Taupō great-grandmother riding high after cochlear implant surgery

2 hours ago
2 min read

Seventy-six-year-old Jan Trim loves riding pillion passenger on her husband’s Moto Guzzi motorbike, going to exercise class and making online photo books. She has had hearing differences for the past 30 years and after a long period of wearing hearing aids, received a cochlear implant in April this year.

The great grandmother from Taupō says she can now have a conversation with her husband in the car, which never would have been possible previously.

“It’s too good an opportunity to miss to enrich one’s life,” she says. “My husband and I live life to the full and never imagined how much more enriched it would become with this life-changing surgery.”

The retired office administrator says she didn’t really realise she had changes in her hearing until she started working in a customer services call centre and needed to actively participate in team meetings. She had a hearing test soon afterwards.

“I was starting to feel isolated as my hearing changed,” she said. “I didn’t like always asking for sentences or instructions to be repeated so I would often go ahead with what I thought I needed to do, only to find out I hadn’t heard correctly in the first place.

“It made me feel incompetent, especially as I like to do tasks as efficiently as possible and to the highest standard.”

Noticing a significant shift in her hearing in recent years, Jan’s audiologist in Taupō advised her that she would be eligible for cochlear implant surgery, and referred her for an initial assessment at The Hearing House in February this year.

“Right from the start I felt validated by The Hearing House, and my husband and I were made to feel so welcome,” she says. “Everyone from Lisa the receptionist to the clinical specialists Nicole, Bronwyn and Caroline, were so friendly. And I couldn’t have wished for a better surgeon than Dr Melanie Collins.”

Jan says she is delighted with the result of her cochlear implant surgery.

“I feel I have benefitted hugely and notice now just how easy it is to converse with my husband who doesn’t have to continually repeat himself or raise his voice for me to hear him.

“It’s amazing to have conversations even in crowded places and not have to concentrate so much on what is being said. Others have noticed a big difference too – and at last I can hear what my grandchildren and great-grandchildren are saying!

“It’s worth it just for that.”