George Cobb

• Progressive hearing loss

• Implanted at age 48

While in the first grade I was noted to stare out the window quite often and not pay attention. Hearing tests showed a hearing loss enough that my parents and Audiologist agreed that a hearing aid would benefit me, and so my hearing journey began.

I wore a hearing aid in my right ear until fall of 1999 when I thought the humidity was causing my hearing aid to short out, but instead, it was my actual hearing going down. I then began to wear a hearing aid in my left ear and was told that “someone could start a lawn mower right beside your head and you wouldn't hear it.” I just adapted to being partially deaf until I starting learning about CI's.

In December of 2007 I was activated and my world changed! I'm completely in awe of the Advanced Bionic CI. You can read stories all day long but until you have one you just have no idea the improvement of quality of life you can have. Even now, months later, I still have these “CI moments” which are sort of like Disney Magical Moments where you just stop and take in the magical experience. What I mean by that is I just stop and listen. I love the song of birds and water and the rain. …oh, the rain is the best!”

As a recruiter for Arkansas Children's Hospital, I know how important it is in everyday life to hear everything. There are times still that I have to ask, “what did they just say?”, but usually I find out later that the “normal hearing” person was having just as hard of a time hearing as I was. It's important in my profession not to just hear what a person says but how they say it.

As an endurance cyclist, I have completed a bicycle ride all the way around the state of Arkansas as well as a ride that was to take me from one side of Arkansas to the other in 24 hours on July 2008. That endurance ride was cut short by thunderstorms and a trip to the ER where the doctor advised me to not to continue on. Now I have unfinished business. Both rides were fundraisers for the Arkansas Children's Hospital with the last being specifically for the Audiology services group at the hospital. I will be riding a 24 hour fundraiser ride on May 1^st 2009, my 50^th birthday, once again for the Arkansas Children's Hospital Audiology Department.