"I had to shut everything down," he said. "I basically listened for a living."

He also had a lease for his business and other expenses.

Then, his doctor told him about a new technology — a cochlear implant.

The device stimulates the auditory nerve, allowing a person to hear. Part of the device is surgically implanted, and part of it hooks over the ear, fastening to the surgical implant through the skin via a magnet.

The device also is a source of controversy, as addressed in "Sweet Nothing in My Ear," a TV movie starring Marlee Matlin that aired April 20. Children adapt more quickly than adults, easily picking up language skills, which makes them ideal candidates for cochlear implants, Fischer said.

But, "in the deaf culture where the parents are culturally deaf and communicate with sign language," Fischer said, "they see no real need for their children to have the cochlear implant.

"Yet, there is a large group of the population who says you can't deny your child the opportunity to hear."

But for Fischer there's no controversy. From July 29 until his surgery at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland Nov. 13, he was deaf. After the surgery, he could hear again.

Soon things were back to normal for Fischer. He started work Feb. 4.

"Now, I'm back, and I can (retire) on my terms rather than just have to stop," he said.

He's also better able to follow family conversations and to listen at the book club he attends.

"Those were things that meant so much to me to have back again," he said.

He said losing his hearing gave him a much needed rest after 34 years of working. But he's glad to be back on the job and reintroduced to the world of sound.

"It's been a wonderful, weird and scary kind of experience to go through all of that," he said.

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