Pardon? You what? (My Experience of Deafness)

Member Name: Excelle

Product:	My Experience of Deafness
Date:	02/08/01 (330 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None, except maybe heightened observance skills, and lip reading skills

Disadvantages: Alienation, Annoying!

After many months surfing Dooyoo, it seems to have become a bit of a trend recently to write ‘Member Advice On…’ ops about members own personal problems. Not one to shy away from such a challenge, I thought it was about time I got a new category added and told you a bit about how I deal with my problem. No yhwman, it isn’t some innate idiocy (although I do suffer from that from time to time ;) ), it’s all about my hearing problems.


- Can you hear me? Can you hear me running?

My problems all started quite some time ago – it was before I was 10, I remember that, but I forget exactly when it was. I was swimming around in my local swimming pool, and diving for the brick in fact, when my ear exploded in painful torrent of hot wax. Sound unpleasant? Well it was! I forget the specific chain of events, but I later developed a condition called ‘Glue Ear’, where fluid builds up behind the ear drum, and I had to have small tubes called ‘Gromits’ installed in my ears to clear away the excess wax, and later still I had something called ‘T-tubes’ which helped keep the air circulating in my ear. As a result, when all my problems with glue ear had dissipated, I was left with a small hole in each ear drum, of pin prick size, but large enough to impair my hearing. The hole in the right ear drum all but healed up, but I have the hole in my left drum to this day, about 7-10 years later. So I have the problem that I have a hearing impairment – while it isn’t so serious that I need a hearing aid (which I could have if I really wanted one), it’s still bad enough for me to have trouble hearing things!


- So what’s up with your hearing?

From my experience over the years, it seems my primary problem is with certain frequencies of sound – I can hear some things from a long way off very easily, but other things I have real trouble hearing even clos
e by. It’s not a serious problem, I just have to get people to repeat themselves sometimes, and if I’m really concentrating on someone I tend to be able to hear what they’re saying, although excess background noise can be a problem too.


- Don’t mess with me punk

My hearing problem makes some things really annoying:

· I can’t really go swimming without risking my hearing – if I get water in my ears I get an intense headache and wax discharge from my ear.

· People get annoyed very quickly – as any mother will know, repeating yourself is really really annoying, and so a lot of people, even those I’ve known for ages, can get very annoyed very quickly.

· Oh never mind – there is little more annoying for me than when someone says something, I miss it, and then they just say “Oh never mind” or “It doesn’t matter”. I want to know what you were going to say!

· I’m all bunged up again – colds and hayfever bring even more misery to me than most. My ears get bunged up with mucus type fluid impairing my hearing even more. Sometimes I get rumbling noises in my ear continuously, other times things just get stupidly quiet. It makes me want to scream! Oh and sometimes when I sneeze it makes my ears pop and explode like when people are on planes. Urgh.

· I want to chat too – if I’m having trouble hearing people, especially when I have a cold, then it’s very easy to get alienated from conversations, because I can’t hear enough to make decent conversation. And when you talk as much as me, that’s a problem!

· Can’t touch this – I’m really sensitive about people putting their hands over my ears – if someone cups their hands over my ears completely, then it creates a vacuum in my ear, which hurts a lot when they remove them.

· Where are you? – With on
e of my ears buggered, directional hearing goes right out the window – so you can shout me from one side, but unless you're really close, I’ll have to look all around me to actually find you. Which really makes me look stupid!


- What can I do?

So, what if you're suffering from some or all of the same problems as me? While there's little you can do to completely eliminate the problems of hearing loss, but at least you can try and fix things up a little…

· Get a hearing aid – if your hearing is unbearably bad, and you really have trouble hearing anything at all, then you few other options but to get one of these electronic devices that fits behind the ear and amplifies sound into the ear.

· Tell people about your problem – I know it can be hard, but it's vital you tell all new people in your life about your hearing problem – work colleagues, new friends, etc. – a lot of them will make the effort to help by talking on your good side, etc.

· Keep your calm – try not to get too annoyed with people who don't understand. After all, it's not really their fault most of the time, and you can only make matters worse by talking to them in a confrontational manner.

· Position yourself – it may sound simple, but it can really help – sitting in the middle of a conversation rather than on the sidelines will enable you to hear it better. I've also been able to get a few of my friends to automatically walk on my right hand side, which helps.

· Don't give up too easily – you WILL get alienated if you give up on a conversation straight away – you just have to listen harder, and you'll probably get to the point where you can figure out what people are saying just by extrapolating from their words and mouth movements. Like me!


- I can hear clearly now the, um, rain has gone

There's not mu
ch more to say I think, although it's vitally important that you keep on check on your hearing levels – if it starts to go downhill then get to that doctors ASAP! Other than that, it's just a case of perseverance, good friends, and good luck! Hope you do well!

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