“Wncejwomuff ffmuff.”That’s how author J. F. Northington describes how things sounded to her most of the time before she “became a CI-Borg”.
Due to an ear infection, Northington lost the hearing in one ear when she was six. The hearing in her other ear deteriorated as she got older due to subsequent infections. She started to compensate for her loss by doing what most teens do when they want to fit in: try to act “normal”.
Despite her efforts, she felt alone in a world where she was the only one she knew with hearing loss. Eventually, even hearing aids started to failed her.
It was not until she met Dr. Pfannenstiel (who she nicknamed “Dr. Fun”) that she started looking into the possibility of getting a Cochlear Implant or CI. That's when her CI-Borg Journey began.
Northington's journey is a fascinating one. From learning about the implant and how expensive it was (at the time $100,000), to finally finding a hospital in Dallas that would help her get the CI for free, to relating the lessons she learned after getting the implant; Northington takes us along on a personal and informative journey from near deafness to learning to hear in a different way.
Along the way, I learned many new words. Two that stand out are: audism, which is prejudice or discrimination against the deaf or hard of hearing; and ableism, which is the belief that people without disabilities are superior to those who have them. I also learned some things about my attitudes toward my own hearing which seems to be deteriorating as I grow older.
I had only one difficulty with reading the book: the frequency with which the author breaks her otherwise fast-paced storytelling style to express gratitude and to remind the reader of how alone she felt. I empathized with those feelings immediately and the frequent reminders tended to break my concentration enough to cause me to stop reading for a while. That said, it didn’t take long for me to return to the story.
I laud Ms. Northington for getting her book My CI-Borg Journey into the world and for the positive message she gives to everyone about being themselves in the face of any difficult situation.