Saying Hi and About Me

I finally decided to join up and say hi. My name's Matt, I'm 35 years old and am currently living in Interlachen, FL, but Jacksonville is my birth city and where most of my family live at. I was born with a skin condition called KID Syndrome that has affected my skin (naturally), my eyes, and my hearing. I was 2 years old when I was diagnosed as being hard-of-hearing. Originally my mom thought I was just ignoring her and would spank me. I didn't have the heart to tell her that even when I did hear her, I'd still ignore her commands. Men are masters of selective hearing!

I've worn hearing aids in both ears, and am categorized as having severe-to-profound hearing loss. I have to wear BTE aids because the smaller ones just aren't powerful enough. I actually, somehow, managed to go through high school without wearing any aids at all. At first I did well enough, but the more self-conscious I became, the worse my grades became. I cannot imagine the amount of times I didn't hear someone or said "what?" to someone.

Because I don't do too well with jobs, I am mostly self-employed and have taught myself both web design and repairing computers. I live with two roommates in a house in front of a lake. I love cooking, gaming on the computer, following the Florida Gators college football team, and going broke collecting gadgets of all kinds (yes, yes, boys and their toys, etc ...)

The past 5 years my vision started going really bad and I became legally blind, with my vision well over 20/200. However, earlier this year I was diagnosed a new medication called Soriatane that, amazingly enough for the first time in my life, cleared up my skin issues significantly. As an added bonus, much to the dismay and delight of my dermatologist, it fixed up my vision to where I can now see 20/40 with contact lenses. The optometrist is so happy, she's doing a case study to see if others can benefit from what I went through.

As a result, I've gotten a bit more out of my shell (I tend to be shy, you know, with bad hearing, speech impediment, vision ... it's difficult to be social with those challenges.) Probably why I decided to join this community, have been getting out more, talking to people more, getting in shape, etc. Quality of life improvements has an amazing effect on people!

So there you go, a brief introduction about me. Questions? Advice? Suggestions? I'm all ears!

Welcome..

hope you enjoy surfing all over this crazily forum.

Welcome! There are quite a few other Floridians on this forum. They would enjoy giving you a hard time.

I like your "Men are masters of selective hearing!" Sounds about right!

Yes, I was accused by some teachers about my selective hearing, and family members as well. They don't realize it's entirely an art form at this point and cannot appreciate it. "Matt, do the dishes" sounds remarkably like, "Matt, ignore the dishes."

MattB said:

Yes, I was accused by some teachers about my selective hearing, and family members as well. They don't realize it's entirely an art form at this point and cannot appreciate it. "Matt, do the dishes" sounds remarkably like, "Matt, ignore the dishes."

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I think you must know my husband.

AlleyCat said:

Welcome! There are quite a few other Floridians on this forum. They would enjoy giving you a hard time.

I like your "Men are masters of selective hearing!" Sounds about right!

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And I think this apply to 4 legged males too my dog Marty is guilty of doing this too.
Hi , that is great that the med helped your eyesight and I hope you're enjoy your stay here.

....welcome Matt...you're not too far from me in Jax...and I have friends that live in Interlachen also....

rockin'robin said:

....welcome Matt...you're not too far from me in Jax...and I have friends that live in Interlachen also....

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Thanks! Is that a pomeranian? My stepmother used to have them, and they were great dogs. I grew up in the Arlington area and lived all over Jax in my teens and 20's (Southside, Northside, then Mandarin.)

MattB said:

Thanks! Is that a pomeranian? My stepmother used to have them, and they were great dogs. I grew up in the Arlington area and lived all over Jax in my teens and 20's (Southside, Northside, then Mandarin.)

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Yep...it's a Pom...named "Anita"....Jax is a big city...have lived all over too but especially loved the Beaches.

welcome
my husband is also involved with computers, ever since little - programming/repair/networking/help desk. EE <electrical engineering> background though not degree 'd in EE.
He also has bilateral HA's but did not have them when I met him in college.
He had them as a younger child and did not get them again til just after his college graduation...required by his first professional employer<they paid or he wouldn't have been able to get them>. He wears two digitals. Also an affected eye. He loves gadgets!

I'm hoh and am the "dog person" in the household.

dogmom said:

welcome
my husband is also involved with computers, ever since little - programming/repair/networking/help desk. EE <electrical engineering> background though not degree 'd in EE.
He also has bilateral HA's but did not have them when I met him in college.
He had them as a younger child and did not get them again til just after his college graduation...required by his first professional employer<they paid or he wouldn't have been able to get them>. He wears two digitals. Also an affected eye. He loves gadgets!

I'm hoh and am the "dog person" in the household.

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I'm a dog person as well, never cared much for cats. I think all of us HOH should have a dog around. We rely on them for a lot of things, chief among them to let us know when something is going on that we aren't aware of. I can't count the amount of times a dog has made me aware of a sound or event that I had no idea of beforehand.

Cats, on the other hand, would just stand there with their tail twitching even if a giant asteroid was coming down out of the atmosphere to land on your head.

I didn't live with dogs as a kid but have always seen myself as a "dog person"

welcome!

Hello, I was born HoH and eventually became profoundly deaf after chicken pox when I was 1 year old. I had no benefit with hearing aids, so CI is only one option for me. I got diagnosed with Usher Syndrome when I was 13 years old but I didn't know until I was 18 after graduated from high school. After research about Usher Syndrome, I was very unprepared and severely depressed, also I was in bad shape in this forum as well. The degrading of vision from Usher Syndrome is mainly focus on peripheral vision as progressive from full degree to tunnel vision.

Losing driver license will be extremely devastated and cripple my independence after public transportation wasn't work for me due to anxiety.

Nice meet to you.

Welcome Matt! You might want to look into Welcome to HKNC
Let me guess.....you're like a lot of us thirtysomethings.....really didn't get a lot of specialized stuff in public school right, and kinda fell through the cracks? Many of us experianced the same........

deafdyke said:

Welcome Matt! You might want to look into Welcome to HKNC
Let me guess.....you're like a lot of us thirtysomethings.....really didn't get a lot of specialized stuff in public school right, and kinda fell through the cracks? Many of us experianced the same........

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And how!

Not sure what you mean by specialized stuff in public school. I did get to go to hearing impaired classes in public school and in some of them I had speech therapy, as well. In elementary school I had teachers with mics and I could wear a device around my neck to hear them better. It definitely made me quite self-conscious about it, though.

I'm not terribly sure whether the hearing impaired classes and speech therapy helped or not. It didn't seem like we were doing any actual work or therapy. Some people say my speech impediment isn't too bad, but I still notice strangers get that concentrated, oh-look-someone-with-an-impediment-be-extra-polite look on their face, so it can't be that great.

But, yeah, I pretty much floundered through my 20's, couldn't figure out what to do with myself, constant depression, and I became a bit of a recluse by hanging out online (first AOL, then running websites). It wasn't until I reached my 30's that I became frustrated with my lot in life and started to try to do something more about it.

It's difficult, for one thing, because I'm out in the middle of nowhere right now. On top of that, I don't know of anyone who is hearing-impaired. Most of my friends from high school moved on, and most are out of state now. The best I know how to connect with like-minded people who would understand me the most would be online communities.

HKNC sounds pretty awesome. That would've been great in my late teen's/20's, but not sure it's still feasible for someone in their mid-30's. It is a relief to know that there are programs and options like that for kids today to get a chance at life to become independent as much as they can.