Janet Fox recently received a second cochlear implant and became a bilateral recipient. This is Part 2, the follow up interview done after her second cochlear implant activation.

Part 1 of her interview was done just prior to her operation. At the time we sat down for that interview it was my stated intention to do another after she was activated with the new one.

Many cochlear implant recipients who are qualified for a second one hesitate for a variety of reasons; fear of losing any residual hearing in their other ear; loss of fidelity of music if they still have any residual hearing and sometimes being in denial, believing and stating that one ear is good enough to get by with.

Janet moved beyond that point, realizing that after more than two years after receiving her first cochlear implant that her remaining hearing was in decline and of no practical use. It was time to take the plunge.

Drs. Wazen and Nayak at Silverstein Institute in Sarasota, who performed her original surgery also did the second. They complied with an unusual request from Janet which she talks about.

Although her activation was very recent, she already sees the results and the improvement. I felt it was time for her to share experience while it is still new. I was also interested in her reaction to her upgrades from having a single side Cochlear Nucleus 6 to becoming a bilateral Nucleus 7 recipient.

She wrote to me in a follow up communication after the interview:

“BTW you can quote me saying, I’ll never take this off, and it’s so great to hear in stereo!” TRANSCRIPT IS AVAILABLE AT COCHLEARIMPLANTBASICS.COM