My progressive deafness started twenty years ago when I was eighteen. By the time I was in my thirties, I had profound deafness in both ears. I wore hearing aids in both ears, and they were turned up very loud. When I decided to go ahead with cochlear implantation at thirty-nine, I had a lot of questions, more than my hospital had time to answer. Thankfully, my AB Mentors answered some of them by email, and they were a lifeline for me during this time.