Jodie Boyd suffered significant hearing loss at the age of 13 but didn’t want to acknowledge this inconvenient reality or wear the hearing aids she was given.
“There wasn’t an exact moment when I realised I was deaf. I managed to make my way through VCE with only a couple of my friends knowing my secret,” the young Craigieburn mother of two said.
“I managed to get by with lip-reading and the small part of good hearing I still had.”
She also avoided a lot of social situations because it was too hard to understand what people were saying at parties or loud restaurants.
Mrs Boyd met her husband Steve when she was 19 and was surprised to learn his mother and other family members suffered from hearing loss, too.
After having her first child, Bethany, in 2006, Mrs Boyd developed tinnitus, hearing loud noises and constant ringing in her ears.
Working for the Victorian Deaf Society, she already knew tinnitus was hard to live with.
“This was also the start of my journey to receive my first Cochlear implant,” she recalls.
In September 2009, aged 32, Mrs Boyd received her first “bionic ear”, in her right ear.
“I went home happy and rediscovered so many sounds I remembered as a child, such as train bells ringing, the microwave beeping.”
The implant helped her regain her confidence socially.
When the hearing in her left ear began to worsen, she decided to have a second implant.
By October 2011, Mrs Boyd had Cochlear implants in both ears. Although at times she still struggles to hear, she has finally accepted her hearing loss.
With the launch of a new Cochlear Care Centre in East Melbourne, access to appointments and professional advice will become much easier for Mrs Boyd and the many Victorians dependent on bionic ears. One in five Australians has a hearing impairment, a 2013 Newspoll study revealed. The implants have changed Mrs Boyd’s life and given her the confidence to study and start her own bookkeeping business. She hasn’t had to miss out on hearing her daughter’s excitement at birthday parties or when the children open presents on Christmas morning. “I’d encourage anyone considering an implant to remain hopeful and positive,” Mrs Boyd said.
More information: www.eyeandear.org.au
