Eleonora Simoyan
Hearing loss after illness
My name is Eleanor Simonyan. I am 20 years old. On 1 February 1999 I had a cochlear implantation, and I am Usharik for 18 years already.
I grew up as an ordinary child, I have never had hearing problems. I loved singing and dancing. Despite the young age (only 2.5 years old), I had a lot of vocabulary, and I remember with a smile how everyone called me a talker. As a child, I had weak immunity, I picked up the infection, namely - a meningococcal wand, resulting in hearing loss.
Nowadays there is a well-developed technology, medicine, there are various forums. By that time all this was not available, and my parents did not know what to do. But we were lucky: at that time my uncle was treated by an otorhinolaryngologist, who told him of the St. Petersburg Research Institute. There my parents got acquainted with the doctors-specialists who told that there is such an operation as CI.
Cochlear implantation
I had an operation, and it was successful. The interval between hearing loss and CI was three months. But even in such a short time, I forgot how to speak. I had to learn how to walk again, how to speak. My parents and the audiologist Megrelishvili Spartak Mikhailovich did a lot for me. St. Petersburg Research Institute became my second home.
Although my hearing is not natural, I can hear with one ear. I'm so used to the speech processor that I can not imagine living without it, it's part of me. It seems a small device in the ear, but my whole life is in it! Life in bright colors, in the world of music, in the world of sounds. When I take it off, the world seems to lose its former colors and becomes gray. I've been wearing it for 18 years, almost all my life, and with humor I call myself a "SP veteran".
Dancing lessons
Now I study at the university in the Faculty of Law, studying is easy for me. I devoted most of my life to dances - I have been engaged for 8 years, they mean a lot for me. Thanks to the fact that I had an operation, I can communicate, listen, speak, dance. No matter how hard the path is, it's worth going through to feel the taste of victory.
I am grateful to my parents, all the doctors of the St. Petersburg Research Institute for the fact that they led me to this result. This year I participated in the festival "Magic Symphony", where children with hearing impairments performed, got acquainted with the ushariks. And finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Ilchenko Alexei and MED-EL for the opportunity to hear and be a full-fledged person. Good luck to you in your work!
