Hearing Again

 

For children who are learning to read, the English language is full of tough challenges. Many words contain tricky silent letters. Other letters are pronounced differently depending on the word, requiring students to learn context clues to get the right sound. There are also homonyms — words that sound the same but are spelled differently. And that’s just a few of the pitfalls.

So as her students practiced their reading, sounding out the words aloud, Carol Milhollin listened very closely. 

As a reading specialist at Hallsville Intermediate School, Carol was assessing the skills of her young readers. It was critical that she listened to every word so she could determine how well the students were mastering our complex language.

But as hard as Carol listened, she found she couldn’t always hear.

“I started not being able to hear the ’s’ and the ‘sh’ sounds,” Carol says.

The issue was even worse in a busy classroom setting, with common school day noises surrounding her.

“I couldn’t hear the student right in front of me because of all the background noise,” she says. 

Carol, who lives in Moberly, was only about 40 at the time. However, she already had been coping with hearing loss for many years.

She first noticed it when she was finishing her master’s degree. She remembers listening to the lectures, but not picking up every word the professor was saying. She would borrow her friends’ notes to keep up.

Her friends would tease her that she was going deaf.

“It was just a big joke,” she says. “But it ended up not being very funny.”

Carol eventually saw a doctor about her hearing.

“When I was first tested, I just thought I had wax in my ears or something,” she says. “But when they looked in, they said, ‘Nope, they’re completely clean.’ And that was bad news.”

She was prescribed hearing aids, which offered only limited improvement. As her teaching career progressed, Carol’s hearing loss became more of a problem. 

When she visited regular classrooms with many students, she was overwhelmed by the noise. She couldn’t tell which student was speaking to her. She couldn’t even hear the fire alarm when it went off.

Worst of all, in her quiet classroom, where she strived to teach small groups of struggling students to read, she was starting to lose faith in her ability to hear well enough to assess her students’ reading abilities. 

With little else medically that could be done, Carol’s specialists, Audiologist Michelle Hopkins and Troy Scheidt, MD, at the Missouri Ear, Nose and Throat Center, determined that her hearing disability was severe enough that she would qualify for early retirement from teaching.

“The diagnosis for her hearing loss is a sensorineural hearing loss,” says Dr. Scheidt. “This is a hearing loss that occurs due to loss of function of the hair cells of the inner ear. The nerve still works but the inner ear hair cells that provide information to the nerve do not.”

Yet the decision to leave her career was not easy for Carol.

“I thought, well, maybe this is for the best,” she says. “But after I went on disability, I cried for about six months missing those kids. I still miss teaching reading.”

Outside the classroom, Carol continued to work with Hopkins and Dr. Scheidt to find any hearing solutions that might help her. While she was no longer teaching, her hearing loss continued to be a challenge. She felt she was becoming less social.

“When I’d go to a restaurant, it would be very difficult to hear the other people in my party,” she says. “Hearing loss is a very isolating disease. Unless I am just one-on-one talking to someone, then I am missing conversations.”

But this year, four years after she had to give up her career, Carol suddenly found new hope. 

“My audiologist told me she had this new procedure and it was perfect for me,” Carol says.

The procedure was a cochlear implant for use with a hybrid cochlear implant processor — a cutting-edge hearing technology that only recently became available.

Carol underwent a series of tests that confirmed she would indeed benefit from the new hybrid cochlear implant indications. The device held the potential to restore some of the hearing she thought was gone forever.

“I just got teary because I never thought a procedure like this would become available,” she says. “It could change my life.”

 

 

On Feb. 18, Carol arrived at Boone Hospital Center for her surgery. Dr. Scheidt says he believes she is the first patient in mid-Missouri to receive a cochlear implant based on the new hybrid indications.

During the surgery, Dr. Scheidt opened up an area of Carol’s skull called the mastoid to access her middle ear, under her eardrum. He then placed the cochlear implant under her skull and then inserted a microscopic electrode into Carol’s cochlea — a spiral-shaped structure that contains the hair cells of the inner ear and the nerve endings of the hearing nerve.

The procedure was a success. However, Carol had to wait two weeks as she healed before her new cochlear device could be switched on.

When the day finally arrived, and her new implant was switched on, Carol says it was an amazing, emotional experience.

“At first, I was in disbelief,” Carol says. 

Prior to the procedure, Carol had read that patients at first can’t hear natural-sounding voices. Instead, people can sound like robots or chipmunks — a sensation that goes away as the device is adjusted over subsequent visits.

However, Carol’s initial experience was nothing like that.

“I couldn’t believe I was actually hearing normal sounding voices instead of robots or chipmunks as I had read about,” she says. “So I wasn’t sure it was really turned on. I was elated and filled with such hope. It was a very emotional day! I am very blessed.”

Over the next few days, she did indeed begin hearing robotic-sounding voices. But Carol understands this is part of the normal process as she works with her audiologist to tune the device over weeks and months.

“I know this is a gradual process and the full impact of the surgery will not be realized overnight,” Carol says. “I believe in Michelle Hopkins 100 percent. When she first brought this procedure to my attention, I never dreamed something like this would ever be available to help me, to help my family and change our lives.”

Carol and her husband, Jason, have three children — Taylor, 17, Sophia, 12, and Liam, 2 — none of whom suffer from hearing loss. However, Carol’s ability to hear her loved ones will add much to their life together.

She wants to go out to plays and concerts with her husband. She plans to teach at her son’s preschool. She wants to do more than just watch as her daughters graduate from eighth grade and high school next year.

“I hope to hear their names called as they accept their diplomas,” she says.

Dr. Scheidt says he expects Carol’s hearing will improve as the cochlear implant is adjusted. 

“Restoring a sense such as hearing is a tremendously rewarding aspect of my job,” he says. “These patients frequently describe to me the life changing nature of having improved hearing that lets them go back to doing things they previously enjoyed socially in their lives.”

Now, Carol has new hopes for her future. She says the decision to be among the first to receive a new cochlear implant for hybrid hearing was one of the most significant moments in her life. 

“I hope it inspires others to reach out for help,” she says. “So many people live with hearing loss. It can make a person feel very isolated from the world. The hybrid cochlear implant could help so many people. I know it’s not going to be easy learning to hear again, but it’s going to be so worth it!”   

By Jacob Luecke

Video by Madison Burke