I'm "almost" a lifelong user of a cochlear implant. I got my first one when I was 9. Before I got it, I was communicating through lip reading and speaking, I never knew sign language. Lip reading I still use relatively often -- when I'm at a crowded restaurant, or at an unbearably noisy party, and there's many interlocutors at the table, I persistently stare at their lips. They take me for a great listener, when in fact, I can't hear shit, and I'm desperately switching back and forth between people's mouths to catch what they're saying. I'm out of shape and this takes so much of my brain power to understand people that I often cannot contribute my thoughts.

Though my cochlear isn't perfect, I would never think of not getting it. In fact, I'd probably be rather angry at my parents for not helping me get one as soon as it was possible. During my childhood and up until late college, I've only ever met one person who was so severely hard of hearing and was about my age, and that was where I have been getting my speech lessons before I got my first cochlear implant.