When pondering two of her biggest life decisions, Lindsey Edmondson didn't waste time and didn't look back. The first: She met husband Brad Edmondson in February 2003 when they were students at East Central Community College, went on a horseback-riding date in March, got engaged in May, and tied the knot in August. The second: Lindsey, who'd coped with progressive hearing loss since toddlerhood, was evaluated for a left-ear cochlear implant in May 2014 by Dr. Tom Eby, professor of otolaryngology and communicative sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. A whirlwind of tests later, she was able to fast-track the surgery to that July 25. About a month later, Lindsey and Brad returned to the Medical Center and sat next to Dr. Vicki Gonzalez, chief of audiology and assistant professor of otolaryngology and communicative sciences, as Gonzalez pushed the keys on a computer that turned on the half dollar-sized implant for the first time. Lindsey went from reading lips with her eyes to reading sounds with her brain. At age 32, after years of muffled hearing at best, “I could hear the air blowing through the vent,” Lindsey said. “She said, 'Do y'all hear that?'” remembered Brad, 37, a Mississippi Highway Patrol trooper and National Guard member. “We spent three or four minutes trying to figure out what she was talking about.” |