Listening Closely: A Journey to Bilateral Hearing
This volume will serve to help many people struggling with the decision of whether to get an implant, or a second implant. I think that after reading this book, the answer will be obvious. But perhaps most significantly, even the casual reader will appreciate the experience of witnessing a true miracle in our lifetime--allowing people who are deaf to hear. --Laurie Hanin, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Center for Hearing and Communication -Arlene Romoff has detailed her journey through hearing loss and hearing gain through cochlear implantation in great detail with honesty and accuracy. I highly recommend this book to patients and practitioners alike. --J. Thomas Roland, Jr., MD, Co-director, NYU Cochlear Implant CenterListening Closely is the personal odyssey of a brave woman embracing the latest cochlear implant technology. Her story reveals the true, incessant nature of progressive hearing loss. We travel with her through the frustrations of a world without sound to an enveloping sound landscape as she joins the increasing number of people who are realizing the benfits of "going bilateral." --Brenda Battat, Executive Director, Hearing Loss Association of AmericaThis is a unique book that raises both hopes and spirits. Arlene Romoff started to lose her hearing in her late teens, eventually becoming deaf. Powerful hearing aids no longer worked and she opted for a cochlear implant. Her first book HEAR AGAIN, was the story of her first CI. Now, she has chronicled her odyssey through total silence after the failure of the first implant, through re-implantation and finally a second, bilateral CI. This is an odyssey of what Arlene terms biblical proportions. She describes clearly and in detail the technical steps: how a cochlear implant works, surgery, programming, mapping, and the recipient s efforts to successfully use two bionic ears. Above all, Arlene tells us what it means to hear again with two ears. She writes these chronicles in a personal style as though talking to a friend. She is courageous and honest, unafraid to expose tears of despair or joy, her reactions to difficulties encountered and sheer delight in her success. She has certainly worked hard enough, practicing, and using every opportunity to improve her listening skills. Generously, she gives thanks to those who have helped her, and her expressed love and gratitude for her husband and family are unmistakable. She has a delightful sense of humor, lightening-up what might have been a purely technical and educational experience. Nature and its healing powers, her religion, and music, including a memorable carillon concert, sustain her. Arlene s joy is palpable: I was just hearing...really hearing without effort and no longer an observer but a participant. She, and her brain, almost a separate character, learn the importance of directionality -recognizing the source of sounds, the basis of safety and socialization - and that normal-hearing people hear in surround sound. People treat you differently when they know you can hear them. She feels like a normal person. While many, perhaps most implantees are not as successful or fortunate as Arlene is, Listening Closely is an inspiring journey for all. --Monthly Communicator: NJ Department of Human Services Division of the Deaf and Hard of HearingListening Closely is the personal odyssey of a brave woman embracing the latest cochlear implant technology. Her story reveals the true, incessant nature of progressive hearing loss. We travel with her through the frustrations of a world without sound to an enveloping sound landscape as she joins the increasing number of people who are realizing the benfits of "going bilateral." --Brenda Battat, Executive Director, Hearing Loss Association of America - October 1, 2010This is a unique book that raises both hopes and spirits. Arlene Romoff started to lose her hearing in her late teens, eventually becoming deaf. Powerful hearing aids no longer worked and she opted for a cochlear implant. Her first book HEAR AGAIN, was the story of her first CI. Now, she has chronicled her odyssey through total silence after the failure of the first implant, through re-implantation and finally a second, bilateral CI. This is an odyssey of what Arlene terms biblical proportions. She describes clearly and in detail the technical steps: how a cochlear implant works, surgery, programming, mapping, and the recipient s efforts to successfully use two bionic ears. Above all, Arlene tells us what it means to hear again with two ears. She writes these chronicles in a personal style as though talking to a friend. She is courageous and honest, unafraid to expose tears of despair or joy, her reactions to difficulties encountered and sheer delight in her success. She has certainly worked hard enough, practicing, and using every opportunity to improve her listening skills. Generously, she gives thanks to those who have helped her, and her expressed love and gratitude for her husband and family are unmistakable. She has a delightful sense of humor, lightening-up what might have been a purely technical and educational experience. Nature and its healing powers, her religion, and music, including a memorable carillon concert, sustain her. Arlene s joy is palpable: I was just hearing...really hearing without effort and no longer an observer but a participant. She, and her brain, almost a separate character, learn the importance of directionality -recognizing the source of sounds, the basis of safety and socialization - and that normal-hearing people hear in surround sound. People treat you differently when they know you can hear them. She feels like a normal person.  While many, perhaps most implantees are not as successful or fortunate as Arlene is, Listening Closely is an inspiring journey for all. --Monthly Communicator: NJ Department of Human Services Division of the Deaf and Hard of HearingListening Closely is the personal odyssey of a brave woman embracing the latest cochlear implant technology. Her story reveals the true, incessant nature of progressive hearing loss. We travel with her through the frustrations of a world without sound to an enveloping sound landscape as she joins the increasing number of people who are realizing the benfits of "going bilateral." --Brenda Battat, Executive Director, Hearing Loss Association of America - October 1, 2010