"My voice? Is that my voice?" the cochlear implant patient said quietly.

Audiologist Heather Maessen was activating the hearing enhancement device, buried deep in Ms. Spencer's inner ear.

"Yes . . . it's my voice! I'm hearing my voice. I haven't heard it for so long I didn't know what it was at first," Ms. Spencer said with increasing enthusiasm as the effectiveness of the implant became apparent.

A huge smile spread across the Dartmouth woman's face, and her eyes lit up as the activation continued and she became the 100th successful recipient of a cochlear implant at the Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Clinic in Halifax.

"I can even hear my sniffling," she said, as tears of joy started to roll down her cheeks.

She suddenly started a rapid-fire account of the experience as her hearing - which started to diminish in junior high school - was enhanced.

"I hear people moving behind me," she said.

A surgical team installed the implant June 3.

The cochlea is a spiral-shaped organ in the inner ear that transforms sound vibrations into nerve impulses, which are transmitted to the brain. Damage to the cochlea results in deafness.

A cochlear implant is a coil inserted into the inner ear with tiny electrodes on it. On the outside of the ear, the patient wears a microphone and a processor.

The microphone picks up the sound, which is sent to the processor, where it is turned into electrical impulses and sent to the electrodes. The impulses travel to the brain, which interprets them as sound.

Although the procedure does not completely restore hearing, it gives patients improved understanding of speech.

While the audiologist pecked away quietly at the computer keyboard, Ms. Spencer started moving around to locate different sources of noise in the seemingly soundless room.

"I haven't been able to hear what rain sounds like," Ms. Spencer said as her father, Dave, put his own tear-streaked face next to his daughter's and they shared a hug.

Dave struggled with deafness for 25 years until receiving his implant just six years ago.

"I know, darling. I know. I know what you're going through," he said as technology again overcame the genetic disorder that has plagued his family for generations.

Ms. Spencer's sister Tracy, 26, watched intently. She has the same disorder and is gradually losing her hearing.

There was not a dry eye in the room as Ms. Spencer, who works as a caregiver to seniors and is a dedicated Girl Guide leader, struggled to find words to describe the personal significance of the moment.

"I've not been able to hear what wind sounds like in the trees," she said. "I've not heard the sound of the ocean."

For the surgeons and audiologists involved, the moment of activation is often tense and emotional.

"People who have been deaf all their life might not respond so well (to the implant)," said Dr. Manohar Bance, one of Ms. Spencer's surgeons.

"It is at this moment, when we see the recipient react, that we know this part of the process is a success," he said.

Ms. Spencer has months of counselling and electronics tweaking ahead of her before she can start to take full advantage of the implant, which Dr. Bance estimated to be worth $24,000 to $28,000.

Staff at the Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Clinic and the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre performed Nova Scotia's first cochlear implant surgery in 2001.

Nova Scotia covers the cost of 14 such procedures, and the required followup, each year, and there are 40 people on the waiting list.

"We are trying to get the program increased to allow us to at least clear the waiting list," Dr. Bance said.

As the audiologist outlined maintenance procedures, Ms. Spencer sounded out plans for a serious road test of the device.

"I'll actually be able to hear when my Brownies talk to me instead of nodding my head in agreement at them," she said excitedly.

Music was also on her agenda.

"I want to get to as many places as I can and hear everything possible."

By Bill Power, The Halifax Herald