New implant gets country music fan on the road again
Jenny Young was in her late 40s when her audiologist told her she would need hearing aids.
Phone conversations were hard, she needed friends and family to repeat themselves and she increasingly skipped the country music shows she'd always loved.
"It was muffled. The words weren't clear, so I just gave up because I didn't know what song was coming on," Ms Young, now 58, told AAP.
She initially ignored her audiologist's advice until life became too difficult.
"Sometimes you felt excluded, and you tended to exclude yourself because you weren't quite sure what was said, and you didn't want to pop in and embarrass yourself," Ms Young said.
After mixed results with hearing aids, her audiologist suggested her for a trial of Cochlear's latest implant, the 8th generation of the device which directly stimulates the auditory nerve, compared to hearing aids which amplify sound.
Cochlear's Nucleus Nexa System, launched in Australia on Wednesday, is the first of its kind with upgradeable firmware and internal memory within the implant.
The memory allowed users to store their personal hearing settings on the implant, while upgrades could improve the way the auditory nerve was stimulated, implant program director Robert Briggs said.
"That's a big change, and in the longer run we're hoping new stimulation strategies will allow better clarity and of hearing and better speech understanding," Profesor Briggs told AAP.
The new device was developed over a decade with the help of Cochlear's 600-strong research and development teams across six global centres.
One in six Australians, or 3.6 million people, suffer from some form of hearing loss.
Cochlear has provided more than 750,000 hearing implants to people around the world over four decades, and helped children born deaf to hear for the first time.
When Ms Young first had the implant, she said interpreting the signals was like learning a new language.
"To me it sounded like a lot of magpies talking all at once in my head," she said.
But with time and a little patience from friends and family, she was soon back where she wanted to be.
"Six weeks after I got my implant, I went to the Deni Ute Muster in the front row and watched my country music," she said.
"So it has given me back my social aspect, my confidence ... It's just given me a new lease for life."
Her hearing journey has been long and difficult at times, but she urged anyone noticing changes to get checked.
"I just want to suggest anybody that has trouble hearing or think they're having a difficulty - get onto it," she said.
"Seek help early, because it is life-changing and it improves the quality of life; emotionally, mentally, socially.
"Don't sit back like I did."
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