re-registering for a second time and ..hello!

FadedRose

FadedRose

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Hello everyone...I've re-registered again and this is my first introduction ( I should have done the introduction the first time around )

My name is sheri but I prefer to be called Jas, I was born at 6.5 months and loss my hearing due to being placed in an incubator to be kept alive. I am also 25 years old and married. My hearing loss is in the range of severe to profound, I wear hearing aides but they do not help as much as I'd like. I rely mostly on lip reading. My audiologist says I am functionally deaf ( I have no clue what that means ), but she told me that my hearing loss is severe enough to say that I am deaf instead of hearing impaired. I am also in the process of learning to sign since I've lost more hearing and speaking has become somewhat more difficult. I am very proud to be Deaf and I am so happy to finally meet a whole bunch of ya'll that are too!

My best friend who is completly deaf moved away when we were in high school so it feels great to be connected again to the Deaf Community!

I am the only Deaf child in my family and my husband is hearing...whew, it feels great to get a break from them too!

( hope I made a good impression :giggle:)

Jas
 
:welcome: back to AD!

There is no difference between being called deaf and hearing impaired..deaf is just more politically correct with the Deaf community, that's all.
 
Jas,

Welcome back to AD! :)

I was also born prematurely (4 months). I lost some of my hearing (and all of my vision) because of being in the incubator for several months, being given ototoxic drugs while in the NICU and weighing only 2 pounds at birth. I was diagnosed with a mild hearing loss at age 3 -- although my HA and CI audis think it may be congenital due to the fact that newborns weren't given hearing screenings back in the late 60's/early 70's.

Enough about me. :) Enjoy your stay here at AD!
 
Welcome to AllDeaf!

It sounds like you've gotten through a lot and made it far. That's good!

Does your husband know sign language?
 
VamPyroX said:
Welcome to AllDeaf!

It sounds like you've gotten through a lot and made it far. That's good!

Does your husband know sign language?
Click to expand...

Nope. We will both be learning sign together and I look forward to that.

I have...I wasn't diagnosed with a hearing loss till I was older even though they screened me because I had speech delays, so I was mis-diagnosed as being intellectually challenged and placed in special education which did a number on my psycholgical health. I still suffer from the effects of that. I am sure I am not the only one.

:)

Jas.
 
Hear Again said:
Jas,

Welcome back to AD! :)

I was also born prematurely (4 months). I lost some of my hearing (and all of my vision) because of being in the incubator for several months, being given ototoxic drugs while in the NICU and weighing only 2 pounds at birth. I was diagnosed with a mild hearing loss at age 3 -- although my HA and CI audis think it may be congenital due to the fact that newborns weren't given hearing screenings back in the late 60's/early 70's.

Enough about me. :) Enjoy your stay here at AD!
Click to expand...


I lost some of my vision too. I am almost blind in my left eye, I cannot see anything that is five feet in front of me with my right eye closed. I was told that was due to being in the incubator too. Is your hearing loss progressive? You are lucky it was caught early I was not diagnosed with a hearing loss until 1989-1991 even though I was tested at birth and afterwards due to speech delays. My audiologist told my mom that the reason I wasn't diagnosed ( she thought ) was because of my self taught lip reading skills and the fact that I could read body langauge so well, that during testing I would know when a sound was beeped because I'd watch the tester. :shrugs: my history leading up to the diagnoses is a very strange and complex one. I still don't understand it, why they couldn't figure out the fact that I had a hearing loss when I displayed so many signs of it!?

but it feels good to know that I am not alone!

:)

Jas
 
Jaspheth said:
I lost some of my vision too. I am almost blind in my left eye, I cannot see anything that is five feet in front of me with my right eye closed. I was told that was due to being in the incubator too. Is your hearing loss progressive? You are lucky it was caught early I was not diagnosed with a hearing loss until 1989-1991 even though I was tested at birth and afterwards due to speech delays. My audiologist told my mom that the reason I wasn't diagnosed ( she thought ) was because of my self taught lip reading skills and the fact that I could read body langauge so well, that during testing I would know when a sound was beeped because I'd watch the tester. :shrugs: my history leading up to the diagnoses is a very strange and complex one. I still don't understand it, why they couldn't figure out the fact that I had a hearing loss when I displayed so many signs of it!?

but it feels good to know that I am not alone!

:)

Jas
Click to expand...

Wow! That's strange that they couldnt figure out whether u have a hearing loss or not. Right now, we are going thru that with my son..he is not deaf but may have a mild hearing loss but the tests keep changing. He is not even 2 so we are on hold until he is older and more mature to handle the testing. As long as he is signing I am not worried. :)
 
:welcome: I am deafblind although I do have quite a bit of useful vision. I may have been born with a mild hearing loss of 40 db although I wasn't tested until I was about 4. I also have mild asperger syndrome.
 
Jaspheth said:
I lost some of my vision too. I am almost blind in my left eye, I cannot see anything that is five feet in front of me with my right eye closed. I was told that was due to being in the incubator too. Is your hearing loss progressive? You are lucky it was caught early I was not diagnosed with a hearing loss until 1989-1991 even though I was tested at birth and afterwards due to speech delays. My audiologist told my mom that the reason I wasn't diagnosed ( she thought ) was because of my self taught lip reading skills and the fact that I could read body langauge so well, that during testing I would know when a sound was beeped because I'd watch the tester. :shrugs: my history leading up to the diagnoses is a very strange and complex one. I still don't understand it, why they couldn't figure out the fact that I had a hearing loss when I displayed so many signs of it!?

but it feels good to know that I am not alone!

:)

Jas
Click to expand...

Jas,

I know...it doesn't make sense, does it? :(

My hearing loss was diagnosed as a progressive sensorineural loss at age 3. I now have bilateral cochlear implants, so there is no more hearing to lose since all of my residual (i.e. low frequency) hearing was destroyed after both surgeries.

My hearing loss went "officially" undetected until age 15 when it was discovered that I had a moderately-severe hearing loss. However, despite that fact, it was recommended I have ear surgery and/or hearing aids at the age of 3. Unfortunately, due to my parents' health insurance, I was unable to receive either, so I went without HAs until age 15.

By the time I was in kindergarten, I was sent home with recommendations to see an audi for further hearing tests. This continued until my freshman year of high school at which time my teachers began to notice that I wasn't responding to my name being called in class as well as their increased difficulty understanding my speech (I have no idea what the latter means; it's what I was told by some of my teachers).

Because of my blindness, I could never rely on lipreading, so all I had to utilize was my hearing. I was fortunate that my hearing loss was mild enough to function well in school. However, I wish I would have been given ear surgery and/or hearing aids as I'm sure they would have made my educational experience much easier.

My hearing loss didn't really begin to seriously affect my ability to communicate with others until age 24 when my loss became severe-profound. It was at this time that I began learning alternative communication techniques for the deafblind including tactile sign (ASL, PSE and SEE), Braille/raised print alphabet card, TeleBraille, Teletouch, fingerbraille and computer use with Braille output.

11 years later I received my first cochlear implant and a year later, my second.

Thanks for sharing your background with me! It definitely sounds like you and I have been through similar experiences! :)
 
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