for oral people: When your HA/CI battery runs out

I just remembered a day in August I ended up deaf most of the day. I went to St Martins with my parents (it was a college graduation present for my younger sister, but she ended up not going cuz she joined the americorps) we went out on a boat to a little Island to hang on the beach and go snorkeling. I had taken off my aid to go for a dip and when I went to put it back on the battery fell and just disappeared into the sand. This naturally happened the ONLY day I didn't bring back ups. I still had a good time, it just was very silent and me and parents only communicated when it was necessary. None of us know ASL, but I didn't even need a hearing aid til i was 26, so this wasn't a lack on my parents part, not having me learn ASL. It sucked though. Obviously I wouldn't be using ASL with the other tourists but it would have nice to be able to talk to my mom and dad. I do meh speech reading, I've never had classes but I have picked up. It helps if I have sound cues, also I have a hard time understanding speech unless I can see a person's mouth. I think I need both the visual speech and the heard speech and my brain puts everything together lol. I should soooo take classes!
 
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GrendelQ said:
DD, not sure if I understand, do you have an auditory-oral background? If so, are you saying that because of this you are totally dependent on technology or based on your senior year experience, do you think you can get along just fine without technology?

Did you supplement your year without HAs with CART or any other form of accommodation?
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I do have an auditory oral background, very sadly. I am saying that an exclusive auditory oral/ auditory verbal approach trains a kid to be totally and completely dependent on hearing technology with no other options. Why we had an auditory verbal trained boy completely and totally freaking out b/c he couldn't function at ALL without his CI.
I can speechread very well, so yes, I can function well without my hearing aids.(especially now that i have ASL) ...matter of fact I can have 'spoken' conversations without even making a sound with my close hearing friends. ....this is from a person who has been consistantly tested as being an aural learner. I completed my senior year of high school with ONLY the typical mainstream dhh accomondations, meaning front row seating and speech therapy. (i had a canalplasty that improved my hearing on my right ear) Still made honor roll for the first time ever.
 
I always kept extra batteries with me. My kids always had extra batteries in the nurses office for them. (They were not allowed to keep them in their backpack or pockets)

Now, none of us use HA's anymore.
 
I'm exclusively oral and when my battery dies, I stress. I've been hoh my whole life but my parents chose to force me into asl classes and not get hearing aids. I'm good at "getting by" due to this. Since I got the single ha since then, I've lost a lot of lip reading and context gathering skills I had though. I keep two with me in a keychain battery tester (useless but a good case) at all times. Since the size 13's last about two weeks I'm good for a month if I'm not at home where the box of batteries are.
 
It just reminds me of when, you know, you go swimming at the beach or a pool, you're pretty much deaf for the whole time in or near water and can't interact orally with your friends, family/whatever because they're either too busy with something, can't face you while talking, or not close to you. Thus we end up feeling like it's difficult to be social in this kind of situation, like you have no choice but end up having to enjoy it on your own, just like being in a dark room and not being able to see what anyone's saying.

One time, it was better was with others who knew ASL, so we were able to communicate with each other instead of just being anti-social. Of course, it's not my choice to be anti-social at an oral gathering like a swim, it's just the circumstances aren't in my favor in this situation to be oral.

Which kind of brings my original point to the battery loss situations. Sometimes I end up getting that feeling when it's out, until the new battery is in.
 
yeah technology is what we can't live without relying on. Do anyone of you can handle chatting with people by the bonfire, with battery on?
 
Frisky Feline said:
yeah technology is what we can't live without relying on. Do anyone of you can handle chatting with people by the bonfire, with battery on?
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Bonfire/campfire at night is a little tricky, since it's not always consistent lighting. Flame-light flickers so it's not the easiest thing to speech read. Also sometimes people speak from beyond the range of firelight, so you miss out on that portion of the conversation.
 
Frisky Feline said:
yeah technology is what we can't live without relying on. Do anyone of you can handle chatting with people by the bonfire, with battery on?
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HA, i remember at folk fest talking with someone late at night, and i was all " i can't read your lips in the dark"
 
That's a good question about the bonfire at night. I think at the camp much quieter I can hear better than restaurant. One time I was at the whirlpool in the evening very quiet I can hear what the lady said I didn't have any problem with that similiar to bonfire I guess.
 
Yeah, bonfires are very tricky for me with all hearing (oral) people. ASL rocks in that case !! :D
 
naisho said:
It just reminds me of when, you know, you go swimming at the beach or a pool, you're pretty much deaf for the whole time in or near water and can't interact orally with your friends, family/whatever because they're either too busy with something, can't face you while talking, or not close to you. Thus we end up feeling like it's difficult to be social in this kind of situation, like you have no choice but end up having to enjoy it on your own, just like being in a dark room and not being able to see what anyone's saying.

One time, it was better was with others who knew ASL, so we were able to communicate with each other instead of just being anti-social. Of course, it's not my choice to be anti-social at an oral gathering like a swim, it's just the circumstances aren't in my favor in this situation to be oral.

Which kind of brings my original point to the battery loss situations. Sometimes I end up getting that feeling when it's out, until the new battery is in.
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I actually hear better while in the water simply because sound waves bounce over the water more readily where the air is cooler. I can even understand people talking to me in the water as well though they talk a little louder than normal with me.
 
I'm a little bit nervous when it comes to swimming with water with my CI's on. I never done it, and i don't think i'm going to risk it. I mean when it comes to swimming i normally pay attention to the people getting in and out of the pool, like when it's time for the life guard's break they whistle, i can't hear it, so i look around to see if people are getting out of the pool. Sometimes my parents would flag me down and let me know. But i just watch to see.
 
coolgirlspyer90 said:
I'm a little bit nervous when it comes to swimming with water with my CI's on. I never done it, and i don't think i'm going to risk it. I mean when it comes to swimming i normally pay attention to the people getting in and out of the pool, like when it's time for the life guard's break they whistle, i can't hear it, so i look around to see if people are getting out of the pool. Sometimes my parents would flag me down and let me know. But i just watch to see.
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When I was younger, I kept swimming with a hearing aid on and try to keep my head above the water, lol.
It sucked for me not to be able to hear near water so I wore it on. That was how daring I was.

Needless to say as I got older I stopped doing it. I was lucky for awhile until it got wet and broke. Bad me!
 
naisho said:
When I was younger, I kept swimming with a hearing aid on and try to keep my head above the water, lol.
It sucked for me not to be able to hear near water so I wore it on. That was how daring I was.

Needless to say as I got older I stopped doing it. I was lucky for awhile until it got wet and broke. Bad me!
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I was petrified of getting my hearing aids wet as a kid. Probably because my parents didn't want to replace expensive aids, so they probably told me not to get the aids wet. I took it so far that I was afraid of a few rain drops on my head. lol
 
I always feel isolated in a group of people. If I don't have my CI on or battery dies, I definitely retreat into my own little world. No one around me knows ASL and my CI is brand new so I am not hearing things yet. My own little world can get lonely at times, other times it is a blessing!!!
 
naisho said:
When I was younger, I kept swimming with a hearing aid on and try to keep my head above the water, lol.
It sucked for me not to be able to hear near water so I wore it on. That was how daring I was.

Needless to say as I got older I stopped doing it. I was lucky for awhile until it got wet and broke. Bad me!
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When I went swimming I always left mine on. I was required to wear one of those old swimming caps that's all rubber. We got a larger one for me and it covered the HA's and they stayed dry. I could hear everyone and still go off the diving boards without getting it wet. They don't make those good solid swim caps anymore that I know of.
 
naisho said:
When I was younger, I kept swimming with a hearing aid on and try to keep my head above the water, lol.
It sucked for me not to be able to hear near water so I wore it on. That was how daring I was.

Needless to say as I got older I stopped doing it. I was lucky for awhile until it got wet and broke. Bad me!
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Weird people! My parents did something right. I took swimming lessons from a young age, and did it HA free.

Swimming is solitary, and I think that's one thing I liked about it. Wonder what people want to hear when they swim anyway?
 
Originally Posted by naisho View Post
Normal hearing people areas everyone stares at me as if I had a bomb in my hand (something like that ) if I switch them in public
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I had pple asking me "what is that in your ears? pointing at my hearing aids.
Pple are just curious about stuff,
the way the TV show is "How's that made".

- most of normal hearing pple simply never ever had a chance to see what
a hearing aid look like, let alone these tiny digital marvels we nowadays have.
I am sure watching someone changing a battery is a mind boggling experience for a novice, lol and it happens so fast, too,
-ZOOM, before one's mind barely registered the shape of the whole thing, the entire operation already gone from one's eyes, lolol

After all, the audio.. shops are rather few and between and also discreetly tucked away from mainstream public.
you need to know where to go if you want to see a hearing aid up close. thus a humble hearing aid remains an enigma for most hearing peeps. hence the bug eyes, meh.

Fuzzy
 
Bottesini said:
Weird people! My parents did something right. I took swimming lessons from a young age, and did it HA free.

Swimming is solitary, and I think that's one thing I liked about it. Wonder what people want to hear when they swim anyway?
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marco pollo??:D
 
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