What is it like?

Many people wonder what it is like to hear with a cochlear implant.  It is very difficult to explain because my interpretation of sound is different from yours.  The way you describe the way a dog barks or what dripping water sounds like.  My music sounds different from yours.  I cannot pick out specific instruments out well.  I am also tone-deaf.  My theory for this is that I sing what I think the music sounds like.  To me, I sound like I have a good voice, because I am matching what I hear.  However, to everyone else, my voice sounds off key, because what I hear is off key.
This is a very difficult topic to explain to others.
The following link is a website that gives examples of different levels of cochlear implants and what voices and music sounds like to them.
What does hearing with a cochlear implant sound like?

This cochlear implant looks much like the one I received at the age of two.  It did not wrap around my ear, but rather was a long cord that extended to a processor wrapped around my waist.  As I was too young to process when the battery would die, it would beep to alert my parents that my battery needed changing.  After I received my cochlear implant, I endured years of speech and hearing therapy.  My nerves had been dead for so long that my brain needed to learn how to hear.

What exactly is a cochlear implant?

This video, found on Youtube, demonstrates how a cochlear implant works.  The company that made this video, Advanced Bionics, is actually the exact place where my cochlear implant was made.

In The Beginning...

I was the first child of my family, a prized trophy to behold.  Everything was perfect about me, except for one thing.
At nine months old, my cousin and I, two weeks apart, were playing together.  Our names were called.  Katie looks up, I did not.  I continued to play with my toys as if nothing happened.  My name was called again. Once again, I did not respond.  
My parents were stricken.  For months, they went from doctor to doctor, trying to figure out what went wrong.  I tried several things, from hearing aids to tubes in my ears.  None of these techniques worked.  
Finally, I was taken to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  The doctors there took one look at me, and without hesitation, proclaimed that I was profoundly deaf.  Thus began the process of discussing the option of cochlear implants.  
My parents made the decision to begin the procedure of getting me a cochlear implant.

To Be Continued: