I'm not stupid! (My Experience of Deafness)

Member Name: sunbeamshubby

Product:	My Experience of Deafness
Date:	07/07/01 (122 review reads)
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Sometimes I'm so deaf I have a job to hear myself blow-off! Sorry but I have to start with a joke or it will get too upsetting.

I was about five or six years old when I first went for a hearing test that I can remember. It was at this test that I found out that I couldn't hear high pitched noises. For example I don't hear the timer on the cooker, but I know things are done by the smell of smoke. I can't hear my watch alarm, which was a waste of money but best of all I can't hear the wife when she screeches from the kitchen that the timer is going off! I have an alarm clock that gets louder by the second. Unfortunately I can't hear it for the first two pitches but luckily at 6am the wife manages to wake me up with an elbow in the ribs. Could have saved money on an alarm clock there.

Seriously though, my hearing hasn't been as funny as I've made out. Most people would assume that my problems would occur with the children but it was the teachers that caused the most problems. At school, some teachers didn't want to know me because if I didn't hear something they didn't want to go over it. One teacher even picked on me for a year, and it wasn't until my mum came in and sorted them out in the classroom in front of everyone, to the cheers of others, that it stopped. The teacher was sacked after the headmaster got involved, and another teacher backed me up. You don't want to mess with my mum!

I'm not profoundly deaf but my mum is a lot worse than me and wears hearing aids in both ears. She had it worse than me at school, as did my brother. I managed to stick up for my younger brother but there was nobody to stick up for me. This made me defensive about my hearing and I get frustrated very easily with myself and others. I took more interest in sport because the teacher took more interest in me and said "It doesn't matter that you are deaf as long as you can kick a ball
". I got in to most sports teams at school but my education probably suffered.

When some people find out that I have a hearing problem they automatically speak verrrrrry slllooowwwly, and get right in my face. They raise their voices too and I find I shout back that "I'M NOT THAT DEAF!". People tend to assume that I can't do much or that I don't know much and I've found in job interviews that once they find out I'm deaf their face changes and I know I haven't got it. I do have a good job now and the people I work with are great, even one of the managers is deaf so he understands.

My hearing does cause problems with the wife because I think she's said one thing but really she said something completely different. We can end up arguing about two entirely different things!
It does have its good points though, as I can have selective hearing. I don't hear very well when the wife shouts that the washing up needs doing but can hear perfectly well when she says "Do you want a cuppa?". Also I've learned from mum how to lip read and when people across the room are talking about me I know exactly what they said, which the wife finds an advantage when it comes to gossip!

As I get older my hearing could deteriorate but hopefully it won't, luckily my wife doesn't see it as a problem.
There is a chance that it could be passed on to our children (don't get ideas dear!) but with the wife passing on epilepsy and eczema the poor little mites going to have enough to think about. We'll be able to get an NHS loyalty card!
I think that deafness is only a problem if you let it be and don't listen to other people (excuse pun!) or let them effect you the way it effected me.

Pardon, did you say something?

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