Do you want to learn more about Cochlear Implants?   Houston is having a cochlear hearing health fair on January 29th.  I will be there to share with others the delights and joys of being a bilateral cochlear implant wearer.

“My hearing was

restored with a cochlear implant!”

Meet cochlear implant users

Attend education and information sessions

Meet with doctors and audiologists

Struggling with

your hearing aids?

Learn how cochlear implant users have

gained more than just their hearing!

Cochlear and the elliptical logo are trademarks of Cochlear Limited.

Call for more information or to register:

1-877-HEAR-THIS (432-7844)

Whew, this year flew by.  It was a busy one. 

 In Spring of 2010, I was busy getting my first book, “Sunny and her Cochlear Implants”  ready for print.  Finally, after much back and forth between the publisher, illustrator and I, the book finally went to print and was released in June 2010. 

Meanwhile, I was busy showing and riding Chance throughout the spring.   We finished the show year at Region 9 in Forth Worth.  Chance and I had our ups and downs.  The winning moments were especially priceless and emotional because it goes to show that hard work, perserverance, with persistence doe pay off!!!!!! 

As we moved in to fall 2010, I was very busy with Toastmasters.   Even competed in the Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest.  The highlight was winning in both.  

In addition, I took the next step in advancing  my professional speaking career by speaking outside of Toastmasters and Hearing loss Association meetings.  I spoke for a quite a few organizations and I had a blast doing it.  I love speaking as much as I love showing horses.  I became a member of the National Speakers Association Pro Track program.

Finally, ended the year by taking Chance to the xmas show in Katy 2010.  We had a great show!  Even received a first place in a large class with a flawless ride.  My trainer Jennifer Goslin told me that was probably the best ride of my life with Chance.  To receive that first place ribbon was the “icing on the cake.

I know 2011 will be an even better year!!!

I wish everyone a sunny new year don’t forget to book Susanna for your next event at www.susannamdussling.com or buy “Sunny and her cochlear implants” at www.sunnyandhercochlearimplants.com

As always,

Susanna

Hope everyone is ready for the new year!

This article appeared in my Cochlear Americas newsletter.  I totally agree 2 ears are better than one.

In the past as a former hearing aid user, I always wore both hearing aids even though I had hardly any hearing in my right ear.  Why, it helped me to locate sound better.

As a bilateral cochlear implant wearer, I always wear both!!!!!  It is like having surround sound on your head.  The listening experience is way better. 

If you are hesitant about 2 ears vs.  1.  I suggest you read the article and serious consider having “2 ears.”  You will love it!!!!!  Trust me!!!!!

Are Two Ears Are Better Than One?

Our bodies are designed to hear sound in stereo, using two ears to receive sound from the world around us. Just as we use two eyes to see the whole picture, we use two ears to hear the whole story. This process of hearing with both ears, called binaural hearing, helps us filter important sounds from background noise and quickly identify the direction of incoming sounds. People who hear through both ears may perceive sound to be louder and be able detect smaller differences in loudness and pitch. The ability to detect loudness and pitch differences often aids in better speech understanding in both quiet and noisy environments.¹

For people who are hearing impaired, hearing through both ears can be achieved multiple ways:

• two hearing aids
• one hearing aid and one cochlear implant
• two cochlear implants

Hearing with both ears, also called bilateral hearing, can be an advantage in many everyday activities. For example, it may help when crossing a busy street or listening to your family at the dinner table.

The ability to hear better in noisy places such as a classroom or workplace, may improve performance at school or on the job.

If you are considering a bilateral hearing solution for you or your child, talk with your hearing healthcare professional about your options.

Book Susanna today to speak at your next event, www.susannamdussling.com

Susanna’s book:  www.sunnyandhercochlearimplants.com

As always, have a sunny day and a sunny new year.

Susanna

These are some serious facts about deafness. It is downright depressing. We need to educate everyone that their is help for their hearing loss and deafness.  Wow, I guess I must be a success story because I have been gainfully employed my whole working life and I make a very respectful salary.

I have to admit it has not been easy, because the telephone has always been a challenge.  However, I prevailed.  I have a successful career in retail management and I am growing my professional speaking career.  As a result of my sudden deafness 5 years ago, I discovered my life’s purpose is to educate others that we can have fulfilling and rewarding lives in spite of our deafness.

I speak to groups, schools, and corporations about Positive Mental Attitude, Overcoming Adversity, Success, Change, and Hearing loss.  Go to www.susannamdussling.com to book me. 

FACTS ABOUT DEAFNESS

1. There are 31 million individuals with hearing loss in the United States.

 2. 4,000 children in the United States are born with hearing loss each year. 3. 90% of children with hearing loss are born to normal hearing parents.

4. Parents with normal hearing communicate through speaking, and most do not know how to use sign language to communicate with their deaf child.

5. Deaf education programs in the public schools usually teach some form of sign language in order to communicate with and educate the students. As a result, few deaf students become proficient in the English language.

6. An average reading level of 3rd grade is typical of graduates of deaf education programs in the U.S.

7. 45% of deaf individuals do not graduate from high school and only 5% graduate from college.

8. A small minority of deaf students complete deaf education programs prepared for independence in adulthood; 60% face either unemployment or severe unemployment.

 9. Deaf individuals earn only 50% to 70% of what their hearing peers earn, losing an average of $320,000 in earnings during their lifetime.

10. Over 50% of deaf adults earn less than $25,000 per year.

11. 42% of deaf adults between 18 to 44 years of age are unemployed.

12. Deafness is the most costly single disability in terms of special education costs, averaging $25,000 per year per child, compared to $5,100 for a normally hearing child. 13. The average lifetime cost to society of a child born deaf in terms of medical, educational, and productivity losses is $1,020,000

As always, Have a sunny day.  Susanna

Susanna’s new book:  www.sunnyandhercochlearimplants.com

Hope everyone is in good spirits for the 2010 holiday season!

I work full time in Retail Management, thus this is our wild,crazy time at the store.  I am excited about Christmas so I can have a day off!!

I know many of you traveling to be with friends and family, have a great time and be safe.

I will be sharing some tips that Cochlear Americas published to make travel a little easier for those of us that have cochlear implants.

The holiday season is here and for many of us that means trips and family get togethers. If you are traveling long distances you may want to plan ahead.

1. If you would like to find a clinic near your destination please review the list of worldwide Nucleus® clinics.

2. You might also ask your audiologist for a paper copy of your current MAP(s). Make sure you have a copy with you on your trip. If for some reason your implant needs to be programmed while you’re away, just visit, or call a Nucleus® clinic with your MAP copy in hand. It is also possible for your audiologist to send your programs electronically if it is needed.

And don’t forget to pack:

• Nucleus ID card
• Back-up sound processor with back up coil and cables
• Accessories and accessory cables (i.e. personal audio cable and Hi-Fi cable)
• Rechargeable and disposable batteries (p675 Zinc Air)
• Battery charger (with international plug packs if you need them)
• Remote Assistant – for our Nucleus 5 customers
• Dry & Store and/or Dry-Aid Kit

Are you traveling by air? You should know that…
1. It is okay to walk through the metal detectors and full body scanners with your sound processor on. You may want to turn off your telecoil to avoid any potential buzzing sounds as you walk through.

2. Your implant can not interfere with the plane’s navigation or communication systems. Although your implant transmits radio frequency (RF) signals, they are very short range and would be limited to a distance of less than five feet from the external coil. However, if you are a Nucleus 5 recipient, your remote assistant needs to be turned off.

3. If you wish to listen to the music and/or TV provided by the airline, use your TV/HiFi cable to connect. This cable directly connects directly to your sound processor and has surge protection built in.

Book Susanna to speak at your next event www.susannamdussling.com

Hopefully, most of us enjoy reading.  We are always on the lookout for books related to hearing loss.  I have included a list of hearing loss related books. 

Happy Reading!!!  and Enjoy!!!!!! 

”An Invisible Condition: The Human Side of Hearing Loss” by Rocky Stone

“Auditory-Verbal Therapy” by*/ /*Warren Estabrooks, Editor

“A Quiet World: Living with Hearing Loss” by David Myers

”Assistive Devices: Doorways to Independence” by Cynthia Comptom

”Balancing Act” by Virginia M. Scott

“Bright Silence”*/ /*by*/ /*Margaret H. Ferris, Editor

“Cochlear Implants for Kids” by Warren Estabrooks, Editor,

”Coping with Hearing Loss” by Susan V. Rezen

“Deaf Like Me” is by Thomas S Spradley and James P Spradley

”Do You Hear Me? Laughs for the Hard of Hearing by the Hard of Hearing”

by Maxwell Schneider

“Demystifying Hearing Assistance Technology: A guide for service
providers and Consumers” by Cheryl Davis, Samuel Atcherson and Marni L.
Johnson

”The Feel of Silence” by Bonnie Potras Tucker, J.D.

”Full Face: A Correspondence About Becoming Deaf in Mid-Life” by Claire

Blatchford

“Grandmom and Me and the System” by Peg Adamucci.

“Hear, A Four Letter Word” (autobiography) by Ciwa Griffiths, Founder of
Hear Center

“Hearing Loss and Hearing Aids: A Consumer‘s Handbook” by Dr. Richard

Carmen (1998)

“Hear Again – Back to Life with a Cochlear Implant” by Arlene Romoff

“Hear: Solutions, Skills, and Sources for Hard-of-Hearing People” by Anne

Pope

“Hearing Aides, What I Don’t Hear I Make Up” autobiography by Charlotte
Schamadan

“How to Survive Hearing Loss” by Charlotte Himber

“IDEA Advocacy for Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing” by Bonnie
Potras Tucker, JD,

“Keys to Living with Hearing Loss” by Marcia Dugan

“Listening-Ways of Hearing in a Silent World” by Hannah Merker

“Listen with the Heart” by Michael Harvey

“Listening Closely: A Journey to Bilateral Hearing” by Arlene Romoff

*“Living with Hearing Loss” books and materials by Sam Trychin available
at http://Trychin. com/bookstore. html <http://trychin. com/bookstore. html>*

* *

*“Metered Time: Jagged Time” poetry by Ciwa Griffiths*

“Missing Words: The Family Handbook on Adult Hearing Loss” by Kay

Thomsett and Eve Nickerson

”Odyssey of Hearing Loss: Tales of Triumph” by Michael A. Harvey, Ph.D.

“One Out of Ten” autobiography by Ciwa Griffiths

“Our Forgotten Children” by Julia M Davis, Editor,

”Patrick Gets Hearing Aids” by Maureen Cassidy Riski and Nikolas Klakow

“Reading between the Lips” autobiography by Lew Golan

“Sunny and her Cochlear Implants” by Susanna Dussling

“The Silent Garden” by Paul V. Ogden

“To Hear the Birds Sing – Conversations with my Heart” by Marie
Younkin-Waldman

“When the Phone Rings, My Bed Shakes”, memoirs of a deaf doctor, Philip
Zazove, M.D.

”Wired for Sound: A Journey Into Hearing” by Beverly Biderman

“What’s That Pig Outdoors (A Memoir of Deafness)” by Henry Kisor

“Yes, You Can Heather!”* *(Heather Whitestone), autobiography by Daphne Gray

Happy Holidays!!!!!

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Twice-deaf woman uses challenges to teach through childrens’ books

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Susanna Dussling, who got cochlear implants after experiencing sudden hearing loss, is now raising awareness for cochlear implants through a book series she’s written.

Find Sunny

The first book in Susanna Dussling’s ‘Sunny’ series is available for purchase online through her web site, www.susannamdussling.com, and through the publisher, at www.authorhouse.com/bookstore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=71912

By ANNA SCHUMANN

Updated: 07.18.10

When her parents realized she was deaf at three-years-old, they had to decide whether Susanna Dussling would grow up hard-of-hearing in a hearing world, or deaf, in deaf culture.

Growing up in deaf culture would have meant not hearing, not speaking, and learning sign language. Growing up hard-of-hearing meant hearing aids, struggles with hearing and speaking, and being teased by classmates.

She has nothing against deaf culture, she said, but Dussling can’t imagine growing up without sound. She got hearing aids as a child and said all things considered, really had great hearing and speech.

She made great grades through elementary school and Klein Forest High School, and succeeded at what was then called Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos.

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–>She went on to work in retail management, and though tasks such as answering the phone were difficult, she made it through and has been successful in the field ever since. She never disclosed her hearing loss, but she suspects now that people could tell.

In June 2005, when Dussling had just gotten new digital hearing aids, she realized she couldn’t hear with her left ear, her best ear. She just figured it was her new aid acting up, and made it through the rest of the day.

She came to her parents’ Tomball home very upset, tried on her old hearing aid, and still couldn’t hear. She realized she’d become deaf a second time after sudden hearing loss syndrome.

Many thoughts ran through her head: she’d been supporting herself for years and now she’d lose her job. She wouldn’t be able to support her expensive hobby, training Arabian racehorses. She wouldn’t be able to hear and now would have to learn sign language and other elements of deaf culture.

She went to the audiologist the next day to confirm the diagnosis. When she walked up to the receptionist to pay for her appointment, she got her first taste of what life was like without hearing. She couldn’t communicate and got by only by reading lips.

The next day, she returned to work depressed. Her speech got worse and her duties were cut back.

Though she’d explored the possibility cochlear implants before, she hadn’t needed them before her sudden hearing loss and hadn’t been eligible to get them.

Cochlear implants are electronic hearing devices implanted into one’s head to produce hearing sensations. One piece of the device is worn on the outside of one’s ear, like a hearing aid.

“With implants you lose all hearing in your ear,” she said. “I thought, ‘What do I care?’”

The implant in her left ear became active in February 2006, and at first she was disappointed in the results. She couldn’t hear sound right away and had to retrain her brain to adapt to this new object.

She also had extreme tinnitus, which she explained as a symphony going off in her head. The sound in her head was competing with the outside sound and it was frustrating.

She did hearing exercises, and in Summer 2006, one year after her loss, she began to really hear again. In December 2006, she got her other ear implanted, and she said the transition for her right ear was much easier than with her left ear. She could hear better than she ever could before.

Cochlear implants changed her life in more ways than just being able to hear better.

“I was in denial my whole life about my hearing loss,” she said. “I didn’t want to hang out with other hard-of-hearing people. I didn’t want to be seen as different.”

Once she got her implants though, she joined the Hearing Loss Association and served as the organization’s co-president in 2009.

She didn’t like the way cochlear implants and hearing loss were portrayed on television and in the hearing world, and she wanted to do something about it.

She is a member of Toastmasters and hopes to grow her speaking skills. She’s passionate about speaking and often speaks on goal-setting and overcoming diversity when she’s not working her full-time management job.

Another new passion of hers is writing.

In June she released the first book in a series about eight-year-old Sunny, a happy-go-lucky girl who gets cochlear implants. The book, Dussling said, is semi-biographical, but from a child’s perspective.

The book is available through her web site, www.susannamdussling.com, and through her publisher, www.authorhouse.com.

“My goal, Sunny’s hope, is to show that no matter what challenges one faces, they can still have a purposeful, meaningful life,” she said. “The ‘Sunny’ books are about hope, acceptance and positivity.”

Dussling hopes to place the books in hospitals, doctor’s offices and schools and hopes to open conversations between adults and children. She hopes to fight what she considers a hearing loss stigma.

Through Sunny, she hopes to draw attention to different aspects of hard-of-hearing culture, such as assistive devices including flashing lights on phones, doorbells and smoke alarms.

She continues to lead a normal life: horse racing, snow-skiing, and being outside. She will write more Sunny books in racing season’s downtime, she said.

“Everyone has challenges in life whether they have a disability or not,” she said. “I’m not going to let life be stopped just because I have cochlear implants.”

This is my first children’s book.  I just published it this summer at Author House. 

I am excited about this story.  It is a story based on my life as a deaf child, who was a lifetime hearing aid user, until I suffered sudden deafness in 2005.  Then, I became a successful bilateral cochlear implant wearer.

Sunny is about a happy-go-lucky deaf girl, who lives her life in a hearing world, with hearing aids.  Then her life changes when her aids no longer help, but there is a solution.

Sunny in an educational book about hope, acceptance, cochlear implants and a positve “can do” attitude. 

To learn more about Sunny go to www.sunnyandhercochlearimplants.com

Go to http://www.authorhouse.com/bookstore/ItemDetail.aspx?bookid=71912  to order or contact me directly at susannadussling@yahoo.com to order in volume bulk.

I discoved my life’s purpose is to share my story with others to inspire hope that we all can overcome our personal setbacks in life with lots of hard work, perserverance and a positive attitude.

Not only do I help others with my book, I also speak to groups, associations, school groups, etc with my uplifting motivational messages.  Go to my speaker website at http://www.susannamdussling to book me for your next event.

In additon, please forward this blog entry to others who might enjoy this book or enjoy an inspirational presentation.

As Always, Have a Sunny Day.

Susanna