everlastingstorm
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- Feb 24, 2014
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This is my first post. I've been reading the forums for awhile though. I live in the SF Bay Area and I identify as some weird combination of HOH/deaf/late deafened. Let me explain, lol.
I was born with what was most likely normal hearing and I developed normal speech. I was an early talker, saying my first words at 9-10 months old and the Pledge of Allegiance between 2 and 2 and a half-ish (no joke, my mother actually had this documented). For some unknown reason I lost much of my hearing before I was 3. My mom noticed I was turning my head a lot and my early childhood educators had concerns in their reports about my hearing. We're not sure how gradual or how sudden it was, it was typical for kids to be diagnosed with hearing loss that late since in the early 80s we didn't have newborn hearing screening programs. As it turned out, a formal hearing test/evaluation revealed one ear being totally deaf/unaidable, the other a severe/profound deafness with most of the loss being in the severe category. I was fitted with a hearing aid immediately and until recently I reaped awesome benefits from a hearing aid. I always heard using one ear with it because a HA in my bad ear wouldn't give me any access to sound to begin with.
I was mainstreamed at school because I already had language skills. I just got put in front of the room and I functioned just as well as any other kid with typical hearing levels did when aided. For many years with my hearing aid I passed as hearing because my speech was so good & because I was able to enjoy just excellent use of my residual hearing, except for a few minor inconveniences here and there. The difficulty I experienced was absolutely minimal... and that was my reality though I'm probably in the minority. HA's are not a "band aid" at all but for me it was like put 'em on and I had very little trouble (save for a noisy restaurant or trying to localize sound).
Two months ago I experienced a sudden hearing loss overnight, mainly in the high frequencies. I was given steroids for the treatment. Although I am not culturally Deaf, I tried it even though now my opinion on steroid treatments to treat an already compromised severe hearing loss would most likely fall into agreement with the culturally Deaf. Um, it's deafness, not cancer. Besides the steroids make you feel shitty when there's no physical reason for your body to. It might have undone some things, but not to a level for me to have great use of my residual hearing again. I now struggle in every environment except with one on one conversations in very controlled, quiet environments, a huge difference. I never experienced my hearing loss as a "loss" until now, it just was what it was. Now I am really feeling the difference between being what felt like a mild hearing loss when aided, to feeling like I am really severely hard of hearing in most private places and just deaf in most other situations (in public places, outdoors, where I can't get access speech for the most part). I had a considerable drop in the lowest frequency at my latest hearing test and my speech discrimination has also dropped. I'm thinking about a CI, but I want to be thorough in my decision and I suspect that my audi is cautious.
So I although I once described myself as hard of hearing, now I'm some combination of HOH, deaf, and late deafened. Because I was post lingually deaf/hoh but too young to be considered "late deafened", but not really deaf either given my ability to function with my HA. But now, I feel more deaf in most situations than I do HOH, and the sudden loss in adulthood definitely feels like a loss to me as compared to how I heard and functioned before. I enjoyed hearing to the extent that I was able when I was able, but I also share certain values of the culturally Deaf community even though I was not brought up in that culture and was never fluent in ASL.
Anyway nice to meet you all. It's nice that everyone has such varied histories, identities, and experiences.
_______________________
Audiogram, right ear only:
250hz---105db
500hz---100db
1000hz--95db
2000hz--85db
4000hz-75db
6000hz--110 or 115db (audiogram goes up to 100db so this was off its chart)
8000hz-100db
SDT: 90db
SD: 40% 100db/20% 95db; avg. 30%
I was born with what was most likely normal hearing and I developed normal speech. I was an early talker, saying my first words at 9-10 months old and the Pledge of Allegiance between 2 and 2 and a half-ish (no joke, my mother actually had this documented). For some unknown reason I lost much of my hearing before I was 3. My mom noticed I was turning my head a lot and my early childhood educators had concerns in their reports about my hearing. We're not sure how gradual or how sudden it was, it was typical for kids to be diagnosed with hearing loss that late since in the early 80s we didn't have newborn hearing screening programs. As it turned out, a formal hearing test/evaluation revealed one ear being totally deaf/unaidable, the other a severe/profound deafness with most of the loss being in the severe category. I was fitted with a hearing aid immediately and until recently I reaped awesome benefits from a hearing aid. I always heard using one ear with it because a HA in my bad ear wouldn't give me any access to sound to begin with.
I was mainstreamed at school because I already had language skills. I just got put in front of the room and I functioned just as well as any other kid with typical hearing levels did when aided. For many years with my hearing aid I passed as hearing because my speech was so good & because I was able to enjoy just excellent use of my residual hearing, except for a few minor inconveniences here and there. The difficulty I experienced was absolutely minimal... and that was my reality though I'm probably in the minority. HA's are not a "band aid" at all but for me it was like put 'em on and I had very little trouble (save for a noisy restaurant or trying to localize sound).
Two months ago I experienced a sudden hearing loss overnight, mainly in the high frequencies. I was given steroids for the treatment. Although I am not culturally Deaf, I tried it even though now my opinion on steroid treatments to treat an already compromised severe hearing loss would most likely fall into agreement with the culturally Deaf. Um, it's deafness, not cancer. Besides the steroids make you feel shitty when there's no physical reason for your body to. It might have undone some things, but not to a level for me to have great use of my residual hearing again. I now struggle in every environment except with one on one conversations in very controlled, quiet environments, a huge difference. I never experienced my hearing loss as a "loss" until now, it just was what it was. Now I am really feeling the difference between being what felt like a mild hearing loss when aided, to feeling like I am really severely hard of hearing in most private places and just deaf in most other situations (in public places, outdoors, where I can't get access speech for the most part). I had a considerable drop in the lowest frequency at my latest hearing test and my speech discrimination has also dropped. I'm thinking about a CI, but I want to be thorough in my decision and I suspect that my audi is cautious.
So I although I once described myself as hard of hearing, now I'm some combination of HOH, deaf, and late deafened. Because I was post lingually deaf/hoh but too young to be considered "late deafened", but not really deaf either given my ability to function with my HA. But now, I feel more deaf in most situations than I do HOH, and the sudden loss in adulthood definitely feels like a loss to me as compared to how I heard and functioned before. I enjoyed hearing to the extent that I was able when I was able, but I also share certain values of the culturally Deaf community even though I was not brought up in that culture and was never fluent in ASL.
Anyway nice to meet you all. It's nice that everyone has such varied histories, identities, and experiences.
_______________________
Audiogram, right ear only:
250hz---105db
500hz---100db
1000hz--95db
2000hz--85db
4000hz-75db
6000hz--110 or 115db (audiogram goes up to 100db so this was off its chart)
8000hz-100db
SDT: 90db
SD: 40% 100db/20% 95db; avg. 30%
Hi 
