Do you hear what I hear?

Cochlear implant changes life of CU professor

A picture may be worth a thousand words but being able to hear again will leave anyone speechless.

Professor Ann Schmiesing of the German and Slavic languages department is living proof. Born with Genetic Sensorineural Hearing Loss, Schmiesing has recently undergone cochlear implant surgery, which has allowed her to regain part of her hearing.

“I didn’t realize how much I was missing,” Schmiesing said.

After she got the implant, Schmiesing said she was literally moved to tears by the sounds she could hear again. Her favorite sounds are birds and other high-pitched sounds, as she hasn’t heard them in years.

When she first got the implant, she said noises seemed mechanical as her brain remembered how to hear.

“When they first hooked me up ten days after the procedure, it was very strange,” Schmiesing said. “Very electronic, like a pinball machine gone wild.”

Schmiesing first noticed she had sensorineural loss when she was hiking at sixteen years old. Her friend remarked at how many birds there were and she couldn’t hear their song. She found she suffered from sensorineural loss, a genetic trait in Schmiesing’s family. By the time of her procedure in May 2008, she could pick out 30 out of 100 words in her right ear and only 2 of 100 in her left.

Her hearing loss wasn’t a problem for her until graduate school, which was progressive up to her procedure. To help her teach, CU wouldn’t schedule her classes in rooms that resonated really well, and would pay to caption some of the meetings she was in.

“I combined the sounds I could hear with mouth movement,” Schmiesing said.

Since she grew up in the “hearing world,” she had never learned how to sign and was worried about putting pressure on her and her family to learn.

“I was afraid of the struggles that go with it for me and my family,” Schmiesing said.

As her hearing loss got worse, she started experiencing tinnitus, a ringing sound that can be perceived in either or both ears. This gave her severe headaches and made it hard for her to live her life.

Since her surgery, she lives a different life. She can go to any movie that she wants, without worrying whether or not it has subtitles. She can even  listen to music again.

“A few years back, I went to a concert and I couldn’t hear the second half because it was all sopranos,” Schmiesing said. “Now I can hear all the instruments.”

The surgery had additional benefits as well.

Now, when she interacts with students she doesn’t have to read their lips to understand what they’re saying, even though she still does it out of habit.  She doesn’t have to ask students to repeat themselves, not that it mattered before.

In the classroom, Schmiesing is popular among her students.

Mike McHugh, a 25-year-old environmental studies major, said he really likes Schmiesing’s teaching style.

“[She’s] easy to understand and really available if you need help,” said McHugh. “She’s overall friendly.”

McHugh’s peers agree.

“She’s very accessible, very down-to-earth,” said Eliabeth Sotelo, 55, a humanities and English major with a minor in Nordic studies. “She’s one of the best teachers’ I’ve ever had.”

Contact former CU Independent Staff Writer Aaron Musick at Aaron.Musick@colorado.edu.