Alittle backgound

Hi. My name is Bobbi. I am 31 years old, married (husband- Jay), and mother of 2 young beautiful children (Josie is 6 and Toby is 2). I live in southern Illinois. I started losing my hearing when I was about 20 years old due to a condition called lupus. My lupus affects my joints and central nervous system. I wore hearing aids from the time I was 23 till I turned 27.

One day I had terrible ringing in my ear.....when I woke up the next morning I had totally lost all hearing in my left ear. Two days later the same thing happened in my right ear. I have been totally deaf ever since. It was quite scary and disorienting at the time. My husband and I knew this could happen.....but you are never really prepared for it to really happen. My daughter was 2 at the time and it was a challenge to just get thru daily routines. I was very lucky in the fact that I am a pretty decent lipreader, although this didn't help me communicate with my daughter cause she didn't properly form all of her words correctly.

At that time my husband didn't even want to consider cochlear implants. He was in shock and had heard alot of myths about them. And we are very much a people of faith. He had the hopes that the Lord would bring back my hearing the same way it left, suddenly and without warning. But after 4 years of me praying, he suddenly started to do some research on cochlears. Jay realized that this might be the answer to our prayers. He realized that sometimes God has a different answer than what you expect. Jay wanted my hearing to come back on its own......but God said how much do you trust me......this is the way I will bring her hearing back.....now what are you gonna do with My answer.

So a couple of weeks ago Jay told me to go ahead and make an appt with the dr I need to see. The nearest one is about an hour away from where I live. And the surgeon is fairly well known across the United States. They had me fax them my last audiogram. They called back (I use a captioning phone so I can talk and what the other person says comes up in text on a screen for me) within the hour all EXCITED. They asked me when was the soonest I could come. I had to wait a couple of weeks because my medicare wasnt in effect until the beginning of the year. So I went to the audiologist. She was EXTREMELY friendly. She started the testing and just as we all knew I am TOTALLY deaf. It was kinda funny cause for part of the test Jay was standing outside the SOUNDPROOF booth and he said that one of the tones was so loud it was like standing near a freight train blowin its horn. Of course I felt some vibration with some of the lower tones.....but I never heard a thing. The audiologist said ok we dont need to do any more test because it would be pointless. She said that I am the PERFECT candidate for bilateral (one in each ear) cochlear implants. I was SHOCKED!!!!!!!! I thought I was just getting my hopes up.......not in a million years did I think they would say yes. Of course everyone that is around me said they knew I was a canidate all along......but I just couldn't believe it.

Well then the surgeon, who is warm, friendly, and has quite a sense of humor, looked at my ears and said I wish I would have had you when this first happened, but you are gonna do exceptionally well with cochlears. Then came the financial talk. UGH!!!!!!! At first they said my insurance will definitely pay for one, but probably not both. I was kinda discouraged, but hey I was at least gonna hear outta one ear right. I could always fight the insurance later for the other ear. Well then the Lord said "HEY, where is the trust thing we was talkin about" Low and behold the next day I talked to the insurance guy at the hospital and he said "Hon, you are on disability (I had to go on disability cause I live in a very rural area of Illinois and once an employer knows you are deaf they find a discrete way to get rid of you), anyway the guy said "Hon you have Medicare thru your disability, your insurance will only cover one, but medicare here ALWAYS approves both. So what your insurance dosent cover on the one ear medicare will pick up and medicare will cover the entire cost of the second ear. It's ALL taken care of." And it felt like the Lord slapped me on the back of my head sayin...."Oh my child of little faith....."

So right now I'm just waiting on my surgery date which is on Feb 12th. They said if they have a slot open up between now and then they will let me know, but as of right now Feb 12th is the go date. I'm gonna try to keep this blog current. I know I have read some blogs and they have been EXTREMELY helpful. Just knowing that what I'm feeling and goin thru is normal and that other people have done this and have come thru all the scary and exciting parts...