Hi!
I'm a 51 y.o. female living in Florida. Before mid-October, I had better than average hearing for my age. Then, I suffered a sudden sensorineural hearing loss in my left ear. My ENT gave me corticosteroids which worked only temporarily. In mid-November, I noticed that the hearing loss in the left ear was progressing and that my right ear was now also involved. A couple of weeks ago, I saw another specialist and had more testing done. The left ear has really deteriorated -- too far for hearing aids to do much good. The right ear now has a patchwork of severe, moderate and mild losses depending on the frequency. I received a diagnosis of "autoimmune inner ear disease" and was told that I would go completely deaf within a matter of months if I didn't start immunotherapy ASAP (which I did).
The thing is, I'm pretty sure that I'll be going deaf even with the immunotherapy. Even if the medication works, I really don't want to take it for years. The long term side effects (cancer, serious infection) freak me out.
I have been struggling emotionally with this whole thing. I have lived by my ears more than most hearing people. I have a bachelor's in vocal performance and long wanted to be a professional opera singer. I currently sing as a soloist (non-professionally), direct a choir and play piano. I have a Ph.D. in French and speak the language fluently. My husband and I are really into birding and I have (or use to have, since as of two months ago I can no longer hear high frequencies at all) the talent for identifying birds to species from their tiniest vocalizations.
All this to say that these past two months have been filled with sadness and a deep sense of loss. I fully understand how someone who is born deaf can be deeply happy and have a totally fulfilling life. But the experience of being "late-deafened" had been mostly a sad one for me so far.
The only silver lining I've found is that I'm really enjoying learning ASL. So far I have only taught myself with videos on-line, but I am going to sign up either for classes or for one-on-one tutoring pretty soon.
I'm also looking into the possibility of cochlear implants, but will be continuing with the ASL even if I get them.
I'm a 51 y.o. female living in Florida. Before mid-October, I had better than average hearing for my age. Then, I suffered a sudden sensorineural hearing loss in my left ear. My ENT gave me corticosteroids which worked only temporarily. In mid-November, I noticed that the hearing loss in the left ear was progressing and that my right ear was now also involved. A couple of weeks ago, I saw another specialist and had more testing done. The left ear has really deteriorated -- too far for hearing aids to do much good. The right ear now has a patchwork of severe, moderate and mild losses depending on the frequency. I received a diagnosis of "autoimmune inner ear disease" and was told that I would go completely deaf within a matter of months if I didn't start immunotherapy ASAP (which I did).
The thing is, I'm pretty sure that I'll be going deaf even with the immunotherapy. Even if the medication works, I really don't want to take it for years. The long term side effects (cancer, serious infection) freak me out.
I have been struggling emotionally with this whole thing. I have lived by my ears more than most hearing people. I have a bachelor's in vocal performance and long wanted to be a professional opera singer. I currently sing as a soloist (non-professionally), direct a choir and play piano. I have a Ph.D. in French and speak the language fluently. My husband and I are really into birding and I have (or use to have, since as of two months ago I can no longer hear high frequencies at all) the talent for identifying birds to species from their tiniest vocalizations.
All this to say that these past two months have been filled with sadness and a deep sense of loss. I fully understand how someone who is born deaf can be deeply happy and have a totally fulfilling life. But the experience of being "late-deafened" had been mostly a sad one for me so far.
The only silver lining I've found is that I'm really enjoying learning ASL. So far I have only taught myself with videos on-line, but I am going to sign up either for classes or for one-on-one tutoring pretty soon.
I'm also looking into the possibility of cochlear implants, but will be continuing with the ASL even if I get them.
being deaf and HOH is great in my opinion but I was born with it, so I understand that being late deafened is a whole different experience. There are quite a few late deafened people on All Deaf though so you're not alone 
