FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM AUGUST 1, 2019 • HEALTH • THE QUEENS COURIER 35
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From silence into sound, cochlear implants change one couple’s world
Caroline and Andreas Schwabe are
hearing impaired. Well, only Caroline has
hearing loss. Andreas can hear just fi ne.
But, as Andreas says, for a couple, hearing
is a “we” thing.
Caroline’s mother suff ered from hearing
loss, like many of the women in her family,
so, as a newlywed at age 21, it wasn’t
surprising that Caroline found she needed
hearing aids. But, like many people,
Caroline admits she was carrying them
around in her pocket more than wearing
them.
“It’s diffi cult to get used to hearing aids,
and learning to fi lter out unwanted noise
is an acquired skill,” she says. “It takes
eff ort and energy and the brain needs to
work hard at it.”
But in her job as a waitress, she began
noticing that words like “bill” and “milk”
sounded the same. “White” and “wheat”
toast sounded an awful lot alike. When
she brought a customer oatmeal when he
had ordered an omelet, she committed to
the hearing aids once and for all. But they
didn’t keep up with her progressive hearing
loss, even as digital technology progressed.
“My last set of digital hearing aids were
a huge disappointment for the entire
fi ve years I used them,” she says. “Th ere
seemed no escape from the mumbling
and poor audio I was getting. My hearing
was getting so bad. I was astonished to
realize that I no longer heard consonants
and was making up more than I was actually
hearing. I was losing touch with people.
My life was shrinking.”
Around that time Caroline learned she
was a candidate for a cochlear implant, an
electronic device that’s surgically implanted
and provides access to sound. Cochlear
implants diff er from hearing aids in that
they are surgically implanted and send
electrical impulses through the auditory
nerve. Th ey’re a good choice for people
like Caroline who aren’t being helped
by hearing aids.
Since 83% of people report a statistically
signifi cant improvement in their
quality of life aft er receiving a cochlear
implant, the couple knew it would mean
profound change for them. For Caroline,
it would mean being closer to people and
the world. For Andreas, it would mean
discovering what living with a hearing
spouse would be like.
Post cochlear implant surgery:
A new world
Aft er the surgery, when her cochlear
implant was activated, Caroline recognized
Andreas’s voice right away. She
began to understand sounds with shocking
speed.
“Everyone’s experience is diff erent,
but for us, our world was upside down,”
Andreas says. “Caroline is discovering the
joy of hearing.”
One day, something happened that
showed Andreas what Caroline’s newfound
hearing meant to them as a couple.
He was in the shower and dropped the
shampoo bottle. Caroline burst through
the door to ask if he was OK. She had
never heard anything so loud and was
worried he was hurt.
“For the fi rst time in nearly 30 years I
thought, ‘She can hear me. I’m safe.’ It was
one of many tearful realizations that just
smacks you right in the middle of your
face knowing that now, things are diff erent.”
Andreas’s tips for spouses
of cochlear “cyborgs”
When you’ve been with a spouse who
has had profound hearing loss, then has
access to sound with a cochlear implant,
your lives are going to change.
Andreas and Caroline gave themselves
a year to adjust to becoming a hearing
couple, and it wasn’t always easy. Here are
Andreas’s best tips for dealing with the
transition.
1) Learn to adjust to new ways of communicating
with your partner. For 28
years, Caroline would lip-read to hear
Andreas better. With her cochlear
implant, she looks him in the eyes when
they talk.
2) Be prepared for lots of questions.
Caroline was out of the habit of asking
questions. Th at’s because, if you ask a
question, you have to listen and respond
to the answer. When you’re hearing
impaired, it’s easier to just pretend you
can hear and not say anything. Now that
Caroline hears, she is asking questions. A
lot of them.
3) Th ey might hear, but not listen. Th e
funniest and sometimes most frustrating
thing for Andreas is when Caroline hears
what he’s saying, but doesn’t listen to it.
She’ll hear him talking and take in the
beauty of the sound of his voice ... but not
really listen to what he’s actually saying.
“She is in love with the sound that she
hears,” Andreas says. “She can hear every
word I say, but still miss it all because the
sound is more interesting than the content.
Th at is the story of my life.”
Are you or a loved one struggling with
hearing loss? Are your hearing aids not
enough? Learn more here: https://www.
cochlear.com/us/en/home.
Courtesy BPT
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