I have never understood why there’s such a stigma associated with hearing loss — many people who have hearing problems don’t want to admit it, and balk at the idea of getting hearing aids. I guess at least part of it is an age thing, since a large percentage of people with hearing loss tend to be older, but since my problems started when I was 30, I have been aware for a while that it’s not only old people who lose their hearing. I look at hearing devices the same way as glasses (which I also wear) or contacts: something in my body doesn’t work right, so why wouldn’t I avail myself of the technology to improve it?

Anyway, modern hearing aids tend to be small and pretty easy to hide; I’ve had people I’ve known for years tell me that they had no idea I had them until I mentioned it, though I never particularly cared about hiding them. The cochlear implant processor, however, is a different story. People with thick hair can hide it, but my hair isn’t that thick, and in any case, I don’t see any reason to be ashamed of it. So instead of trying to hide it, I decided to decorate it.

I have two processors (the second is supposed to be a backup), so I got a lot of different skins from SkinIt.com. Some are their designs, some are custom — they have a page that lets you make your own by dragging a picture over their template. I have a different skin on each processor, and I tend to change them every few months or so. I choose which processor to wear each day based on what skin I’m in the mood to use.

Some of the skins I’ve had (the last two are my current ones):

I got another idea from someone on one of the CI groups: take an ordinary pendant, snip off the loop that the chain goes through, and stick a piece of velcro on the back and another on a spare color cap. The possibilities are endless! (Guess what my favorite gemstone is…)

And then I decided to take advantage of the fact that my processor has removable color caps for the headpiece (the round part). I ordered a bunch and asked an artist friend to paint me some pretty designs on them. She asked me for my favorite colors (blue, green, and purple) and some of the things I like (dragons, knitting, turtles, stargazer lilies, Marvin the Martian) and did an amazing job!

With all these pretty decorations, why in the world would I ever want to hide my processor?