I have seen glimpses of Mike Dailey, the fireman with bilateral cochlear implants. His story seemed to peek out now and then on social media from time to time.

Until he joined the Facebook group, Bilateral CI Warrior, I had been unable to contact him.

Now I have his interview, and this is why is it so important that candidates and recipients take time to listen to it or read the transcript.

Mike embodies the concept that if you have talent, a cochlear implant is not an impediment to accomplishing your dreams. He is a shining example of that.
Many times, I have seen people post the question: What kind of job can I look for if I have a cochlear implant? As Mike tells it, there are no limits. Zero. Nada. None.
Inspirational does not begin to describe Mike Dailey.

Listen or read and learn.

Transcript

Voiceover:

Cochlear Implant Basics is a site for candidates and their families and friends. If you have been told you qualify for a cochlear implant, these podcast interviews tell how receiving a cochlear implant can be a life changing experience. You will meet recipients who faced a hearing loss and hearing aids could no longer provide comprehension of speech or music. They faced growing isolation, inability to socialize or compete in the world of business. The joy of music disappeared. They explained how receiving a cochlear implant changed their lives. Welcome to Cochlear Implant Basics. A reminder, Cochlear Implant Basics is not sponsored by anyone, nor is it offering medical advice. Please consult your own healthcare provider.

Richard:

Good evening. Tonight we’re talking to Mike Dailey, a fireman. I’m going to ask you to state your name, today’s date, and where you’re at.

Mike Dailey:

My name is Mike Dailey. Today is March 17th, 2022. Happy St. Patrick’s Day. And I am in Pendleton, Indiana.

Richard:

Mike, tell me a little bit about your background, when you lost your hearing, and a little bit more about growing up with a hearing loss and so on and so forth.

Mike Dailey:

As a young child, I had chronic ear infections. Today, they would give you tubes. They didn’t really do that. I grew up in a rural community. They didn’t see any need for it. By the time I was in high school, I had a noticeable hearing deficit, so I started learning how to read lips in trying to overcome that.

Mike Dailey:

I had aspirations of a career in the military, and through an uncle who also had hearing loss that was in the military, back then they used to do a timed test. So I knew if I hit the button every six seconds, I would pass the hearing test. So that’s how I got into the Marine Corps. While I was in the Marine Corps, I had an incident with a mortar round that landed a little too close, ruptured both of my eardrums, but did substantial damage to my right eardrum and right inner ear. Or middle ear, I guess you would say. After that, I couldn’t pass the hearing test.

Mike Dailey:

I learned to fake it a little bit more, learned more lip reading, other ways to compensate. Got out of the Marine Corps and got into EMS at the local hospital, became an EMT, and was doing that with aspirations of getting on the local fire department. And was doing well compensating. Became very sensitive to vibrations and feeling. And learning how to, like I said, read body language and things like that, people didn’t notice I missed as much. I got hired at the fire department and they sent me down for my physical and I failed. So that was the end of that dream, or so I thought.

Mike Dailey:

So I went to work for a sheriff’s department because they didn’t have a hearing test. I was able to fake it for several years and did okay. Then they opened a prison in the town that I lived in at that point, and they offered me a substantial pay raise to go work at the prison. So I did that. At the prison, they figured out I could fix things, so I became the locksmith for the prison. I was on the emergency response team, and they started noticing I was missing radio calls. A lot of radio calls. And they said, “Hey, you need to go get your hearing checked or you’re not going to have a job.” So at the ripe old age of 30, I got my first set of hearing aids. Part of what made that okay was I was a new father and I couldn’t hear my daughter cry. So the hearing aids helped.

Mike Dailey:

My hearing progressively started getting worse. I just kept going from one hearing aid dispenser to another. The ENT I was going to said that I had otosclerosis, and he had the same thing, and I had tympanosclerosis. So they tried to do a tympanoplasty to fix my eardrum, and it failed because of the hardening of the inner ear. So they just kept bumping up the hearing aids and BTEs, behind the ear superpowers.

Mike Dailey:

We moved in that timeframe and I made friends here in town, and one of them happened to be a professor of audiology at Ball State University. So I started going to Ball State and was getting my hearing aids through there. I interacted with her quite a bit. She’s like, “You do really well in the booth, but you’re not doing so well here in a social setting.” So she took me back to the booth and turned my chair around and turned the lights out, and I failed miserably. I lost all of my cues. So she’s like, “Hey, your hearing’s a lot worse than what we’ve thought. So it’s time for you to see a specialist.”

Mike Dailey:

I was fortunate enough to… Indiana University Medical here in Indianapolis has a phenomenal ENT, so I went to see him. And he’s like, “You have both conductive and sensorineural loss. I think a bone-anchored hearing aid would work for you.” So we tried the bone-anchored hearing aid, and it was amazing. It crosses over, so I had a hearing aid in one side and a BAHA in the other, and it was really phenomenal. Unfortunately, because of how much sensorineural loss I had, they had it cranked all the way up. It was a BAHA 5 SuperPower by Cochlear. And with the button that stuck out, the snap, it vibrated so much that it didn’t seal, the skin didn’t seal around it.

Mike Dailey:

In the meantime, I had gone on from being the locksmith for the prison to being a contractor. Contractor came along, offered me a lot of money. So welder, fabricator. I’m still doing the same thing, I was just making more money and didn’t have to deal as much with the inmates. But because of the environment that I worked in, the sweat, the dirt, and everything else, I kept getting infections. So the year and a half mark, they pulled that BAHA and put another one in. Went about another year with the second BAHA and started getting the infections again. And he says, “No, this isn’t going to work. You’re just not getting what I want.” Mainly because in that timeframe, my cat quit purring. Evidently, the cat really didn’t quit purring, but to me it quit purring because I couldn’t hear it anymore. So my loss had progressed to that point, and they did the evaluation and I was a candidate for that ear.

Mike Dailey:

So they removed my BAHA in February of 2020. I was scheduled for surgery for March 25th, 2020. We all know what happened there. So finally about July, they opened up the surgery schedule and they got me in, and I got my first implant. A month later when they activated me, it was a whole new world. I guess I had what they called the rock star activation. I was able to understand words instantly. It was phenomenal. I was listening to music on the way home after activation and enjoying it. So that was really neat.

Mike Dailey:

I still had the hearing aid on the left side. About six months into it, I was like, “Hey, I’m not hearing as well. I think I need another mapping.” Well, they checked the hearing in my left here and they were like, “Hey, your left ear’s not working. It’s just only good for holding on your sunglasses.” So they scheduled me for surgery and I became bilateral. At that point, everybody, my immediate family, my friends, everyone noticed a huge difference.

Mike Dailey:

The local volunteer fire department… We call it volunteer. We’re practically full-time here because we average about 2,500 runs a year. So the local fire chief wanted some specialty training equipment built because they didn’t have the budget to buy it. So I started working with him and he’s like, “Hey, didn’t you used to do this?” And I’m like, “Yeah.” And he’s like, “Well, why don’t you do it anymore?” And I’m like, “Well, I’ve got these.” And he’s like, “I don’t care. I need people.” And so he brought me on to the fire department and I discovered, through research and talking with people, that they had stethoscopes that connected to the phone which connect directly with the cochlear implant. So I could hear blood pressures and breath sounds and everything through a stethoscope again. And I got back into EMT class and I graduate in two weeks.

Richard:

We got to have to have a party for you. We’re going to have a virtual party. I need to go back a couple steps because your story is just incredible. When you were in the Marines and you had the mortar round explode, did you develop tinnitus from that as well?

Mike Dailey:

Horrible. I still have it. It doesn’t go away. Without my implants, I think the last time they tested, noise had to be at 180 decibels for me to know it was there. I’m essentially deaf without my implants.

Richard:

That was the same thing for me. You could fire a gun behind my head, I wouldn’t turn around.

Mike Dailey:

Nope. I don’t hear anything.

Richard:

Now, in addition to your career, the reason I’m going back a little bit is I have mentored veterans, both combat and non-combat, and the issue was if you did not have a hearing loss on your military records, the Veterans Administration would not step in and help. Was that the case when you were there?

Mike Dailey:

Yes. When I was in the Marine Corps, I played with a couple different units. Back in 1996, there was a unit called Joint Task Force Six. We did counternarcotics. It skirted the Posse Comitatus. When they shut that down, about a month later, there was a fire at the records repository in St. Louis. So I have my DD214. So at a certain point, it became useless to fight to me because of the level of care that I could find outside of the VA matched what I wanted to do. To me, it was just easier to get things to make my life better than to fight.

Richard:

I want to go back to that one last question because we’re going to move forward from here. I’ve talked to experts from the VA regarding tinnitus, and people who have lost limbs and IEDs and hearing as well. And they say that the tinnitus is worse than the loss of a limb, it is so bad.

Mike Dailey:

I could definitely see that. There’s never any quiet.

Richard:

Now I want to jump forward because you’ve answered my questions on that. My questions are the chief of the volunteer fire department said to you, “I need a warm body that knows what the hell they’re doing.” And they were happy to have you. Now, a few weeks ago or months ago, there was another post on the Facebook site with a gentleman who was a fireman, but believed he would get fired if he revealed he had a hearing loss. Now, your experience, you’re in a occupation that’s dangerous with team members that depend on you. Could you talk a little bit about that? How you deal with that?

Mike Dailey:

So the NFPA actually has strict rules about full-time firefighters and hearing loss. My chief in particular is working with the state fire marshal to try to get that lessened because they are finding that firefighters are trying to hide their hearing loss, and that’s proving to be more dangerous than having people with augmented hearing. So they’re trying to basically bring them up into the 21st century and change the fire service.

Mike Dailey:

Our chief is using me as an example. We’ve learned how to patch the radio in through my phone so that I can hear the radio calls. My department responds to a lot of accidents on the interstate. If you can imagine the highway noise, all the vehicles, fire trucks running, generators running, and people yelling and everything else. The amount of noise is something that the hearing booths can’t duplicate. The guys I work with, I tell them, “Hey, if you need something, a hand signal, get my attention.” They know what to do. They’ll flash a light at me, they’ll wave a hand. A lot of it comes down to I just have to have my head on a swivel a little bit more than normal, and we’re able to compensate and make up for it. I’m able to actually hear. I actually have guys say, “What’d they say?”

Richard:

I know that feeling. Being a cyborg, I can go into a dinner with 250 people, but because of the accessory, people are always turning to me and saying, “What did they say? What did they say?” I’m the deaf guy in the room and I’m interpreting for them.

Mike Dailey:

I’m always ask them, I’m like, “Do you want me to ask my friend Ray Charles what he saw?” My goodness.

Richard:

Now, the other aspect of what you told me before I find fascinating, because I’ve done the same thing myself, is the bluffing. I believe that most people with a hearing loss, they bluff. Tell me how you worked your way out of that. Tell me how you dealt with it. How did you stop bluffing?

Mike Dailey:

It took me a while. The electronic voices were easier to get used to and become more natural than the constant strain of watching people’s faces, watching their lips. I think the only reason I was able to break away as much from lip reading was because it was during the pandemic and everybody wore a mask. I still have to deal with that because we still wear masks in the patient situations and hospitals are still wearing masks. So getting over the bluffing was a lot easier because there’s no way to bluff when somebody’s wearing a mask. You’ve got to figure out what they were saying. So it was a easier transition for me because of that situation.

Richard:

I find that interesting because I used to be able to lip read conversations from 25 feet away. After I got cochlear implants, I’ve lost that skill. I can lip read somebody I’m talking to, but I can’t eavesdrop on a conversation anymore.

Mike Dailey:

How do I want to say this? My family still tries to get away from me. So they figure since I can hear, they can whisper. So one, I can catch a lot of the whispers, but two, I keep that lip reading because I try to catch them. Because boy, they set me up.

Richard:

How many children do you have?

Mike Dailey:

Two daughters.

Richard:

Excellent. They have you wrapped around their little finger, I’m sure.

Mike Dailey:

Oh, no. No, no, no. Not at all.

Richard:

Now, so let me ask another question. Your skills, your abilities, are amazing. What I try to explain to people, or my experience of talking to people, is that if you have a talent, a cochlear implant should not hold you back from going for the job you want. Can you talk about that a little bit?

Mike Dailey:

I’m the type of person that if I want to do something, I’ll set my mind to do it and I’ll just do it. When I did lose the ability to listen through a stethoscope, that was really hard for me, and that was something I missed for several years. Because with the hearing aids, when I first got them, they didn’t have the Bluetooth, they didn’t have all the technology that we have, so it was a big blow. When I was offered the opportunity and saw the technology, I was blessed to be in a situation where there was somebody that was willing to give me a chance. I wasn’t going to let this hinder me. It was going to become my leg up, so to speak.

Mike Dailey:

My daughter has a leaky valve in her heart. I can actually hear that with my stethoscope now. There’s a lot of other people around that can’t with a regular stethoscope. They have to have something to augment it. So to me, it’s almost a… In the back of an ambulance, people have trouble hearing with a stethoscope with the road noise, the sirens, and everything else. With me, it’s a blessing because it tones everything out, and all I can hear is that I can focus on what I’m trying to do. So to me, my hearing loss now is not necessarily a hindrance, but it’s my leg up in the world. And plus, when I travel on vacation with the family, I can sleep in a hotel a lot easier than they can.

Richard:

We had a lightning storm two nights ago here, and my wife said it was the worst storm she’s ever heard. I slept right through it. I had no clue.

Mike Dailey:

So you understand exactly where I’m coming from. It’s a superpower.

Richard:

We have another podcast interview here on the site with Suzanne Tillitson, who is a intensive care nurse during COVID, and her stories were remarkable. But I remember asking her about listening to her heart. She said she had to listen to special recordings for a long time so that she could differentiate the different heartbeats. So there are techniques out there. I think there are quite a number of people in the medical profession, or aspiring to be nurses or doctors, who come to these sites wanting to know their limitations. Your interview here is going to be very, very important for them to understand there are no limits.

Mike Dailey:

Definitely not. I try to tell people the only limitations are the ones you set on yourself. This is a blessing. I joke with the guys around here. As they get older, their hearing’s going to get worse. As I get older, my hearing’s going to get better.

Richard:

It’s true. It’s true. Mike, let me ask you, do you have any last words or words of advice for our listeners before we sign off?

Mike Dailey:

The only advice I could give anyone that would really help is don’t give up. You can do it. Don’t hesitate. The longer you put things off, the more you’re going to miss. The amount of things that I have gotten back, hearing the ocean, being able to hear while I’m swimming with my kids, being able to hear my daughter’s laughter. That stuff is what’s important in life, not what they look like or what can’t I do. It’s about what can I do. If you look at life of what can you do? How can I make it better? And how can I enjoy this more? Then it’s a simple choice.

Richard:

Mike, you know what? You’re absolutely amazing. I’m so glad you sat down. No, you have no idea, because I’ve been following your story in and out and different sites, but I’ve wanted to sit down with you for the longest time. So I just want to let you know how much I appreciate your time, how much I appreciate your message. You will be changing lives like you just wouldn’t believe from taking time to sit down with me.

Mike Dailey:

Well, thank you, sir. I appreciate the opportunity. I’ve followed you and been a big fan. I think what you do is just awesome. I refer people to your website all the time. So continue doing what you’re doing and thank you.