serijules
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2005
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Hi everyone,
My name is Seri, this is pretty much my first dive into a hearing impairment/deaf community. I am 27 years old female and have lived in North Dakota my entire life in a small community.
I had spinal menigitis when I was 6 months old, which is what they believe caused the gradual destruction of the nerves in my cochlear. My hearing loss started earlier than it was discovered...I had just taught myself to read lips so well by the age of 3-4 that no one really noticed, and attributed my strange or lack of reactions to certain things to my extreme shyness. My uncle finally is the one that pointed out I didn't answer properly on the phone, played my music way too loud, and I was coming home from kindergarten every day complaining of headaches. A hearing test discovered I was slowly going deaf with a "cookie bite" type loss. I have about 10-12% hearing left in each ear, and I fear that won't last for long.
Because of those few years and the gradual loss, my speech is well developed. I am profoundly deaf in both ears, although I do wear digital hearing aids in both ears. They do nothing to help in my speech comprehension, but they do allow me to hear everyday sounds. I am an avid lip reader, and 100% of my speech comprehension comes from lip reading. Without lipreading, I'm clueless!
It is rather frustrating, I have to say I don't understand my loss because with my aids, I actually hear rather well in my opinion. I can hear voices when people talk, I can hear music. I just can't understand a word that is said without visual aid with the sole exception of my mother, whos voice I can understand in almost any situation. My audiologists have no explanation for me, and being there is no deaf community available to me and I was mainstreamed in school, I have never had access to the knowledge that others in my situation may be able to offer. Finding this site was a big deal for me!
Anyhow...I own a dog grooming/boarding facility, so there are times I am thankful for being deaf <g>. I have a wonderful hearing assistance dog, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Wyatt Earp. He is only trained to alert me to emergency sounds, mostly he is used for awareness in public, and as a visual aide for me. I watch his reactions for clues to sounds I am not hearing, especially when unaided. He has been an absolute wonderful addition in my life, I never thought a hearing dog could offer so much. It is wonderful to go into a public place and have people not think I am ignoring them or being rude; seeing Wyatt they have more understanding of me, which is very liberating.
I never learned to sign, and have been trying to self teach for years, which is hard...I'm better at learning from another person than I am from a book. There are no classes in my area though. I started to learn as a child, but my audiologist urged my parents to not allow me to sign, figuring I would not use my speech capabilities to the fullest, which I think is ridiculous. I've long since moved on to a new audiologist, needless to say. :/
I have been researching the CI for years, but despite many promptings to get it, I just do not feel it will offer me enough for the risks to be worth it. I am perfectly satisfied with the hearing that my aids offer me...what I miss is speech comprehension, and from my understanding, the CI will not give me that. It's hard to explain to people why I am not jumping at the chance of this, but I stand firm in my decision thus far. I'm still researching though.
Well, I imagine that is enough about me. This looks like a great forum, and I am very happy to have found it. I have a wonderful support network of family and friends, but there has never been anyone in my life to talk about my disability with that understands it on the same level and from the same perspective as I do.
Seri
My name is Seri, this is pretty much my first dive into a hearing impairment/deaf community. I am 27 years old female and have lived in North Dakota my entire life in a small community.
I had spinal menigitis when I was 6 months old, which is what they believe caused the gradual destruction of the nerves in my cochlear. My hearing loss started earlier than it was discovered...I had just taught myself to read lips so well by the age of 3-4 that no one really noticed, and attributed my strange or lack of reactions to certain things to my extreme shyness. My uncle finally is the one that pointed out I didn't answer properly on the phone, played my music way too loud, and I was coming home from kindergarten every day complaining of headaches. A hearing test discovered I was slowly going deaf with a "cookie bite" type loss. I have about 10-12% hearing left in each ear, and I fear that won't last for long.
Because of those few years and the gradual loss, my speech is well developed. I am profoundly deaf in both ears, although I do wear digital hearing aids in both ears. They do nothing to help in my speech comprehension, but they do allow me to hear everyday sounds. I am an avid lip reader, and 100% of my speech comprehension comes from lip reading. Without lipreading, I'm clueless!
It is rather frustrating, I have to say I don't understand my loss because with my aids, I actually hear rather well in my opinion. I can hear voices when people talk, I can hear music. I just can't understand a word that is said without visual aid with the sole exception of my mother, whos voice I can understand in almost any situation. My audiologists have no explanation for me, and being there is no deaf community available to me and I was mainstreamed in school, I have never had access to the knowledge that others in my situation may be able to offer. Finding this site was a big deal for me!
Anyhow...I own a dog grooming/boarding facility, so there are times I am thankful for being deaf <g>. I have a wonderful hearing assistance dog, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Wyatt Earp. He is only trained to alert me to emergency sounds, mostly he is used for awareness in public, and as a visual aide for me. I watch his reactions for clues to sounds I am not hearing, especially when unaided. He has been an absolute wonderful addition in my life, I never thought a hearing dog could offer so much. It is wonderful to go into a public place and have people not think I am ignoring them or being rude; seeing Wyatt they have more understanding of me, which is very liberating.
I never learned to sign, and have been trying to self teach for years, which is hard...I'm better at learning from another person than I am from a book. There are no classes in my area though. I started to learn as a child, but my audiologist urged my parents to not allow me to sign, figuring I would not use my speech capabilities to the fullest, which I think is ridiculous. I've long since moved on to a new audiologist, needless to say. :/
I have been researching the CI for years, but despite many promptings to get it, I just do not feel it will offer me enough for the risks to be worth it. I am perfectly satisfied with the hearing that my aids offer me...what I miss is speech comprehension, and from my understanding, the CI will not give me that. It's hard to explain to people why I am not jumping at the chance of this, but I stand firm in my decision thus far. I'm still researching though.
Well, I imagine that is enough about me. This looks like a great forum, and I am very happy to have found it. I have a wonderful support network of family and friends, but there has never been anyone in my life to talk about my disability with that understands it on the same level and from the same perspective as I do.
Seri
serijules to Alldeaf. It's nice to have you here with us on AD. I hope you have fun posting, and make many friends.
Hope you'll enjoy your stay here in AD!! 