May is Better Speech and Hearing Month

Cochlear implant wearer says 'get help'

DANVILLE — For years, Holly Poluske made sure she carried a $20 bill in her wallet at all times. The 46-year-old could never be sure she’d accurately hear a store clerk tell what she owed, and she didn’t want to look foolish handing back the wrong amount.

No more, since Mark E. Whitaker, MD, at Geisinger Medical Center placed a cochlear implant behind her right ear in January. Poluske went home the day of her surgery and missed two weeks from her job as a cash supervisor at Geisinger. After six weeks of healing, audiologists Dennis Pirnot and Carol Avalone switched on her speech processor to begin tuning each of the device’s 22 channels. At first, the Danville resident recalled, words seemed robotic and muffled. “By the next day, a lot of that was already gone. I could communicate with my family better than I had in probably three or four years.”

 “I wanted to hear my grandson talk to me, and I wanted to hear my granddaughter sing,” said Poluske, who began losing her hearing in her 30s. Hearing aids no longer compensated. She couldn’t participate in conversation in a restaurant, take minutes at business meetings or understand her toddler grandson’s words. “You just smile and you laugh, and you don’t interject your opinions so much,” she said. “We lose so many details. It became extremely hard for me in the last two years to be a supervisor.”

May is Better Speech and Hearing Month, and Geisinger Health System wants those suffering from hearing loss to know they have options. “Even if your hearing loss is not severe enough for a cochlear implant, we may be able to help with hearing aids,” noted Pirnot. “We have a wide range of styles and technologies available. Probably for every 50 people that contact us about cochlear implants, hearing aids are appropriate for 49.”

For some adults no longer helped by hearing aids, a cochlear implant is an option. Hearing aids amplify sound. But a cochlear implant bypasses the damaged part of the ear and mimics ear functions, using electrodes to stimulate the auditory nerve so the brain perceives signals.

The surgery involves a 4-inch incision behind the ear. The doctor drills through bone toward the middle ear and opens a pencil-point-sized opening into the cochlea, the snail-shaped organ for hearing. Then a 20-millimeter electrode is extended into the cochlea, the implant fitted and the incision closed.

Six weeks after surgery, audiologists attach a magnet over the device. It connects to a processor worn behind the ear like a hearing aid. The processor’s channels are then adjusted to the individual’s needs and preferences. With Poluske’s chin-length brown hair, no one would know she wears a device.

The procedure leaves patients totally deaf in the affected ear, so it’s not a move taken lightly. And cochlear implant patients experience varying degrees of success, Avalone stressed. “Not every patient will be as successful as the next. It is hard to predict who will have the more positive outcome. But our cochlear implant team is dedicated to helping each patient achieve their optimum success.”

“Although, speech recognition is not guaranteed, many patients achieve speech recognition, especially with familiar voices. Speech reading and contextual clues also play a big part in speech recognition with a cochlear implant,” Pirnot added. “Some people can talk on the phone and some can’t.” For others, it’s enough to once again hear footsteps, flowing water or other daily sounds taken for granted by most people.

Health insurance usually covers the cost of the surgery, implant, speech processor and programming. The Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation may also provide assistance.

Poluske urges anyone with hearing loss to get checked and learn about options. She wants to remove the stigma of wearing a hearing device so people will seek help and feel no more self-conscious than they would wearing eyeglasses.

“You can’t imagine what you get back until you know what you’ve lost. And why settle for anything less when there are all the avenues out there to replace what hearing you had or advance what you never had?” she said. “Being able to live on your own, go places on your own, realizing that people aren’t frustrated when they talk to you anymore, that’s just priceless.”

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