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I didn't completely go deaf at age 6. About the time I was complaining of "ringing in the ears" (tinitis) it was too late, even though the only surgery I had done at the time was inserting tubes in both ears to drain out the fluids. Real quick procedure. In the OR for about an hour and a half, spent the night at the hospital and was out by the next morning.

I seem to recall it was about 60% loss of hearing at the time. Caused by an inner ear infection after a really bad cold at the time, and I had to take antibiotics for several years after that just so it wouldn't happen again, and to build up my immune system.

By the time I was 6 years old, my parents had me screened for hearing aids, and not long after, I was enjoying hearing again. The most difficult part of that was having to go to speech pathologists right at the school for 6 years to speak and hear clearly, and all that ended right around age 12.

So, I even know how to read lips in difficult situations as well.

I got a pair of digital hearing aids a couple years ago, and those really help, even in noisy environments like restaurants, and work much better than the analog hearing aids I had used for years. They have like 10,000 different adjustments that the doctor can make, but he only adjusted 6 of those settings. (volume and equalization).

A couple years ago, I had an MRI and CAT scan done to see if I was a candidate for a cochlear implant. They concluded the bone structure was such that I could get those implants, but my hearing is right below the threshold of being a candidate. My hearing specialist said generally those with 80% or higher hearing loss are candidates, and mine was something like 65% in the right ear, and 72% in the left ear.

So he put me on hearing aids for now, and has me come in for a hearing screening once a year. So the implants are more or less still an option.