From Alabama, almost deaf.....

steph9700

steph9700

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I am new to the site and am almost deaf and live in Cullman Alabama. I am looking for more people closer to me that might could help me with sign language. I am looking on the internet for friends.
 
Thank you I hope to find friends and everything too. I have been hard of hearing most of my life but I am new to the deaf community as my parents didn't want me to be in "that kind of closed of community".
 
The Dr. said that I wasn't impaired enough to be a candidate for CI but that hearing aids didn't help much either. So now I do a lot of lip reading and I am trying to learn sign language to help, (and I do wear hearing aids too). So I am almost deaf but not deaf enough, and plus I can't afford to get the CI's even if I was "deaf enough". I went to a Dr. Simpson in Birmingham @ St. Vincent's hospital. I have total in both ears 70% loss. And thank you for welcoming me, I need some nice people around me to talk to that knows how I feel, left out of the loop so to speak cause you can't her "normal" people. My family treats me like crap and says I am putting on. my hubby is the world to me, he supports me in any way he can. and both my dogs are well my kids. again thanks for welcoming me and being a good strength to my battles with the hearing part of my family.
 
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steph9700 said:
The Dr. said that I wasn't impaired enough to be a candidate for CI but that hearing aids didn't help much either. So now I do a lot of lip reading and I am trying to learn sign language to help, (and I do wear hearing aids too). So I am almost deaf but not deaf enough, and plus I can't afford to get the CI's even if I was "deaf enough". I went to a Dr. Simpson in Birmingham @ St. Vincent's hospital. I have total in both ears 70% loss. And thank you for welcoming me, I need some nice people around me to talk to that knows how I feel, left out of the loop so to speak cause you can't her "normal" people. My family treats me like crap and says I am putting on. my hubby is the world to me, he supports me in any way he can. and both my dogs are well my kids. again thanks for welcoming me and being a good strength to my battles with the hearing part of my family.
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Welcome to AD. I have 74% on one ear and 48% on the other. The doctor said the same thing to me about CI. With the 74% is not clear, but that 48% is clear...I wish it went the other way around. :pissed: that is why wearing one hearing aid is great for bad ear than on the good one because it is more clear, if I use the good ear, it gets soooo annoying and sooo loud because it is not clear....does that makes sense? Weird...
 
More about me so you can maybe understand....

I have been hearing impaired most of my life but my family wouldn't buy me hearing aid because my Dad said I wouldn't wear them and there was no point in it cause my hearing wouldn't get worse. He was wrong and now it is to the point my husband and I are going to take asl classes at the local college(Wallace State if you know Alabama). I am going to get an LG enV phone that has a keyboard on it when you flip the phone top up. I can't get a good signal around here to get a sidekick with T-Mobil. We have a contract with Verizon and they have really good service here only I can't hear that well to use my phone. Hubby has also just purchased off of the store here some ASL software for us to try and learn as well before classes start next August/September. I appreciate people telling me welcome because I have never really felt welcome anywhere else. I am glad to finally start finding my way into the deaf community after my family denying me the choice to do it on my own.
 
restless_heart said:
Welcome to AD. I have 74% on one ear and 48% on the other. The doctor said the same thing to me about CI. With the 74% is not clear, but that 48% is clear...I wish it went the other way around. :pissed: that is why wearing one hearing aid is great for bad ear than on the good one because it is more clear, if I use the good ear, it gets soooo annoying and sooo loud because it is not clear....does that makes sense? Weird...
Click to expand...

yes it makes sense, when I was 21 and got my first pair of hearing aids on my own they were little in the canal with a little pearl tip to pull them out. they didn't adjust to my different tones of deafness and it made the stuff I could already hear sound like train horns and it made the other stuff just a little louder. Now I wear a pair of beltone fullshell digital hearing aids and help me hear the stuff I have problems with instead of every sound. I have trouble with things being clear anyway because like most everyone else here we are deaf in certain sounds and no two persons are alike. I hear more high pitched sounds like the sound of the T.V. coming on but don't hear the bass off of a really good song I like, I feel it more than I hear it. My hubby has his own little hand signals when I haven't put my aids in for the day, when I get too loud he makes a downward motion with his hand to let me know I'm too loud.
 
steph9700 said:
yes it makes sense, when I was 21 and got my first pair of hearing aids on my own they were little in the canal with a little pearl tip to pull them out. they didn't adjust to my different tones of deafness and it made the stuff I could already hear sound like train horns and it made the other stuff just a little louder. Now I wear a pair of beltone fullshell digital hearing aids and help me hear the stuff I have problems with instead of every sound. I have trouble with things being clear anyway because like most everyone else here we are deaf in certain sounds and no two persons are alike. I hear more high pitched sounds like the sound of the T.V. coming on but don't hear the bass off of a really good song I like, I feel it more than I hear it. My hubby has his own little hand signals when I haven't put my aids in for the day, when I get too loud he makes a downward motion with his hand to let me know I'm too loud.
Click to expand...

I started wearing at age three, but back then it was a box thingy with wires to the ear molds...now I wear behind the ear since 1978--yes the very same hearing aid I am wearing today, even one ear mold. the ear doctor was so amazed that my mold was good condition so was my aid. I had aid repaired twice almost thirty years. I took a very very good care of it. I cannot live without wearing hearing aid as if I am addict to it. I will go insane going deaf.

Oh I know what you mean by sounds. I cannot hear high pitch with my hearing aids, but bass is the other way around, I can hear airplanes, trains--anything that roars, or when someone SHOUTS, even my husband sneeze (very very loud that can shake the walls), things like that-it is how well I hear without my hearing aids, everyone has their type of loss...Of course, even names almost rymes the same and you are not sure whose name they were calling...I learned the hard way. I learned to speak well with the help of my mother and sister, even music. I never signed until I was 9 years old then lost it all in 1985 when I went to a regualr school with no interupter or special class. I learned sign again when I met my husband in 2003. I am still not very good in sign.

My dad used his hand signals to hush or quiet me down when I am loud. I learned how to speak normal growing up because of my dad.
 
I know WALLACE College.

I have met some of people who have problem with parents or family not accept deafness. They were forced to use the oral and something will have lot of attention with them. I am happy that I dont take it because I have NO PATIENCE when I was kid. Now and become older, I have lot of patiences. ;)
 
Hello and welcome to Alldeaf! I hope you continue to make new acquaintances through here as well as elsewhere. Nice to see that you and your husband are working diligently to improve the overall quality for your lives when you have felt 'left out', 'rejected' or even 'not accepted' in the past. Things can only get better when you're set out to improve it in the best way possible...and wishes you all the best too. In the meantime, hope you'll enjoy your stay here in AD! :)



:wave:
~RR
 
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