‘Life-changing’: Thurston County educator receives cochlear implant

For many people, sounds such as birds chirping, cars driving by or children’s laughter are taken for granted.
Not for Jennie Guggenheim.

Guggenheim, who was born in the Philippines and currently resides in Lacey, has suffered from severe to profound hearing loss due to ruptured ear drums and double ear infections discovered when she was a child.

She had worn hearing aids from the time she was 5 years old, but over three decades later, her hearing loss was worsening in her left ear. Guggenheim, a mother of two daughters and teacher for nearly a decade, decided to make a change.

“I’m at this point in my life where I want to be able to hear my family. I don’t want to be a little bit older and wait too long,” she said. “I just want to be able to hear everything that’s going on around me.”

She looked into the cochlear implant, a surgically implanted electronic device that improves hearing by sending sounds past the damaged part of the ear straight to the cochlear nerve. In December 2024, Guggenheim took an evaluation to learn if she was a candidate for the implant, and she underwent surgery on July 28. The device was activated on Aug. 7, and her world changed forever.

“It was incredible. It was a little overwhelming because I was hearing sounds I’ve never been able to hear before,” she said of activation day. “Things like the cars going down the street, the fridge humming, the birds chirping, I was never able to hear that. It’s been amazing.”

The biggest and most welcomed change for Guggenheim with the cochlear implant has been the ability to hear her family and communicate in a new way. Before, she had to look closely at the person with which she was speaking and read their lips, but that chore is a thing of the past.

“What’s been life-changing for me is being able to hear things I’ve never heard before, and I’ve been able to have clear understanding and conversations with other people that I’ve never been able to have before,” Guggenheim said. “I’ve been able to hear my husband even when he turns his body, and I can hear him without having to rely on lip reading. I’ve been able to hear things that my daughters are playing. I can hear them in the playroom, and I can hear them talking and laughing.”

Guggenheim launched her business Sign With Jennie, Sign For Life in 2015 to help students of all ages learn American Sign Language (ASL). She shares new signs with the deaf and hard-of-hearing community online and in-person.

She also will teach at her daughter’s Pathfinders preschool program at Real Hope Community Church.

She hopes that her education career and her newfound hearing, which she said is 10 times stronger in her left ear, where the implant is located, than her right, will help her continue to inspire children of all ages and abilities.

“I love teaching the little ones. I’m really excited to be that role model in the start of young kids’ lives,” she said. “In the future, I definitely want to get certified and become a certified entrepreneur and branch out to help the deaf and hard-of-hearing community a little bit more.”

September is Deaf Awareness Month, and Guggenheim said that while the deaf and hard-of-hearing community may be small, it is mighty.

“If people have hearing loss or a disability, don’t let it define you. Be a positive role model for others because you never know what anybody might be going through,” she said. “The deaf and hard-of-hearing community is definitely small. We relate to each other a lot.”