New guy.

christyra

christyra

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How's it going everyone? My name is Chris I'm 25 years old. I was born hearing. I joined the Army after I graduated high school. I was deployed last year and after a mortar round explode near me I lost 100% hearing in my left ear and some in my right ear.
I am currently still in the Army but I am being medically retired because of my hearing loss. I was pretty depressed about the whole situation but family, friends and time has helped a lot.
I will be going back to college full time when my medical discharge is complete. I'm going to really miss the military but excited to start next chapter of my life and all goes well I will be able to do well in my pre-requisite courses and get into medical school (fingers crossed).
I just started learning ASL.. I think I'm picking it up well.. Trying to stay positive.
Well anyways really excited to get to know you guys and learn as much as possible. Hit me up anytime if you have questions about me.
-Chris
 
Welcome!

That is very cool that you're starting to learn ASL!

Were you in Iraq? My SO was in Iraq. He came home with severe TBI, and still has it.

Good luck with your medical school plans!
 

Hey dude, fresh blood..

Lots of serious stories coming from Iraq. A couple of mine were childhood friends and constantly spoke the war tales. Staff sarge of 950th combat support company is one of them, he'd always talk about mortar rounds being shot out of the blue, during evenings or sleep hours from the insurgents, and IED's waiting just anywhere to explode on daily trips. One even exploded on the HMMWV in front of him that was a part of his company and left one dead.

He did mention partial hearing loss for awhile but it sounds like you were pretty danged close.

If you are willing, see if you want to register with disabilities at your college for the benefit of lecture outlines or notes that you normally might not be able to catch (gotta hate those auditory learning techniques eh?). Bet you might have a sign language course there too.

Take it easy.
 
Hey man,

Sorry to hear about your loss. I can't imagine going through that. I have a friend that was hearing also but got into a bus accident, went into a coma and woke up after with complete hearing loss due to brain swelling. I think its more difficult because you know what you've lost. :-(

The good news is that there are plenty of people out there who are willing to support you and aid you in these trying times. I'm glad your family is supportive as well. Some of my friends just got sent of to deaf institutions and haven't seen their families in years...or there are the families that wont take the time to learn how to communicate with their loved ones because of their "difference".

As for med school, I hope you'll succeed! One of the deaf here in NC is finishing up his thesis. They're changing his sign name to Dr. Deaf. :) I know you'll miss the brotherhood that is the military. My entire family is in one branch or another and I know the lifestyle. I can tell you that you may come to appreciate the dead community and its close-knit nature.

I noticed you posted in this room, how were your relationships while in the military? I live next to Lejeune and know many guys and girls that either struggled with it or hooked up at every duty station...

Best of luck man,

iacobus
 
Welcome. I used to have an ex-army friend who was retired for profound deafness. He was a tank mechanic and lost his hearing when something exploded.

But after being retired he had the same job in El Paso as a civilian. He could do the job while deaf, but just not in the field.

I hope all goes well for you and you find something you really like to do.
 
deaf solider

welcome chris and a big thanks ! for your service. if you are getting back to college you should try RIT/NTID. they actually have something set up for returning servicemen like yourself who lost their hearing in the recent wars. there is also a medical school University of Rochester that has deaf programs and i think a deaf doctor or 2 around.
 
Wirelessly posted

Thanks for the great welcome! I'm interested an excited to get to know the deaf community. I've never known any other deaf person other than other soldiers here at the Warrior Transition BN but they were also born hearing.
Would deff like to read about others experiences and of course any advise is great.
For the last few months I have not been very proactive in coming to terms with my loss but it changed when two weeks ago I was getting ready to go running and I put my iPod headphones on both ears and I just started laughing and honestly feel a lot better about it and excited to be in a good position that I'm able to hear out of my right ear so being a doctor and able to relate and HOPEFULLY be able to speak ASL. Anywho thanks again guy and feel free to hit me up.
 
Wow! Bless your heart for serving our country. Iam married to an ex Marine so I have a soft heart for those who served. :welcome: to AD!
 
if you are getting back to college you should try RIT/NTID. they actually have something set up for returning servicemen like yourself who lost their hearing in the recent wars. there is also a medical school University of Rochester that has deaf programs and i think a deaf doctor or 2 around.
Click to expand...
Oh DUDE!!! YES! Especially if you wanna become fluent in ASL! RIT/NTID is prolly one of the best places to attend if you're hoh or late deafened. You'll get decent accomondations without having to really fight for them...that plus you could advertise yourself as being a Deaf friendly doc!
 
Welcome to AD and thank you for your service on behalf of us. I hope everything goes well with learning ASL, good luck <3
 
Just checked out the RIT website. Whoa that seems really great! I'm just worried about being a new deaf person. I know it sounds weird but I am very worried about feeling out of place.
 
christyra said:
Just checked out the RIT website. Whoa that seems really great! I'm just worried about being a new deaf person. I know it sounds weird but I am very worried about feeling out of place.
Click to expand...

howdy soldier! I thank you for your service and sacrifice.

Interesting that you went to army after hs and now you want to get into medical school. you're just like my best friend. he did same. He was in 3/75.

Since you'll be entering college soon... you're not going to be proficient in ASL anytime soon to benefit from it for college. You will be using CART service but you have to request for it. It is a real-time live captioning service where you can read the transcription in laptop of what the professors/students are saying in case you choose different college. Many colleges around here in northeastern area have a very good disability accommodation service.

and no don't feel out of place about being a new deaf person. My ASL professor at my local community college is same. He was deaf and he never knew about ASL until he entered RIT. Every year, RIT has dozens of deaf people who do not know ASL. I got accepted to RIT but... I ended up going to Virginia Tech. lol oh well.

what are you going to major in? just out of curiosity - you E3 PFC?
 
Well I joined the Army out of high school because of all the college benefits and fell in love with the lifestyle and reenlisted.
If I attened UT I plan to major Philosophy to be a "more rounded premed student" and just due the prereqs for med school. At least that is what I have been advised.
I'm just worried about little things I would not have worried about before.. I say WHAT to people so much now im sure some are getting tired of it.
So very much considering RIT but still up in the air right now.. I still have about 4 more months in the Army.
I honest am very worried about the dating scene.. I had a hard as it was being the military lol. My family and friends are very supportive but they knew me before I lost hearing so I'm worried that I I'll meet someone and they don't understand or don't want to understand my situation.
 
christyra said:
Well I joined the Army out of high school because of all the college benefits and fell in love with the lifestyle and reenlisted.
If I attened UT I plan to major Philosophy to be a "more rounded premed student" and just due the prereqs for med school. At least that is what I have been advised.
I'm just worried about little things I would not have worried about before.. I say WHAT to people so much now im sure some are getting tired of it.
So very much considering RIT but still up in the air right now.. I still have about 4 more months in the Army.
I honest am very worried about the dating scene.. I had a hard as it was being the military lol. My family and friends are very supportive but they knew me before I lost hearing so I'm worried that I I'll meet someone and they don't understand or don't want to understand my situation.
Click to expand...

voodoo. philosophy? that's what he did too. it helps if you major in biology too but whatever floats your boat :)

Any college you pick - make sure its disability service is good. Make sure it has the accommodation service that you will request for. CART service is most likely beneficial for you. At the same time, you should take ASL classes too to make your life easier in the future.

to meet the deafies, Austin has tons of them. They have deaf club, deaf social event, etc. Just take it easy and keep on trucking :)
 
christyra said:
How's it going everyone? My name is Chris I'm 25 years old. I was born hearing. I joined the Army after I graduated high school. I was deployed last year and after a mortar round explode near me I lost 100% hearing in my left ear and some in my right ear.
I am currently still in the Army but I am being medically retired because of my hearing loss. I was pretty depressed about the whole situation but family, friends and time has helped a lot.
I will be going back to college full time when my medical discharge is complete. I'm going to really miss the military but excited to start next chapter of my life and all goes well I will be able to do well in my pre-requisite courses and get into medical school (fingers crossed).
I just started learning ASL.. I think I'm picking it up well.. Trying to stay positive.
Well anyways really excited to get to know you guys and learn as much as possible. Hit me up anytime if you have questions about me.
-Chris
Click to expand...

Welcome to AD, also thank you for support to serve our country.

That's not cool about you lost the hearing but you aren't alone, I know some troops lost the hearing during wartime due to excessive noise environment. Learn to use ASL is great idea and it shouldn't be difficult if you practice a lot.

Have a great time at college and you will be fine, and for me, I'm big fan of UT. :thumb:
 
christyra said:
Well I joined the Army out of high school because of all the college benefits and fell in love with the lifestyle and reenlisted.
If I attened UT I plan to major Philosophy to be a "more rounded premed student" and just due the prereqs for med school. At least that is what I have been advised.
I'm just worried about little things I would not have worried about before.. I say WHAT to people so much now im sure some are getting tired of it.
So very much considering RIT but still up in the air right now.. I still have about 4 more months in the Army.
I honest am very worried about the dating scene.. I had a hard as it was being the military lol. My family and friends are very supportive but they knew me before I lost hearing so I'm worried that I I'll meet someone and they don't understand or don't want to understand my situation.
Click to expand...


If you go to Rochester or go to Washington DC, there a huge deaf culture there. If you go to any other state, then stay closer to bigger cities. Also locate the VR in the area. If you need more detail info on the deaf culture and being in the military, just PM me. Yes, I am in the military and my wife is deaf. We had some good and bad experience in our travels around the world.
 
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