{"id":9407,"date":"2014-05-09T16:37:42","date_gmt":"2014-05-09T16:37:42","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-05-09T16:37:42","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T16:37:42","slug":"the_results_of_my_right_side_cochlear_implant_activation_magic_happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/05\/09\/the_results_of_my_right_side_cochlear_implant_activation_magic_happened\/","title":{"rendered":"The Results of My Right-Side Cochlear Implant Activation: Magic Happened"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/\/videos\/37\/59925\" target=\"_blank\"><img class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/listentoit.jpg\" alt=\"Listen to it Button\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>RUSH: The new cochlear implant on my right side is activated. I\u2019m not using it at the moment, but I did from the moment I left the ear clinic yesterday until one hour before the program started today. When I have the right-side implant on after activation, things and people sound entirely different &#8212; entirely, completely, not even close.<\/p>\n<p>Now, you\u2019ve heard me say over the years when talking about the various ways to program a cochlear implant that the accepted best technology they call &#8220;high resolution.&#8221; They actually refer to these things as &#8220;strategies,&#8221; and in medical parlance what this means is approaches. You see, each cochlear implant has a number of electrodes &#8212; in my case, 21.<\/p>\n<p>The electrodes are stimulated by sound that they pick up, and then they tap into the auditory nerve and send a signal to the brain. And there are two strategies, two approaches to doing this: The old analog, and then the high res, which is just digital, and it\u2019s the best. When I got my original implant in 2001, the FDA had not approved HighRes. It involves the brain.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/?p=9440\"><img id=\"eZObject_90996\" class=\"aligncenter\" align=\"middle\" src=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/RushHearing2.jpg\"\/><\/a>There had to be a lot of testing so I had no choice but to go with the analog, and it was excellent right out of the box. It was superb and great. In fact, my speech comprehension has declined in the past 13 years because I\u2019ve had to turn off some electrodes because of facial tics that were caused by volume just at normal control.<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019ve had the right side of my head &#8212; the hearing process, the auditory nerve &#8212; essentially dormant for 13 years. In such a case, nobody knows whether it can still be used or active. You do the surgery, have the implant surgically implanted; then you put the earpiece on the outside (which is the battery and the software), turn it on, and see what happens. And that\u2019s what I did yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>I have told you before that the high-res program on my left side makes everybody sound like chipmunks, and it makes everybody sound speeded up. The volume level is very low. It\u2019s unusable compared to my analog, which to me makes people sound normal. So I\u2019m sitting there waiting with bated breath. It turns out it only took two hours yesterday, not four, because the time required to create the digital program is much less than the analog.<\/p>\n<p>But after the first 20 minutes they turned it on, and, lo and behold, everybody sounded like chipmunks. It was horrible. It was unusable. It was simply a disaster. It was worse than the chipmunk sound on my left side. The volume was so low, and even turning the volume up did not make it louder. It just added distortion. I looked at the audiologist, and I told her point-blank.<\/p>\n<p>You have to be honest with them, so I said, &#8220;This is horrible. This is worse than what I was.&#8221; She tried to calm me down. I was not ranting. I\u2019m just sitting there being honest in my appraisal. She said, &#8220;Look, you\u2019re gonna have to use this for six months. You have to train it. You\u2019re gonna have to use it and re-teach the right side of your brain in your right ear to hear again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I said, &#8220;I thought that wasn\u2019t possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No, no. It is.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been wrong about something for 13 years. It\u2019s an honest mistake, and I\u2019ve been wrong in telling you. I told you that you can\u2019t practice and get better, and it turns out you can in my case. Now, the reason that was true &#8212; the reason I couldn\u2019t practice and get better on my left side &#8212; is because my left side never forgot how to hear. I was only deaf for two or three months before getting the implant.<\/p>\n<p>So my brain, just in common parlance here, had not forgotten how to hear, but on the right side, there was 13 years of dormancy. So there is room for it to relearn. But I have to wear this horrible-sounding, unusable, cannot-comprehend-anybody-saying-anything implant regularly so that it gets better. So I said, &#8220;Well, look, this is unacceptable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She said, &#8220;It\u2019s gonna get better.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I said, &#8220;Could you do something? Could you put my old analog program on this new implant?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She didn\u2019t want to do it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s defeating the purpose,&#8221; she said. &#8220;You can\u2019t have it on there permanently anyway because it\u2019s incompatible. That software is incompatible with the new hardware. The hardware is 13 years newer than that ear. It won\u2019t work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Can you try it? Can I just see what the program really like sounds like on the right side?&#8221; because I had a trick in mind. I was gonna outsmart the doctors. If the old analog program on my left side worked on the right, I was running out of there and I wasn\u2019t gonna give her a chance to take me back to high res.<\/p>\n<p>So she did.<\/p>\n<p><img id=\"eZObject_91005\" class=\"alignright\" align=\"right\" src=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chipmunks_large.jpg\"\/><BR\/>She put the old analog program, which I\u2019m using right now to do this program, on the right side for the new implant, and it was horrible. It was bad. It wasn\u2019t chipmunky, it was just bad. It was the same low volume. It was just&#8230; When I heard somebody say an S, it sounded (slurping) like slurping. That\u2019s the only way I could describe this, this chipmunk thing. It\u2019s not just chipmunks.<\/line><\/p>\n<p>You can imagine if you\u2019ve watched a sci-fi movie in outer space, satellite kind of weird electronic beeps and sounds. It\u2019s hard to describe. I have yet to be able to explain to people what artificial sound created by a cochlear implant sounds like, and I\u2019m probably not gonna be able to do it, \u2019cause I don\u2019t remember ever hearing anything when I could hear normally that sounds like the way I hear now.<\/p>\n<p>But I keep trying so that people can understand. So all this time my good implant on the left side is sitting there on the desktop unused. So after about an hour, the high res is a disaster, and the current program is a disaster. I\u2019m thinking, &#8220;Well, no big deal. I still got the left side. It works perfectly, works perfectly fine. This was always a roll of the dice &#8212; and, like I said, &#8216;It can\u2019t get any worse if it doesn\u2019t work because I\u2019ve always got this.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So then I said, &#8220;Well, what happens if I put the left side on right now?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What, your analog?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yeah. What if I put my old program on the left side and this new high res on the right at the same time?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Let\u2019s try it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So I did, and magic happened. The right side was improved by 200% with just the left side also turned on. It was the strangest feeling. If you can remember the first time you heard stereo music, then multiply that by a hundred. So then I said, &#8220;Okay, I\u2019m gonna switch to my high res.&#8221; (I\u2019ll call it &#8220;the chipmunk.&#8221;)<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m gonna switch to the chipmunk program on the left side so that it matches up with the new one you just put on the right side.&#8221; When I did that, another dose of magic happened. It\u2019s hard to describe, but everything had an immediate, positive improvement to it. There was a new depth of substance\/presence to everything &#8212; environmental sounds and voices.<\/p>\n<p>The left side &#8212; this is the fascinating thing &#8212; the left side chipmunk effect vanished. It\u2019s gone. The high res on the left side is now working as it was originally intended. There\u2019s no chipmunk on it. The right side by itself is still unusable. The right side by itself is still horrible. I\u2019ll put it to you this way. If all I had available to me was the implant that was activated yesterday, I would have to retire. I could not do this program. I would have to tearfully, \u2019cause that\u2019s how you do it now, quit. It would simply not be possible to hear a phone call. I would not sound normal to you because I couldn\u2019t hear.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, when I got back to the car, Kathryn was with me, she\u2019s as nervous as a cat about all of this, too, \u2019cause this is a deeply personal thing here. We got in the car and in the confines of the car, windows closed and all that upholstery, great acoustics, the driver and Kathryn said, &#8220;Do you know your voice is lower? Your voice has changed.&#8221; I said, &#8220;Really?&#8221; I started listening to myself, and they were right. By now two hours has gone by, and in just that short amount of time &#8212; the brain is an amazing thing, is the point here. It\u2019s impossible to comprehend it. But in the hour and a half of using chipmunks on both sides, my hearing improved such that my voice changed for the better, so much that it was noticeable to people.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I don\u2019t know if my voice sounds different to you, \u2019cause I\u2019m not using chipmunk right now. I couldn\u2019t do the program right now using either of these chipmunk programs. But together, chipmunk gone left side, and the right side by itself, which is barely audible with all those out of this world sound effects and the chipmunk sound, to me with the left side turned on as well, the right side sounds as loud as the left, if not louder. By itself, it\u2019s unusable. So I went from the floor in terms of being disappointed to on the roof of the building optimistic in just the two hours I spent there.<\/p>\n<p>I have no doubt whatsoever that in six months these chipmunk programs are gonna end up being the best thing I\u2019ve ever done or had, and I\u2019m going to wish that I had had the last 13 years with it. It\u2019s hard to explain, but the emotional roller coaster yesterday &#8212; I was prepared for bad news, but I really thought it was gonna be good. I thought they were going to hook that thing high res on the right side and it was gonna be twice as good as what I had on the left on the old analog side, and it was horrible.<\/p>\n<p>Do you realize this, too. I don\u2019t know if this is really applicable. I don\u2019t remember why we chose the left side to do first, 13 years ago, but what if I had chosen the right side 13 years ago and it was just as bad then as it is now? I wouldn\u2019t have been here. I\u2019d have been doing something, but not this. There\u2019s a little more here, but I\u2019m long. I have to take a break. We\u2019ll do that and be back right after this.<\/p>\n<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n<p>RUSH: Oh, there were other improvements to note, and they are in the area of environmental sounds. I\u2019ve not spent a lot of time explaining this to you, but environmental sounds are among the most irritating &#8212; and they\u2019re a very small thing &#8212; the most irritating aspect of having a cochlear implant. I can be sitting in my library at home with all the doors closed \u2019cause I got the cat in there and we haven\u2019t let the cat have the run of the house yet. The doors are closed in whatever room we have the cat. If somebody opens the door to come in the library, it sounds like the loudest explosion.<\/p>\n<p>It literally causes me to jump out of the couch if I don\u2019t know it\u2019s coming. If somebody is ripping paper nearby, I have to take my implant off. Not just the sound of it, the volume. Environmental sounds, playing golf, a guy throws a club back in the bag, the environmental sounds are three times louder than the voices I hear. So I have to keep the volume low so that the environmental sounds don\u2019t drive me crazy.<\/p>\n<p>Well, that makes it harder to hear people. You get to a crowded restaurant, it\u2019s just amplified and it\u2019s made all the worse. Well, that\u2019s changed, too. With the chipmunk program on both ears I still hear the environmental sounds. I\u2019m not better yet at identifying what they are, but they sound much more distant. They\u2019re not nearly as shocking when they occur. I mean, even sitting here at the Golden EIB Microphone, when the printer turns on, if somebody prints to the printer, not me, and I don\u2019t know it\u2019s coming, when the thing first clicks, everything gives me a start. Even when somebody speaks to me and I don\u2019t know, the not knowing where it\u2019s coming from or what it is, it\u2019s just one shock after another. That is much less now.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t know how to describe this other than magic. By itself, the thing I had turned on yesterday would require me to retire, it is so bad, it is unusable. It\u2019s indescribably bad, folks. But when I put the same chipmunk program on my left side and have them both, it doesn\u2019t even matter if the volume\u2019s the same, everything\u2019s improved a hundred percent or more. And it\u2019s inexplicable. Gotta take a break here. Still not through. There\u2019s some more details here, but that\u2019s the nub of it. Bottom line is it\u2019s an overwhelming success, but the first 20 minutes I thought it was an abject waste-of-time failure.<\/p>\n<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n<p>RUSH: Okay, let me conclude the detailed explanation of yesterday\u2019s activation of the right side cochlear implant because there are other things I want to get to, and I know you have questions about this. I sent a long e-mail out to people last night hoping to anticipate every question that they had. But still somebody said, &#8220;Well, I don\u2019t understand. Why would you have to quit if all you had was the right side?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Why would you have to quit if you\u2019d have done the right side first instead of the left side?&#8221; Let me review. When I say that the top-of-the-line program for cochlear implants, the brand I have (which is called HighRes for high resolution), the digital version, makes everybody sounds like chipmunks, I am not exaggerating. I\u2019m not trying to find a way to make you understand. It literally makes everybody and everything sound like little kids sped up.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s like playing a 33-1\/3 rpm LP as 45. It\u2019s always been unusable, and it literally made everybody sound like chipmunks. So it didn\u2019t work for me. When I first was implanted in 2001, the high-res wasn\u2019t even legal. It hadn\u2019t been approved by the FDA. All I could use was the analog, and it worked perfectly. I had 80% speech comprehension. That\u2019s more than some people who can hear normally.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, I had to turn off some electrodes, which reduced my speech comprehension. I\u2019m now down to 55% with the left ear alone. Fewer electrodes, less sound quality, and I had to turn them off \u2019cause they were causing facial tics. The cochlear implant affects two nerves in the face, the auditory nerve and then the nerve in the jaw, and they were causing facial tics at normal volumes.<\/p>\n<p>So they had to go in and fix it. It\u2019s done with software, not surgery. They go in and connect the implant to their computer and they turn \u2019em off. So yesterday, we just do the right side, the new one first, and start with high res. The audiologist said, &#8220;We\u2019re not gonna put analog on there. That\u2019s 13-, 14-, 20-year-old technology. We\u2019re not gonna do that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I said, &#8220;What if it\u2019s better?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We\u2019re not gonna do it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So I\u2019m already dukes up with the audiologist. So we turn it on, and it\u2019s horrible, folks. It\u2019s literally indescribably bad. There\u2019s no way I can make you understand it. There\u2019s no way you can possibly know what it\u2019s like \u2019cause I\u2019ve yet to find a proper description for artificial sound. Just trust me. I would have had to quit if that\u2019s all I had.<\/p>\n<p>I could not do this program, nor would I be able to communicate very well without doing a lot of writing with people. But the magic happened when I put my old implant on at the same time as the new one and set it also to the chipmunk setting. Immediately the chipmunk aspect vanished on the left side. The old, the current, it vanished. Nobody sounded like chipmunks anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Instantly!<\/p>\n<p>The audiologist said she had never seen anything like this. On the right side, the volume, which by itself is a 10&#8230; (sigh) How can I describe this? The volume was so low that I could barely hear anybody or anything, and turning it up did not increase the volume; it just distorted what was there. But with the left side set on set to the chipmunk setting, the chipmunks went away.<\/p>\n<p>Everybody sounded normal and the volume came up on the right side and matched that on the left. Now, it really didn\u2019t. My brain made that happen. Who can explain it? There is no explanation for it. But it happened. It was miraculous. It was like magic. Now, I said earlier, I don\u2019t know why&#8230; I don\u2019t remember. It was 2001. It was December 19th when I had the surgery for the first implant.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t remember why the late great Dr. Antonio De La Cruz chose the left side instead of the right. All I remember is, we didn\u2019t do both because they thought they might have a cure before I died and had to leave one ear open and available if such a cure was developed. So we did the left side. And analog was all that was available, and it was perfect instantly, out of the box. No education, no learning, no training, no nothing.<\/p>\n<p>It was just instant. It worked. And I thought&#8230; Well, I mean, it worked. It had its problems. Environmental sounds. I mean, it wasn\u2019t perfect, but there was no chipmunk. People sounded pretty much normal. It was not perfect in your sense, but for what my expectations were, it was right on the money.<\/p>\n<p>High res is supposed to be better. For me it\u2019s a thousand times worse. So my point was, what if we had chosen&#8230;? And yesterday, after turning the high res on the right side it was a disaster. I asked the audiologist, &#8220;Can you give me the analog map that I\u2019m using currently on my left side and put it on this new one?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Why not?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Because you can\u2019t leave it there. It\u2019s incompatible. Besides, you are going to learn this high res.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But what if it works?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I feel like I\u2019m dealing with a radio engineer who\u2019s ignoring everything I say and looking at a meter, saying, &#8220;It\u2019s fine.&#8221; No offense, Brian. (sigh) So she did. She put the old software &#8212; the thing I\u2019m using right now &#8212; on the right side, and it was a disaster. It was horrible, which was totally unexpected. I was expecting the same thing. I thought that would be a fallback if this vaunted high-resolution thing didn\u2019t work, which it didn\u2019t, by itself.<\/p>\n<p>But it was just bad. So I thought, &#8220;Now, what if 13 years ago we\u2019d done the right ear first, and if 13 years ago the results were like they were yesterday?&#8221; I would have had to retire 13 years ago. That\u2019s what I meant. Now, there\u2019s no way of knowing if 13 years ago the right ear would have performed as well as the left did, because the left ear was only deaf for two or three months.<\/p>\n<p>It had not, quote, &#8220;forgotten how to hear.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>My brain did not remember. But on the right side, just in terms people to understand, my brain\u2019s forgotten how to hear. The auditory nerve has been dead. It hasn\u2019t been used. It\u2019s forgotten how to hear, hasn\u2019t been used, and it\u2019s dormant. So that is theoretically the reason why it\u2019s so bad, and I\u2019m told that if I keep using this new thing, that it\u2019s gonna get better. It\u2019s like working out muscles. They get stronger, better, and it\u2019ll improve.<\/p>\n<p>She assured me of this. &#8220;Six months from now,&#8221; she said, &#8220;you won\u2019t believe it. You\u2019ll never want to go back to the analog thing at all,&#8221; which I think is true. I now believe that that\u2019s right. I\u2019ve been laboring under a misconception for 13 years that you couldn\u2019t learn that whatever it was when they turned it on was it.<\/p>\n<p>But the reason I was wrong, is my left ear was not deaf long enough to forget how to hear so it didn\u2019t need any training. The right side does. It\u2019s been dormant for 13 years. But the magic is inexplicable on the right side. What happened yesterday is so bad, if I use it alone, that it\u2019s indescribably bad. In fact, having it on would be worse than being totally deaf in the ear.<\/p>\n<p>It was so bad; it was a distraction. That\u2019s the best I can describe it for you. But used together with the left&#8230; In fact, I\u2019ll tell you this. One of the things I\u2019m now worried about is if I continue to use the new, what\u2019s gonna happen to this one I\u2019m using right now? Is it gonna start sounding odd after I get used to the new one? Because the new one can\u2019t be used on this thing I\u2019m using.<\/p>\n<p>It won\u2019t work on one ear alone, and I can\u2019t do both ears when doing the program. Technologically there\u2019s not a way. There\u2019s no way to do it yet. So at 11 o\u2019clock today Eastern time, an hour before the program, I took off both implants set to the high-res setting and put on the radio show implant, which is the old one.<\/p>\n<p>And in less than 24 hours, it\u2019s amazing, folks, how empty everything sounded. I mentioned that with both implants set to the chipmunk setting and using both sides, there\u2019s a new depth and a new presence and a whole new world is opened up with both of them of. I went back to the thing that I loved and thought was the best and couldn\u2019t be improved on, and it just sounds half dead. Voice quality\u2019s the same. I\u2019ve already re-acclimated to it, but the first half hour from 11 to 11:30 Eastern time, just dead. The voice quality was there, sound quality and all that, but the volume was not as high, it didn\u2019t seem, and the environmental sounds, just all different. But now it\u2019s back to normal, the way I sound.<\/p>\n<p>So when the program\u2019s over and I go back and put these two new things on, they\u2019re gonna sound totally weird. It\u2019s gonna be a balancing act \u2019cause I have to use the new ones for them to work. It\u2019s just gonna be an ongoing process. But the bottom line is that it was an overwhelming success, but the first 20 minutes were &#8212; well, just total depression, because my expectations were so high. And then eventually it ended up working like a champion. I mean, it\u2019s not perfect. Everybody on my right side sounds chipmunk, but the left side overpowers it, overrides it, dominates it. The right side is still there, provides the high frequency, all my bass perceptions.<\/p>\n<p>For me, you can understand where I\u2019m coming from, total deafness without any of this. For me, it\u2019s miraculous. I still am in awe of the coincidence, or the blessing that in my little speck of time to live on the earth, it\u2019s at the same time human beings have advanced to the point of inventing this technology. If I were a radio man 30 years ago and this had happened, it would have been the end of me as a radio man. In the big timeline of humanity, however long that is, our time on it is infinitesimally small, and mine happens to coincide with that kind of technology being created? How could you not believe in God?<\/p>\n<p>Okay. <a href=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/?p=9440\">I hope I\u2019ve answered questions<\/a>, probably have created some at the same time, but the bottom line is that it ended up being a profound, really uplifting positive and inspirational experience yesterday, after starting off disastrously, which I guess in its two-hour microcosm is its own lesson.<\/p>\n<p>BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n<p>RUSH: Here\u2019s Andy in Fort Worth, Texas. You\u2019re first on Open Line Friday. Thank you for holding on. Welcome.<\/p>\n<p>CALLER: Thanks, Rush, for taking my call.<\/p>\n<p>RUSH: You send.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/members.premiereinteractive.com\/store\/28566\/41863_5.html\"><img id=\"eZObject_91011\" class=\"alignright\" align=\"right\" src=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/RB.jpg\"\/><\/a>CALLER: I\u2019m a Rush Baby and a longtime listener. <a href=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/?p=9548\">I\u2019m a pediatric audiologist<\/a> in Texas, and I just had to call and tell you how truly tickled I am to hear how well your activation went yesterday. I\u2019m sitting here nodding my head to everything you\u2019re saying. And, you\u2019re right, it is miraculous. Hearing is such a miraculous thing that our bodies can do. And your story is very interesting to me by nature anyway, but I really wanted to thank you for openly using your platform to talk about your hearing loss and the impact it has on real life, because I think it\u2019s an issue that gets downplayed for the most part. Almost like hearing is the lesser of the five senses, and it\u2019s wonderful how you address what a quality-of-life issue it is to have hearing loss but then also to share your successes in pursuing treatment in technology. And, I didn\u2019t know if you knew, but May is Better Hearing Month, so I think it\u2019s the perfect time to be talking about this.<\/p>\n<p>RUSH: No, I did not know that May is Better Hearing Month. But I\u2019m glad that you called. To me, talking about it is &#8212; the only reason I do it, to be honest, is because of the bond I have with my audience. I know it\u2019s been 25 years, they\u2019re interested in it, and if it helps, that\u2019s cool. I\u2019ve not had a lot of inquiries about that. To me it makes all the sense in the world to do what you can to maximize your life. When you lose your hearing, people can\u2019t relate to that, Andy, as I said, because nobody can create it. You can\u2019t create artificial deafness like you can &#8212;<\/p>\n<p>CALLER: Exactly. Exactly.<\/p>\n<p>RUSH: &#8212; pretend to be blind or paralyzed. People just can\u2019t relate to not being able to hear, and therefore they cannot relate to the absolute disaster it can be for personal relationships, particularly intimate ones. It can break \u2019em up. It can be an absolute disaster.<\/p>\n<p>CALLER: Yeah. We see that with families all the time. You know, when we diagnose &#8212; since I work with mainly infants and children &#8212; when we diagnose a child with hearing loss, some parents take that very seriously. Then there\u2019s others that do kind of, sadly, put it to the wayside and think, &#8220;Well, I can manage this,&#8221; or &#8220;It\u2019s just hearing loss, it won\u2019t be that bad, as long as they can hear something, it\u2019s fine.&#8221; But those kids that don\u2019t get services or even adults that don\u2019t get services, like you said, those results on relationships are catastrophic, and it really does create a social barrier for children and adults. So I\u2019m so happy to hear you talk about that.<\/p>\n<p>RUSH: If you\u2019re not careful, it can cause you to shut out a tremendous portion of living, refuse to go places, don\u2019t experience this or that, use it as a crutch or an excuse not to do things. But it\u2019s more than that. I\u2019ve said this a number of times, but it\u2019s true. It\u2019s the only disability where the disabled gets blamed for it. Where people get mad at the victim. And so it just leads to people being distant from one another. The one thing that\u2019s happened that I don\u2019t understand is people have asked, &#8220;Do you think my son should get a cochlear implant?&#8221; Heck yes. There\u2019s no reason, if you have the ability to restore hearing, there\u2019s literally no reason not to do that. And yet there\u2019s some people who are not convinced of it. But I\u2019m a firm believer in that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RUSH: The new cochlear implant on my right side is activated. I\u2019m not using it at the moment, but I did from the moment I left the ear clinic yesterday until one hour before the program started today. When I have the right-side implant on after activation, things and people sound entirely different &#8212; entirely, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Results of My Right-Side Cochlear Implant Activation: Magic Happened - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/05\/09\/the_results_of_my_right_side_cochlear_implant_activation_magic_happened\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Results of My Right-Side Cochlear Implant Activation: Magic Happened - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: The new cochlear implant on my right side is activated. I\u2019m not using it at the moment, but I did from the moment I left the ear clinic yesterday until one hour before the program started today. When I have the right-side implant on after activation, things and people sound entirely different &#8212; entirely, [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/listentoit.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"GeorgePrayias\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"23 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/\",\"name\":\"The Rush Limbaugh Show\",\"description\":\"Excellence In Broadcasting\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/05\/09\/the_results_of_my_right_side_cochlear_implant_activation_magic_happened\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/listentoit.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/listentoit.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/05\/09\/the_results_of_my_right_side_cochlear_implant_activation_magic_happened\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/05\/09\/the_results_of_my_right_side_cochlear_implant_activation_magic_happened\/\",\"name\":\"The Results of My Right-Side Cochlear Implant Activation: Magic Happened - The Rush Limbaugh Show\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/05\/09\/the_results_of_my_right_side_cochlear_implant_activation_magic_happened\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-09T16:37:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-09T16:37:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/#\/schema\/person\/9a33276eb9dc5b6d3f8218957f30e6b4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/05\/09\/the_results_of_my_right_side_cochlear_implant_activation_magic_happened\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/05\/09\/the_results_of_my_right_side_cochlear_implant_activation_magic_happened\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/05\/09\/the_results_of_my_right_side_cochlear_implant_activation_magic_happened\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Results of My Right-Side Cochlear Implant Activation: Magic Happened\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/#\/schema\/person\/9a33276eb9dc5b6d3f8218957f30e6b4\",\"name\":\"GeorgePrayias\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/live-rush-limbaugh.pantheonsite.io\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d290ab65e2eaca3719268528f83b85bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d290ab65e2eaca3719268528f83b85bf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"GeorgePrayias\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/author\/GeorgePrayias\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Results of My Right-Side Cochlear Implant Activation: Magic Happened - The Rush Limbaugh Show","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2014\/05\/09\/the_results_of_my_right_side_cochlear_implant_activation_magic_happened\/","twitter_card":"summary","twitter_title":"The Results of My Right-Side Cochlear Implant Activation: Magic Happened - The Rush Limbaugh Show","twitter_description":"RUSH: The new cochlear implant on my right side is activated. 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