Why I got the Cochlear Implant surgery. Part II

Warning: Parents with implanted deaf/HOH children may not be particularly fond of this entry.


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I was 22.5 years old when I received the CI surgery. I was raised with hearing aids, I've always read lips, I used oral language to speak to others, and I was looking to improve communication skills. I was for every intents and purpose the perfect candidate for the surgery, so there weren't any roadblocks in getting the surgery approved. As a result, the time frame from talking to audiologist, surgeon, getting vaccinations and then the surgery itself was approximately a 6-month process. My parents' insurance was going to end when I turned 23, so I decided to go ahead and get the surgery while I'd be covered. This is not a particularly fascinating story for the "why" but the simplest reason--I didn't have a reason not to get the surgery. I only figured it'd be interesting to see what happened. If things improved--GREAT. If they didn't, no harm done.


But don't mistake my feelings about how easy it was for me to decide to get the CI to mean I'd encourage every deaf or HOH 

person to get implanted. For adults--they can do anything they want. For children it becomes a complicated issue. In the end, they're not my children, my opinions don't affect what anybody else chooses to do and that's fine. But here's what I think:


I think the CI can be an excuse for hearing parents to avoid raising their children in a bilingual Signing+oral language home. The CI takes work, a LOT of work for the person wearing it, and there are a lot of annoyances about it (it's ugly,it constantly falls off, it gets in the way of doing normal activities, etc.,) and even after a lot of effort and time, the CI may not work the way most people believe it does. You don't simply switch the "on" switch and get the results of normal hearing person.

 The parents don't have to do any work in comparison. Choosing to give a child a Cochlear Implant and not raising them in a bilingual home with sign language is the easiest decision they can make for their deaf/HOH child, because it stops being the parents' problem. All they have to do is drive the child to the appointments. The kid will have to do all the work in adjusting to the CI.
Am I simplifying things? Absolutely. The parents have their own struggles, and they're only trying to do what they think is best for their kids, they don't intend to do any harm to their child, but I cannot relate to them or their frustrations or why they don't comprehend their children's frustration with the device. I wouldn't be able to fully relate to their children either because I wasn't implanted as a child, it was something I chose to do as an adult. But most importantly, the parents' struggles would not be the same as their own children, and I think some of them forget that when they talk about how much the CI has helped their kids, or the other side of the coin when they're confused about when their children seem to be upset for no reason. There's definitely a reason, and it's not because the child is tired or hungry. The parents might be helping their children in one way, but have they considered they might be holding them back in other ways? What happens if the CI stops working or when the person isn't wearing it? What's the backup plan?


This blog is about me, though. My motivations for getting the surgery will not match up with other peoples' reasons, and that's perfectly OK. I'm not out to persuade anybody, but if I'm ever asked what I think about parents who get the surgery for their children then it's this: I think it's perfectly acceptable if they raise their children with ASL and English*. They may believe they're doing what's best for their child but if they only teach their child an oral language then they're looking at it from their own hearing perspective rather than a deaf perspective. 
* replace ASL, English with the appropriate languages based on where ever deaf children with implants are located. There are many sign languages out there, but ASL is what's used in the US and English is the native language for my family.