bailey7
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- Aug 1, 2005
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I just found this site tonight!
I hope it is ok if I ask a question!
Apparently I had a hearing loss resulting from complications from premature birth. BUT no one knew it until THIS YEAR (I am 24). I had the yearly hearing tests at school and I must have done well on them because they never found a thing. The only clues that something wasn't quite "right" was that when I started talking I had a very hard time learning to pronounce words right. Everyone in my family says it sounded like I had a Boston accent (and I live nowhere near Boston hehe). As I got older my speech became more "normal" but I still do not pronounce certain words correctly, even words like "mom" - which I've been told I say like "maam". I've been told I have a southern accent, a "unique" accent, and a northeastern accent. No one can figure out where I'm from hehe (but where I'm from in Indiana, as well as my whole family, there is a standard midwestern accent). I had many problems in school because I could not hear in a noisy environment and when I started working certain situations were very hard because I could not understand any speech not very close to me. In a crowded room it was impossible; once at a business lunch I had to have the co-worker next to me repeat what others were saying to me right next to my ear, loudly.
I finally had enough. Even though I had supposedly "perfect" hearing, this year I went and had my hearing tested. I just couldn't deal with not hearing what people were saying anymore. Turns out I have hearing loss in both ears! Though it is only mild-moderate, it was enough to cause my early (and certain continuing) speech difficulties. My doctor said this is likely the reason for my "unique" accent LOL He thinks it's from birth when I had jaundice, which went untreated too long (when a brilliant nurse forgot to turn on the bili lights) and that caused sensorineural hearing loss. To make it more complicated he also believes I have "menere's disease" (sorry if the spelling is wrong). I learned to compensate for the hearing loss in most settings, filling in missing parts of words. On the speech part of the hearing test I scored 100% - it was hard, but I was able to guess my way through (plus my hearing is better in higher ranges - and the audiologist was a woman, which helped, plus she said each word slowly in a quiet environment, which also helped!). The tone part is what showed the loss. I learned ASL in college and it was nice to be able to actually understand what people were telling me for once. Now I'm getting hearing aids so I'm very excited!
But, my question is - does anyone else know of cases where childhood hearing tests at school (lasting about 2 min) didn't show a problem?
Sorry this post is so long!!
I hope it is ok if I ask a question!
Apparently I had a hearing loss resulting from complications from premature birth. BUT no one knew it until THIS YEAR (I am 24). I had the yearly hearing tests at school and I must have done well on them because they never found a thing. The only clues that something wasn't quite "right" was that when I started talking I had a very hard time learning to pronounce words right. Everyone in my family says it sounded like I had a Boston accent (and I live nowhere near Boston hehe). As I got older my speech became more "normal" but I still do not pronounce certain words correctly, even words like "mom" - which I've been told I say like "maam". I've been told I have a southern accent, a "unique" accent, and a northeastern accent. No one can figure out where I'm from hehe (but where I'm from in Indiana, as well as my whole family, there is a standard midwestern accent). I had many problems in school because I could not hear in a noisy environment and when I started working certain situations were very hard because I could not understand any speech not very close to me. In a crowded room it was impossible; once at a business lunch I had to have the co-worker next to me repeat what others were saying to me right next to my ear, loudly.
I finally had enough. Even though I had supposedly "perfect" hearing, this year I went and had my hearing tested. I just couldn't deal with not hearing what people were saying anymore. Turns out I have hearing loss in both ears! Though it is only mild-moderate, it was enough to cause my early (and certain continuing) speech difficulties. My doctor said this is likely the reason for my "unique" accent LOL He thinks it's from birth when I had jaundice, which went untreated too long (when a brilliant nurse forgot to turn on the bili lights) and that caused sensorineural hearing loss. To make it more complicated he also believes I have "menere's disease" (sorry if the spelling is wrong). I learned to compensate for the hearing loss in most settings, filling in missing parts of words. On the speech part of the hearing test I scored 100% - it was hard, but I was able to guess my way through (plus my hearing is better in higher ranges - and the audiologist was a woman, which helped, plus she said each word slowly in a quiet environment, which also helped!). The tone part is what showed the loss. I learned ASL in college and it was nice to be able to actually understand what people were telling me for once. Now I'm getting hearing aids so I'm very excited!
But, my question is - does anyone else know of cases where childhood hearing tests at school (lasting about 2 min) didn't show a problem?
Sorry this post is so long!!