@Brian P
Yea I'm not above thinking about the S word. That being said I could never do it to my parents. Seems like there are some people who heal albeit incredibly slowly (2 years) and I'm somewhat optimistic that we can piggy back off of hearing loss research.
That being said quality of life is obliterated and it only deepens the wound knowing how many things we may miss out on contingent on waiting for science to maybe assist