a medical discovery for deafness

I would like to either hear or be deaf. it is frustraighting being in both worlds ,the deaf dont except you cause you cand hear some and the hearing wont look at you so you know what is going on . How can we try to meet half way.If no one is will to try. You have to be able to help both sides. If your are deaf you want the hearing to help you ,if you are hearing and going deaf you want some one deaf to help you understand why..or help you through this part of your life. some way we have to communicate.. I say let the hearing learn asl so they can communicate with the deaf and the deaf to help the hearing make it threw the process it is going to take to get there. It is confuseing for me to get on here and so many are hearing but want to learn like me. but I am hoh and deaf so I cant help either way. That is why i need someone that is deaf to help me find the way threw this mess. I am in.
 
SilentRider said:
With all the advancements scientists and medical personnel are making, lets say there was a discovery made that can make a person hear again regardless how it was lost. And the recovery is 100%.
How many would accept the procedure and hear again? Or decline and stay the way one was born or made deaf?
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I agree about doing risk analysis first and I suppose that's how I ended up not hearing. You're likely going to get those of us who were brought up hearing say we'd get the procedure (depending on the analysis) and those of us who were brought up deaf to not get the procedure.

I was brought up in the hearing world and had hearing problems since birth but wasn't diagnosed with a loss until the mid 1960s by my father ... not an ENT. I am now a latent deaf woman. I looked carefully into BAHA but opted against it for many reasons over a period of years. I looked into cochlear implants but have opted against it for many reasons. I'd prefer to hear. I don't fit into the deaf culture. It's difficult staying in the hearing culture because I can't hear.
 
Yup, it's confusing!

birdlady said:
I would like to either hear or be deaf. it is frustraighting being in both worlds ,the deaf dont except you cause you cand hear some and the hearing wont look at you so you know what is going on . How can we try to meet half way.If no one is will to try. You have to be able to help both sides. If your are deaf you want the hearing to help you ,if you are hearing and going deaf you want some one deaf to help you understand why..or help you through this part of your life. some way we have to communicate.. I say let the hearing learn asl so they can communicate with the deaf and the deaf to help the hearing make it threw the process it is going to take to get there. It is confuseing for me to get on here and so many are hearing but want to learn like me. but I am hoh and deaf so I cant help either way. That is why i need someone that is deaf to help me find the way threw this mess. I am in.
Click to expand...
In my younger years (probably w/a moderate sensori-neural loss only back then), I worked in a dept. w/a co-worker who was deaf. We used to tell her (hearing people, not deaf) when she needed a new battery or when she needed to be fitted for a new earmold. She didn't hear her hearing aid beeping. She sounded "deaf." BUT she could hold conversations over the phone. So, people assumed she was hearing (but she wasn't). She used to get so frustrated with people who made that assumption. She also got frustrated with me because even though I wore BTEs, too often I would say, "Nevermind." She finally told me I say nevermind and I'll tell you later but never do.

Now I am in her shoes - 30 years later. Boy, do I know what my co-worker was talking about (but I have the disadvantage of not sounding deaf).

I will tell you that ASL is a difficult language to learn for hearing people. It's not in English order. I used to use SEE (made sense for me) but it was too tedious. Now we use something a sign language instructor recently called "pigeon sign." It's a shortcut of English and works.

I'm also in limbo since I don't fit into the hearing culture and don't fit into the deaf culture. I'm winging it day-to-day. It's tough for sure. Good luck to you.
 
One thing for sure- if you don't know what you are missing, you don't miss that.

Deaf person doesn't want to hear b/c a deaf person doesn't know what it's like to hear .
But given the chance to hear and function like a 100% hearing person does for a sufficient while - I am not so sure a deaf person wouldn't want that back anymore.
Simple.

Fuzzy
 
I'm 54; was born HOH; 60% deaf in both ears. I went to regular school; not to a special school for deaf kids. Let me tell you about an experience that I had a couple of years ago. I got new Siemens HA's. I heard better than I've ever heard in my life. I could even hear whispers - which I'd never been able to do before. Then I made a mistake. The aids that I'd been given didn't have a feature that I wanted. So I exchanged them for a different pair. The second pair were nowhere as good as the first, and I asked if I could get the first pair back and was told no. So while I hear better; it's NOT as good as that first pair. I could understand what people were saying to me when their backs were turned to me; I could eavesdrop on conversations while on the city bus, etc. It made me realize that that hearing people live in a world of sound. I soon noticed that having normal or near-normal hearing changes your non-verbal behavior - and hearing people notice it. So yes; if I could get a prescription for pills (hydergine?) and in a few months have my nerve damage repaired and have normal hearing; I'd certainly do it.
 
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