January 27 Chapter Meeting – Understanding Cochlear Implants

(Click here for our meeting transcript)

We had a great meeting for January focusing on catching up with each other after the holidays and not seeing each other for some time. We capped it off with our guest speaker, Dr. Ray Goldsworthy, who provided an in-depth discussion about Cochlear Implants (CI) and optimizing how they are used (see more below). The presentation was more of a free form and open discussion to ensure immediate questions people had were addressed. We also had a great surprise that Lisa was able to join us as she is visiting here all the way from Washington D.C.!

We started off our meeting with our WOW! awards. This time the awards went to Liz and Lisa Beth. Liz has given so much to the chapter with her experience and guidance along with her efforts to put together the Hearing Loss newsletter. Lisa Beth was also recognized as our celebrity on the chapter after her amazing performance on the long running and popular game show, Jeopardy! The show was very accommodating toward Lisa Beth avoiding any auditory questions that would put her in a more challenging position. Mitzi was in the audience and noted the acoustics was amazing!

Our very own “Mean Kitty” Gary provided an overview of the Walk4Hearing plans for this year. There are changes this year so some key items to make note of.

• No balloons this year at the event, instead a bumper house
• Walk4Hearing website isn’t ready yet but should be very soon
• Action will be taken this year to reduce the risk of running out of t-shirts but register early to guarantee a shirt!
• Plan to have a deaf musician and we’ll again have a magician (hit with the kids)
• The event will provide tables for chapters to be represented
• And we need sponsors! Trader Joe’s is a candidate focusing on their headquarters in Monrovia but others may work (e.g. Costco). Forms were provided to start this now to reach out to business. Make sure to focus on headquarter locations!

And… A big thank you to our very own Diane offering to be the LA Stars Walk chairperson this year. Thank you Diane!!!

Dr. Ray Goldsworthy then did his presentation and Q&A regarding CIs. So much has happened with CIs and the future is looking so bright with new advances. The website that Ray mentioned for auditory training and testing can be found at: http://www.teamhearing.org/. The website is called TeamHearing and has listening exercises for speech perception, musical pitch perception and binaural hearing. Ray is developing this website as a resource for hearing health care, please try it out and let him know what you think. Ray can be reached at Raymond.goldsworthy@med.usc.edu.

The meeting concluded with an open discussion and ideas sharing about starting up a support group to focus more on direct needs and help our chapter members have. Heather offered to have one at her house. There wasn’t an immediate decision made but further discussions are planned to get a support group plan in place. And, more information will be coming about the successful ASL class our very own Michael is teaching in Tarzana!