My name is Nicky and I was born deaf and my hearing had always been pretty good though out my childhood. My hearing started to worsted as I reached my early 20s. No one knew why my hearing went down as I had lots of test and even wore the strongest digital hearing which I brought privately. I wore my hearing aids for a few years till my hearing got worst again and I started to think about cochlear implants after seeing a number of people for help. Then after a refaral to the cochlear implant programme at the Royal national throat nose and ear hospital in London I then went and had the assessments and then in 2009 I was told I could have a cochlear implant in my right ear which I was so happy. It was a very tough choice when it came to choosing my cochlear implant and I very nearly went for cochlear then a friend helped me to think about my choice so I went back to the hospital and asked if I could go for Advance Bionics and they said yes. I then had my operation on 16th April 2010 a few days before my birthday so it was the best birthday present ever. Then 6 months later I started getting some of the symptoms of Menieres Disease. After a rough 2-3 years of bad hearing, my hearing started in improve slowly but I do still suffer from this but I am on medication to keep it under control.