Rush Limbaugh's Cochlear Implant Surgery a Success

Drudge Report ^ | 12/20/2001 | Matt Drudge

[rs79bm]

This is good news for Conservatives and bad news for Liberals. Just the way I like it!

[Barnacle]

Fantastic! Few people accomplish so much for Conservatism as Rush.

[isthisnickcool]

BIONIC LIMBAUGH! GO RUSH! GO!

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Excellent news indeed.

I've emailed Rush with congratulations. I'm an implantee of long standing, and the durn things work. So well, in fact, that I've been a caller on his show-- despite "total" deafness.

It'll take him a few months to get back up to speed, but just watch: by next year's primaries, he'll be off the TelePromTer and back to his old self.

Merry Christmas, Rush!

[j.havenfarm]

He's been my guiding light in times of despair, murkiness and tumult! GOD BLESS RUSH LIMBAUGH!

[E=MC²]

Glad to hear this. I'm sure those long delays between callers speaking and his answering were bothering him.

[k2blader]

Praise the Lord! And all the best to el Rushbo. :)

[StriperSniper]

I think he likes these.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

I read that the device works different than normal hearing, but he should be able to easily carry on a conversation with therapy and time. I don't have one so I cannot give a description of what the actual "hearing" is like.

[Ff--150]

Freepers!!! More answered prayers :) God is on the move, hallelujah!!

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Binaural deafness is a classic symptom of Meniere's disease, a catch-all umbrella of a term from under which autoimmune inner-ear disease (AIED, Rush's specific malady) has only recently begun to climb.

My own total loss is binaural, too. In my case it took a number of years, then wham: one night it all went.

I've had my cochlear implant for eleven years. Marvelous things. I'm sure he had no clue, when I was a caller to his show back in 1996 (with the infamous Ebonics joke that had him choking), that he was talking to someone with no natural hearing left at all. I could not be more thrilled for Rush.

Laz, please be sure your mutual friend clues him in on this thread. I'm sure he'd get a kick out of it.

[Gil4]

In the last 2 months or so he has sounded the same as usual,

About a week ago (maybe two) I heard him for the first time since June (when Unce Sam shipped me to Belgium), and I could definitely tell the difference. You may just be getting used to the way he sounds, or maybe AFN does something that makes him sound a bit different.

[boop]

Even worse! Even though I know better, I thought the "compassionate liberals" at Democrat Underground would give Rush a break. Boy was I wrong. The pukes over there actually are hoping he gets throat cancer now.

[bootless]

What a graceful post. I am thankful that this surgery was a success, and that he'll be able to listen to music again. God bless!

[StriperSniper]

Good for him!

The quality of sound received through a cochlear implant is different from the quality of sound processed through a natural ear, but with time and training, most implant users learn to converse easily.

I think we will all know exactly how it is different within a couple of weeks of Rush getting a handle on it. He will be one of the best people to relate the experience to others who can only imagine it.

Feel better Rush!

[altura]

I love Rush.

He's been incredible through this ordeal.

Someone was talking about his voice, and so on. He said one day that because of his hearing loss, which he was unaware was as bad as it was, his voice (to him) sounded like a chipmunk (too high and fast) and he had the technicians slow him down until he sounded normal to himself. That was the period when to us, his voice sounded deep and, I don't know, pretentious or something -- un-Rush-like.

Anyway, he has sounded perfectly normal for the past few weeks and, except for the almost imperceptible pause while the reads the caller's remarks, one wouldn't even know he was deaf.

I am so thankful for this surgery though, as I don't know how long one could go in that total blankness of sound and still sound the same.

But what I wanted to ask you, Right, was about music. Whenever he plays his Christmas bump music, I feel sad that he can't enjoy music anymore; it meant so much to him. Can you enjoy music with your implant?

[anniegetyourgun]

Merry Christmas, big fella - and speedy recovery in the new year.

[altura]

He is!!

When he describes an experience, one really understands it. I think he will be very helpful to anyone who is contemplating this surgery in understanding exactly what to expect; how it works and so on.