sidetracht
New Member
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2011
- Messages
- 15
- Reaction score
- 0
Hi everyone-
I apologize in advance for the mini-novel here--I tend to ramble sometimes but I figured I'd smash through the walls of lurkerdom with a flamboyant entrance!
After several years of my hearing steadily getting worse, I started to realize that turning the TV super loud and asking people to repeat themselves frequently wasn't "normal," and I made an appointment with an audiologist.
I have a very mild sensorineural hearing loss in the low frequency range. It seems there aren't a lot of people with low frequency hearing loss, and I thought I may be imagining things when I could hear high pitched sounds really well but had to concentrate to hear the low ones (and everything I read said "you lose high frequency hearing first").
Anyway, I'm going back to the audiologist to look into getting hearing aids. Even though my hearing loss is very mild (25dB in low frequency, although my preferred range for human speech is about 10dB louder than "normal"), I feel like it affects me and makes it difficult for me to communicate with others--having to ask people to repeat themselves, being told I'm talking too loudly, having to strain to hear what a person is saying when there's background noise. The doctor put a pair of Phonak mini-BTEs in my ears at the first appointment, and it was like a whole new array of sounds opened up to me. I could hear ambient noise and didn't have to strain to hear what the doctor was saying. It was really wonderful.
I've read a lot about people finding out they have hearing loss and getting really depressed at the prospect of wearing hearing aids. In what seems shocking to others... I'm really not depressed about it. I figure it's part of who I am and for now there are steps I can take to allow myself to continue to hear, but should it continue to get worse then that's something I'm relatively okay with.
On the one hand, I'm glad I found out I'm not crazy with regards to my suspicions on hearing loss. On the other hand, I feel like a bit of an outcast with regards to where I stand. I am able to hear more than many people in the deaf/hard of hearing community, but my hearing is bad enough that I stand out from people with "normal" hearing.
So, to sort of bring this full circle... hi. I just turned 22, I live in Austin, TX, I'm fat and I'm a student of anthropology (so if I ever seem like I'm studying you, just know I do it with everyone!). I like body modification, guinea pigs, parrots, and long walks on the beach. If I've used any terms in the wrong way or am getting the lingo wrong, please correct me and point me in the right direction! This is all completely new to me, but I want to educate myself and get to know you guys, as my lurking has shown you all to be an interesting bunch.
Also kudos to the founder of this forum for having awesome emoticons--another forum I'm on desperately needs vomit smileys, while you guys have farting, "I just got a pube caught in my teeth from cunnilingus" AND two vomit smileys?! No fair!
I apologize in advance for the mini-novel here--I tend to ramble sometimes but I figured I'd smash through the walls of lurkerdom with a flamboyant entrance!
After several years of my hearing steadily getting worse, I started to realize that turning the TV super loud and asking people to repeat themselves frequently wasn't "normal," and I made an appointment with an audiologist.
I have a very mild sensorineural hearing loss in the low frequency range. It seems there aren't a lot of people with low frequency hearing loss, and I thought I may be imagining things when I could hear high pitched sounds really well but had to concentrate to hear the low ones (and everything I read said "you lose high frequency hearing first").
Anyway, I'm going back to the audiologist to look into getting hearing aids. Even though my hearing loss is very mild (25dB in low frequency, although my preferred range for human speech is about 10dB louder than "normal"), I feel like it affects me and makes it difficult for me to communicate with others--having to ask people to repeat themselves, being told I'm talking too loudly, having to strain to hear what a person is saying when there's background noise. The doctor put a pair of Phonak mini-BTEs in my ears at the first appointment, and it was like a whole new array of sounds opened up to me. I could hear ambient noise and didn't have to strain to hear what the doctor was saying. It was really wonderful.
I've read a lot about people finding out they have hearing loss and getting really depressed at the prospect of wearing hearing aids. In what seems shocking to others... I'm really not depressed about it. I figure it's part of who I am and for now there are steps I can take to allow myself to continue to hear, but should it continue to get worse then that's something I'm relatively okay with.
On the one hand, I'm glad I found out I'm not crazy with regards to my suspicions on hearing loss. On the other hand, I feel like a bit of an outcast with regards to where I stand. I am able to hear more than many people in the deaf/hard of hearing community, but my hearing is bad enough that I stand out from people with "normal" hearing.
So, to sort of bring this full circle... hi. I just turned 22, I live in Austin, TX, I'm fat and I'm a student of anthropology (so if I ever seem like I'm studying you, just know I do it with everyone!). I like body modification, guinea pigs, parrots, and long walks on the beach. If I've used any terms in the wrong way or am getting the lingo wrong, please correct me and point me in the right direction! This is all completely new to me, but I want to educate myself and get to know you guys, as my lurking has shown you all to be an interesting bunch.
Also kudos to the founder of this forum for having awesome emoticons--another forum I'm on desperately needs vomit smileys, while you guys have farting, "I just got a pube caught in my teeth from cunnilingus" AND two vomit smileys?! No fair!
