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
there is no certainty that the operation
will restore any of their hearing. I think

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:19.999
one of my, one real hope is that things

00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:24.999
in the future, like when my kids become
professional soccer players, and

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:29.999
get all the recognition that they want
and deserve and I can hear what\'s

00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:34.999
going on around and I don\'t have
to miss all them. Graduations,

00:25:35.000 --> 00:25:39.999
weddings. Um,

00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:44.999
it\'s one, just to help me in

00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:49.999
the areas where I need help.
It is the night before

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:54.999
her surgery and Melanie hopes that this will
be the last strained conversation with her

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
mother, one of the only people she still talks
to over the phone. What about the boys?

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
Do you need, does Ken need help
with the boys? Tomorrow night? No.

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:09.999
Uh, Ellen, Ellen. When are
you gonna be there? No,

00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:14.999
your mom\'s asking if we need help
with the boys. Oh. The kids are in

00:26:15.000 --> 00:26:19.999
school all day tomorrow. I thought they only
had a half day but they have a full day

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:24.999
so we, we have to be at the
hospital about a half an hour after

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:29.999
they leave for school so we can get
them off. Well, that\'s alright

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:34.999
then. And then I think Ken can just pick \'em up and
come back to the hospital with them. Okay. So,

00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.999
I think it\'s all gonna work out just fine.
Okay. Well that sounds good. [music]

00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:48.000
The operation is a delicate
process that can take up to four

00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:59.999
hours.

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.999
It involves drilling into bone to insert
22 electrodes that will stimulate the

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.999
cochlear and send signals to the brain.
Here\'s the, uh, receiver

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.999
stimulator unit here and this is the antenna.
Here\'s the magnet. We can (inaudible)

00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:19.999
the magnet for MRis. There are little
bands there. There are 21 active

00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:28.000
electrodes. The contacts of the electrodes is close to the cochlear ganglion
as possible, therefore minimizing the amount of, uh, power needed to

00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:34.999
stimulate the nerve and less scattering,
minimize the scattering. One thing

00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:39.999
that we are concerned about, uh,
with this type of surgery, uh, and

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
this also includes any type of, uh, mastoid
surgery or other, other ear surgeries, uh, is the

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
potential injury to the nerve of the face.
Uh, it\'s the cranial

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
nerve seven and it, uh, the
nerve on the particular

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
side, uh, moves, moves all the
muscles of expression on the same

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
side, on the ipsilateral side, so,
so for example, if we\'re to actually

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
cut through the nerve or drill through the nerve, you would
have complete paralysis or lack of movement through the muscles

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
on the, of the face and you would have drooping of
the eyelid, drooping of the cheeks, drooping of

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
the lip similar to somebody
who has Bell\'s Palsy.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
Give me 3 millimeters, cutting inversely.
Okay, let\'s see.

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
This opening is fairly small but we
should be able to get it. (inaudible)

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
. [music]

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:43.000
So everything looks good. Everything
looks stable. I\'m gonna close up, close

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:53.999
up the cochleostomy opening
or the (inaudible)

00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:55.000
. We should call for

00:28:55.001 --> 00:28:57.999
x-ray. We need, uh, (inaudible)

00:28:58.000 --> 00:28:59.999
and ointments. So we close

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:01.999
this very tightly. (inaudible)

00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:04.999
, which is very strong tissue over
this rather than using any kind

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
of, uh, suturing that, uh, we talk about.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
It\'s a sharp knife, so be careful. [music]

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:23.000
[sil.]

00:29:25.000 --> 00:29:33.000
The operation

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:44.999
has gone smoothly. If no
complications arise, she can go

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:49.999
home the next day. Melanie
will have to wait four to six

00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:54.999
weeks for the incision to heal before
the preliminary hook up can take place.

00:29:55.000 --> 00:29:59.999
Only then will she know how
successful the operation has really

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
been. As I said. I think
it\'s time for a new suit.

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
I think it\'s time for a new suit. [music]

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
After three

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
to six weeks, the incision heals
and the hook up can begin. It

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
takes about three hours or so to go through
all 22 channels inside all these values

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
and then they go, okay, are you ready?
We\'re gonna turn it on now and, uh,

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
so they, they did what they do and

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
sound started coming
through and I, I honestly

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
had to say my first thought was if this
is what it sounds like, I don\'t want it,

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
because it was awful. Let me
just try something here. After

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
living with only 2% hearing in one
ear, Janice hopes that her implant

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
has been a success. It was garbled.
She sounded

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
like Donald Duck and I went oh my God. Everybody\'s going
to sound that. What have I done? And then you get that

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
momentary panic going oh my God.
But it was like an

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
awakening. [sil.]

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
These nerves and, and

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
everything were being awakened and all of the sudden,
it\'s like wait, what\'s that? There\'s something there.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
That\'s much better. I did have the
maximum values higher that way. Yeah.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
But as each minute went by, it was

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
becoming more clear. Her, her, her
voice was sounding a little bit better

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
and, and it was okay, calm down
and my heart\'s beating very

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
quickly and, and I\'m just
a little bit panicked.

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
Okay. Now I can hear something in the background.
Yep. There\'s somebody outside in the hall

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
with a box or something. Or, or a, like
a furnace or something. The computer

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
running maybe? I don\'t know. I\'m
hearing things you can\'t hear. Super

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:06.000
hearing. (inaudible)

00:32:06.001 --> 00:32:09.999
. So that was in the morning and
they said okay, let\'s take a break

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
now and you go home and eat your lunch,

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:19.999
whatever. Come back after lunch and we\'ll play with
it some more and this is where all the work is

00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:24.999
in the beginning. It\'s in the programming,
getting all those minimum and maximum

00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:29.999
values right so that you\'ve
fine tuned your hearing.

00:32:30.000 --> 00:32:34.999
So, I left and I, I distinctly
remember going into the wash

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
room and up until this time,
I\'ve never heard a toilet flush.

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
So I go in the washroom and flush the toilet.
Oh my God, it sounds like Niagara Falls.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
It\'s, it\'s just this loud noise and
I\'m going wow. Cool. You know,

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
it\'s just, this is how
the world is and, uh,

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
you know, I started the car and all of the sudden,
you can hear this engine and everything\'s making

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
noise. [music]

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:13.000
So I go home and, and, uh,
I\'m making myself a salad

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
and I could hear the knife
cutting the carrots.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
I didn\'t know this really made a sound before,
you know? You, you, when you\'re deaf, you don\'t

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
realize everything makes a sound.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
So I had to tell somebody. So I
went over to my brother\'s house,

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
hoping he\'d be home and he was. He was raking the
leaves or something in his front yard with his wife

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
and I jump out of the car and I said,
\"Billy, I can hear!\" And he just,

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
he, he dropped the rake and he came running
over and he just hugged me and it was just

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
awesome. It was just hard to believe it at
first. You really can\'t believe it\'s happened.

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
Um, it, it\'s, it\'s a miracle.
It\'s something that

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:04.999
you go from this point to this
point somehow and it\'s just,

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:09.999
uh, very emotional.

00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:14.999
I went for a walk and I remember
walking by this spruce tree.

00:34:15.000 --> 00:34:19.999
I bet you there were 10,000
Chickadees in that tree and every

00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:24.999
one of \'em was chirping and I just stood
there looking at that tree, going

00:34:25.000 --> 00:34:29.999
wow. It\'s a bird. It\'s a whole
bunch of birds. [music]

00:34:30.000 --> 00:34:34.999
They were, it was so

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.999
exhilarating. It\'s, it\'s,
it\'s like you just can\'t, uh,

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
imagine. Just one of those
sounds that she\'s never heard

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
before that,

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
even if she had when she was a child,
she would never remember that sound.

00:34:55.000 --> 00:34:59.999
To hear it now as an
adult was such a, an, an

00:35:00.000 --> 00:35:04.999
experience. Um, it just made you alive.

00:35:05.000 --> 00:35:09.999
It is six weeks after her surgery and
Melanie returns to the Audiologist

00:35:10.000 --> 00:35:14.999
Center for the initial fitting of the
speech processor, which will be turned on

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
for the first time. Uh, as
far as what to expect and

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
what to do and literally, we could walk in there and she
could hear everything and know what it is or literally,

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
worst case scenario I guess,
not hear anything. So we

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
don\'t really know. Hi.
Come on, have a seat.

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
How are you? Good. Excited?
How are you? Good.

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
Thanks. Okay. She\'s very excited. So
are you obviously. This morning our

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
goal is just to get some sound into your ear.
So what it\'s going to be, it\'s going to be

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
a little pulsing tone. So that\'s what we\'re aiming
to find. We\'re trying, aiming to find first

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
hearing, where you just first hearing the,
the sound and then what we call C level.

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
You may not be sure first of all what it is you\'re
hearing because it won\'t be like anything you\'ve heard

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
before. The speech processor will be connected
to a computer that can communicate with the

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
processor through a programming box. You can
just put your hair down. That\'s fine. Perfect.

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
Okay. Alright. So let\'s make a map.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:21.999
(inaudible)

00:36:22.000 --> 00:36:24.999
. I gotta try and differentiate between

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
what I\'m hearing and what I\'m... Yeah.

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:33.999
You\'re hearing that? (inaudible)

00:36:34.000 --> 00:36:35.000
down a little. Okay. If

00:36:35.001 --> 00:36:39.999
you\'re not sure, look at the screen.
Is that what you\'re hearing? Oh,

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
I can hear it. Okay. I was expecting a
different tone. This is a... Are they all

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
gonna sound the same? They may not sound a
lot different at first. These are all low

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
pitches we\'re doing. But after you\'ve heard for
a bit, they should sound, uh, increasingly

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
higher pitch as we go from 22 up to one.
Today will be probably

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
the worst map you\'ll ever have. Is that any
consolation to you? It\'ll only get better

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
from here is what I\'m saying. So if you can hear
anything now and your hearing great by these

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
levels, I\'m happy. You\'re doing well.
And you\'ll just get better each time

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
you... (crosstalk) Well, it\'s pretty neat to think that I can
hear all this in the air... This dead ear, yeah. So I think

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
you\'ll do fine. It\'s what I
was hoping for, that the

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
good news was right off the bat that she
could hear. Now it\'s just a matter of her

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
learning what she\'s hearing. So
it was very, it was exhilarating.

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
Um, it was, um, a little

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
nerve wracking to a degree but, but all
in all, it went very well. So she, she\'s,

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
she\'s hearing, which is a positive and now
it\'s just this slow process and, and we\'ll

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
work our way through it. It\'s been all
positives, just in the last couple

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
hours. So that\'s, it\'s
only gonna get easier for

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
you as you start knowing what all the,
I was gonna say noise, but all the

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
sound is.

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
The, the hum is quite loud.

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
I assume it\'s this, from
the, from the cooler.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.999
Things that we do every day that,
you\'re gonna start hearing that

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:29.999
and saying what\'s that, what\'s
that, what\'s that? (inaudible)

00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:34.999
because I can\'t. I\'m still trying to determine
what you\'re saying. I was like, where\'s this

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.999
coming from? The new sounds
are sometimes overwhelming

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
and Melanie will even have to adjust to her husband\'s
voice. What is sound? What is noise? Sound is

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
energy, vibrating waves that enter the ear.
The ear converts the sound waves into

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
electrical energy. Could you even
hear my voice? Yeah, that\'s good.

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
Keep doing it. Keep going. That\'s good. That\'s... You
can hear me? I can see what you\'re saying and then

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
be able to, it\'s making more sense. Some people
develop hearing loss from being exposed to

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
noise, either long term continuous
noise or a sudden blast of noise.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
It can be intermittent or a constant, mildly
annoying or, for some, very distressing.

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
A typical scenario, a person that attends a
loud concert and then hears mild (inaudible)

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
. This is better because I
can, I can follow exactly what

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
you\'re saying and that way it makes sense.
I don\'t have to guess at what

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
you\'re trying to tell me. Yeah, but you shouldn\'t
be... I\'m learning your voice. [music]

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
Stay on the bus

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:44.999
for the rest of my life. I
will hear about it, how I,

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:49.999
I am such a big baby. After the surgery, we

00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:54.999
were asked to help Melanie by reading to her
quite a bit, just so that she could try to

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
differentiate sounds, words,
lengths of words, vowels.

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
The boys would take turns reading.
I would read. Um, I\'d say

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:09.999
prior to the surgery, Melanie could
only pick up the odd word or two. So

00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:14.999
with us reading to her, she was trying to
follow along with the actual sentences

00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:19.999
and, and she\'s slowly getting better and better
at that. And then I remembered of course.

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.999
Link had moved into the
Carson\'s old house. The house

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
had been for sale and now
it was Link\'s house.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
I started using the phone.

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
It was just wonderful. I mean, I hadn\'t heard
my, my parent\'s voice on the phone for 20

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
years. It was incredible. And it really,

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
I think probably to them a
huge relief that we can

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
reestablish communication now. We can
do this. It\'s working. Hallelujah.

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
It was really nice. It was

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
unbelievable. Yeah.

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
Yeah. It\'s just hard to explain.
It was just

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
unbelievable. A miracle. Yeah.
I can still get emotional

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
about that. The tears were just streaming down my
cheeks. It was just wonderful to hear her voice on

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
the phone. It was, it was marvelous.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
It was just so miraculous.

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
If I could sum everything up, it\'s just

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
right now, life is easier. Right now,

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
I\'m just content to, to enjoy life.

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
I\'m not saying I\'m not motivated but I
no longer feel the need to be president

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
of the company.

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
In essence, I don\'t feel like I have
anything to prove to anybody anymore.

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
My hearing is

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
phenomenal. It\'s not perfect. I know that.
But it\'s phenomenal. I can do things

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
now I have never in my life been able
to do and in essence, life has just

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
become easier. That\'s how I can sum it up.
Life has just become

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
easier. I\'m not really big on
the thought of hearing the

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
airplanes loud and clear. I was hoping
there would be some geese here, so you

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:31.999
could hear them but... (inaudible)

00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:33.999
. (inaudible)

00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:35.000
That walking over the snow?

00:42:35.001 --> 00:42:39.999
It\'s just the beginning. Eventually,
you\'re gonna get better and better

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
and better. You know? The technology is

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
amazing. It, it\'s helped Melanie.
It\'s helped our family and I, I think

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
other people, if they\'re willing
to, to endure everything

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
that goes with it, it\'s, it\'s helped Melanie
get back to be part of the hearing world.

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
I, I feel much more included in everything.
I feel closer

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
to everybody. Um, it\'s just
a good feeling to be able

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
to, um, to feel like you\'re part of
everything instead of just feeling

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:23.000
discluded in everything all the time.
So, that\'s a big bonus. Yeah. [music]