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Drew Symonds: So since you started, has more information become available? I know when
you were first thinking about cochlear implants you couldn't find any information.
Royal Hanson: Well I could find some, you know, but when you can't hear you're up against
it. You don't hear this stuff, and you're trying to learn the technology, and something
goes wrong, and you can't call anybody to find out anything. You're stuck, you know?
So, sometimes it's hard to find information even, because, you know, you can't call anybody,
and a lot of these things have places where you're supposed to call to find out, and if
you can't call, because you're deaf - What are you going to do? I was having trouble
with hearing aids, and I was trying to find out about cochlear implants, and I went on
the internet and looked around and I couldn't find nothing, and all the people in the North
Pole, or in Fairbanks, all they know about it hearing aids.
Drew Symonds: So, have you had one cochlear implant already?
Royal Hanson: Yeah, right here. Yeah.
Drew Symonds: How long did it take you to learn how to understand what was coming through
it?
Royal Hanson: Oh, it was kind of a, I had been at it for about a year and a half now
and it seems like it gets better all the time, and I can talk on the phone pretty good now.
Daughter: Tell them about the day she turned it on.
Royal Hanson: Oh, the day she turned it on. I could hear all the sounds. Whatever there
was, I can't remember how many channels, but every channel, I had sound. So, I knew I was
going to be able to learn it. I figured I was.
Sister: He was worried about being able to understand, because it's a different noise,
and I was sitting about five feet behind him, and about five feet over, and I have had to
talk to him face-to-face my whole life. And I said, "Saturday", and he turned around and
went, "Saturday?! That sounds funny, but Saturday!" And I'm like, "Yes!" He heard me from behind,
and I can't remember my entire life, and I'm fifty-two, him ever hearing me from behind.
Royal Hanson: And that's the first time basically. Daughter: And it was fantastic.
Daughter: Yeah. My daughter is twenty-five years old and she has never had a conversation
with her grandfather, until he had that. And that'sů Now they have a wonderful bond and
a wonderful relationship. You can't have that without the communication. I know it's scary,
and being as a deaf person I know what you have to live with. But it's a good thing,
and I can make this step when it's my turn now without being scared because I know it
will work.