Disconnected from Deaf Community-looking for friends/support

[LittleScorpion]

Greetings, all! It’s taken me a few years to finally get up the courage to reach out here. I began slowly losing my hearing by my second decade. Twenty years on and I’ve got moderately severe bilateral loss. I was raised hearing. My family didn’t understand my struggle to understand for years; most of them do now, but I still need to remind them about lighting and things when we speak in person or Facetime. (My father and one sister refuse to use VRS.) I rely on lipreading a lot, because HAs haven’t yet worked out. (I’m getting a new set soon to give them another go.) Before my hearing loss was significant enough for HAs, I went to Gally to learn ASL. I got quite involved in the Deaf Community for a while, but when they all went off to college full time, we lost contact. (I went to uni myself, locally, and I got busy as well.) ASL helped me so much, but without a community, my signing wasn’t as strong. By my thirties, my hearing loss dipped again and I found a few local connections for a time, but those were eventually lost as well. (I have neurological diseases effecting my mobility and I also started having seizures. I live in a very rural area and I couldn’t drive, so that made keeping in touch hard. I know there’s technology, but I wasn’t accustomed to using it like younger generations and I still prefer face to face communication, though I don’t mind video to keep in touch.) Now I’ve also got vision challenges and I feel even more removed. I rely on VRS for all phone communication and I sign to myself, but barring my Deaf social services people, who I don’t talk to a lot, I don’t have a Deaf social network. I don’t fit in with the able bodied hearing world and I feel disconnected from the Deaf world. I’m looking for kind, open minded people to chat to. I know I’m not the only one in the world with complications like this, but I feel quite alone in my struggles at the moment. I want to make some friends and improve my ASL skills. Thank you for reading. Ta-ra!

 

[Old Analog]

Same neurological and regular cochlear degeneration slow over years, in 50's had gene turn on caused neurological and not just ears but many organs, under control now, hearing back to slow decline what little I have left, guessing have two - four years before all is gone can still hear sound with aids but understanding spoken word aids can't help cause it's in the brain, was in rural areas had to move closer to family, good timing had 3 more grand daughters last fall, don't drive, bicycle 4 miles to town, think my bio 3-4 pages back, welcome aboard from NW Ark.

 

[LittleScorpion]

I didn’t pay attention and I accidentally put a message here instead of hitting reply. Oops.

 

[LittleScorpion]

Same neurological and regular cochlear degeneration slow over years, in 50's had gene turn on caused neurological and not just ears but many organs, under control now, hearing back to slow decline what little I have left, guessing have two - four years before all is gone can still hear sound with aids but understanding spoken word aids can't help cause it's in the brain, was in rural areas had to move closer to family, good timing had 3 more grand daughters last fall, don't drive, bicycle 4 miles to town, think my bio 3-4 pages back, welcome aboard from NW Ark.

Hiya! I got your other message and I responded, then I found this. Clearly, I’m still getting the hang of this computer stuff. Mazel tov on your new granddaughters! I’m a wheelie and my neurological stuff effects many organ systems as well, including both vestibular and proprioception. I need support for walking even short distances, I need to rest a lot and if I’m not careful, I tip over. So, for now, bicycling is out. If I lived somewhere flatter and closer to town, I could get around in my wheelchair, but that’s hard to find around here. I’m hoping. Nice to meet you!

 

[Alex]

Hello and welcome aboard!

 

[LittleScorpion]

Hello and welcome aboard!

Thank you! I love the quote.

 

[gretaelise]

Greetings, all! It’s taken me a few years to finally get up the courage to reach out here. I began slowly losing my hearing by my second decade. Twenty years on and I’ve got moderately severe bilateral loss. I was raised hearing. My family didn’t understand my struggle to understand for years; most of them do now, but I still need to remind them about lighting and things when we speak in person or Facetime. (My father and one sister refuse to use VRS.) I rely on lipreading a lot, because HAs haven’t yet worked out. (I’m getting a new set soon to give them another go.) Before my hearing loss was significant enough for HAs, I went to Gally to learn ASL. I got quite involved in the Deaf Community for a while, but when they all went off to college full time, we lost contact. (I went to uni myself, locally, and I got busy as well.) ASL helped me so much, but without a community, my signing wasn’t as strong. By my thirties, my hearing loss dipped again and I found a few local connections for a time, but those were eventually lost as well. (I have neurological diseases effecting my mobility and I also started having seizures. I live in a very rural area and I couldn’t drive, so that made keeping in touch hard. I know there’s technology, but I wasn’t accustomed to using it like younger generations and I still prefer face to face communication, though I don’t mind video to keep in touch.) Now I’ve also got vision challenges and I feel even more removed. I rely on VRS for all phone communication and I sign to myself, but barring my Deaf social services people, who I don’t talk to a lot, I don’t have a Deaf social network. I don’t fit in with the able bodied hearing world and I feel disconnected from the Deaf world. I’m looking for kind, open minded people to chat to. I know I’m not the only one in the world with complications like this, but I feel quite alone in my struggles at the moment. I want to make some friends and improve my ASL skills. Thank you for reading. Ta-ra!

Hey! Im in ASL one right now, and was looking for someone to video chat and sign together let me know if that would interest you!