Hi, my name is Tommy. I was recently diagnosed as permanently hard of Hearing with a hearing threshhold of 85db.
At age 10 I experienced a sharp pop and suddenly total loss of hearing in my left ear, it returned by about 15% over the following years. At age 21, I began esperiencing gradual hearing loss in my right ear and considering my job is communicating with customers on a 1 on 1 basis this presented problems.
Im not wealthy enough to afford thousands of dollars worth of hearing apparatus, but I did get in touch with the Florida Dept of Vocational Rehab. They said it's good that someone my age (23) is willing to work with such a considerable disabilty, and they would help in any way possible.
after a barrage of tests is was discovered my hearing loss was severe..
They got me a pair of Phonak Naida V UP model earmold hearing aids...and an explantion that my ossicles in my left ear had shattered and partially healed...and that the ossicles in my right ear apeared to have been damaged at some point in time.
With the aids in, and with low humidity, Im able to hear at a level that exceeds normal hearing. I quickly discovered that life is noisy...I missed my quiet, peaceful existence.
Over the past 2 months Ive become accustomed to the change, but when the aids come out, or humidity gets to them and they cutout, Im left once again in a world of silence.
i never learned ASL...I instead became attentive to details. I paid attention to peoples expressions, hand motions, eye movements, lip reading, etc...I found I was actually very accurate with this. Ive also found that if I still do this, even now that I can hear, that I can predict what a person is going to do or say before they approach me. it freaks people out.
My mother is profoundly deaf, and even with extremely powerful analog aids, she has trouble hearing conversation, apparently it runs in the family, but the doc says mine shouldnt get any worse than it is now.
I can honestly say that as nice as it is to be able to hear, living with hearing aids is a chore in and of itself. you must be vigilant of stuff contacting the aid, moisture, fluctuating batt. life, repair parts (tubes, connectors, filters, etc), not to mention the fact that humidity can render you without hearing, with no warning at all..just "silent".
They tell me that you get used to using hearing aids...the whole intrusive feel I get from them bothers me all day long.
OH well..thats my story.
At age 10 I experienced a sharp pop and suddenly total loss of hearing in my left ear, it returned by about 15% over the following years. At age 21, I began esperiencing gradual hearing loss in my right ear and considering my job is communicating with customers on a 1 on 1 basis this presented problems.
Im not wealthy enough to afford thousands of dollars worth of hearing apparatus, but I did get in touch with the Florida Dept of Vocational Rehab. They said it's good that someone my age (23) is willing to work with such a considerable disabilty, and they would help in any way possible.
after a barrage of tests is was discovered my hearing loss was severe..
They got me a pair of Phonak Naida V UP model earmold hearing aids...and an explantion that my ossicles in my left ear had shattered and partially healed...and that the ossicles in my right ear apeared to have been damaged at some point in time.
With the aids in, and with low humidity, Im able to hear at a level that exceeds normal hearing. I quickly discovered that life is noisy...I missed my quiet, peaceful existence.
Over the past 2 months Ive become accustomed to the change, but when the aids come out, or humidity gets to them and they cutout, Im left once again in a world of silence.
i never learned ASL...I instead became attentive to details. I paid attention to peoples expressions, hand motions, eye movements, lip reading, etc...I found I was actually very accurate with this. Ive also found that if I still do this, even now that I can hear, that I can predict what a person is going to do or say before they approach me. it freaks people out.
My mother is profoundly deaf, and even with extremely powerful analog aids, she has trouble hearing conversation, apparently it runs in the family, but the doc says mine shouldnt get any worse than it is now.
I can honestly say that as nice as it is to be able to hear, living with hearing aids is a chore in and of itself. you must be vigilant of stuff contacting the aid, moisture, fluctuating batt. life, repair parts (tubes, connectors, filters, etc), not to mention the fact that humidity can render you without hearing, with no warning at all..just "silent".
They tell me that you get used to using hearing aids...the whole intrusive feel I get from them bothers me all day long.
OH well..thats my story.
to AD!
