I Dared to Dream

Julie Husting began losing her hearing when she was a teenager in high school. For thirty years she wore hearing aids. During that time, her hearing loss deteriorated from moderate to profound until she was relying on lip reading the majority of the time. Hearing aids made sounds louder, but they did not make speech clear. When it was dark or she couldn't see a person's lips, she could not understand what they were saying. She was "hearing" with her eyes and not her ears. She never dreamed her hearing would ever get better until her audiologist suggested she get a cochlear implant. It was after that day that she faced all of the things she could no longer do and dared to dream . . .

Julie had her first cochlear implant surgery in 2012. Electrodes were inserted into her cochlea. They bypassed the damaged areas and directly stimulated the auditory nerve. This surgery allowed her to eventually hear speech clearly and enjoy music again. This book spans the first six years of Julie's life with cochlear implants and is written in chronological order. It details the wide-ranging activities that Julie experienced during those years, and shows that good hearing with a cochlear implant is not instantaneous, but rather, a journey.

Also included are inspirational presentations Julie has given on "Success Comes When Expectations Are Realistic" and "How Long Does It Take?" as well as tips on cochlear implant surgery and activation.