Rush always has had trouble with some words since his surgery, and always will have trouble with some words, until there's another big improvement in cochlear implant technology. The implants are amazing works of media technology, but they are nowhere near perfect. Many (most?) implant recipients say they end up hearing everything as if it were coming out of a cheap AM radio that's a bit out of tune, and the implants aren't that great at distinguishing background sounds from voices. Here's what Rush has to say about it, from a January 2003 interview:
About 18 months ago, an autoimmune attack left Limbaugh deaf for three months. Following a cochlear implant - an electronic device which stimulates nerves in the inner ear - his hearing is much improved, though still impaired. Now, during each show, a stenographer types out what every caller says so that he can read their words on a computer if his ears fail him.Rush continues to have than in-house closed-captioning system for his show to this day, and that's why Rush still "has trouble with some words": Sometimes the implant just doesn't allow him to hear a given caller's voice properly (everyone's voice has different intonations and other vocal qualities), so he has to wait for the captioner to finish typing the words onto his computer screen before he can respond."A one-on-one conversation like this is easy," he says. "But this air-conditioning unit - you can probably barely hear it - sounds like a jet engine to me. I don't hear enough of the high frequency spectrum to be able to detect a melody any more. I thought my career might be over and I wasn't ready to quit. I had been taking for granted that I could get up every day and do this, and now it was about to be taken away. It rejuvenated me, gave me a 16-year-old's type of energy and enthusiasm."