“Two
feet in and full speed ahead” with my deafness. I am not sure if my
family is ready to handle me embracing ASL and deaf culture and my
acceptance of progressive hearing loss. NO, I don’t want to rush into
surgery and plug another device (a cochlear implant) into my head.
This
month will mark my one-year anniversary of going deaf. I didn’t have a
difficult experience until severe ear pain landed me in a hospital bed
for 10 days. I had mastoiditis - a bone infection - which doesn’t
necessarily cause deafness but can be quite dangerous. I did not get my
hearing back. The doctors are still not sure why. You can read more
about my experience in my blog post Guy With Two Pillows Between His Ears. I have accomplished a lot in the past year:
1. My Facebook friends went from 300 to 500.
2. I started my “World of Silence” blog. I wrote 62 blogs and received 50K pageviews.
3. ReSound has used two of my “World of Silence” blogs to help others in need.
4. I was invited to start a weekly blog at Deaf-Insight. I guess Monica Hood fell in love with my writing.
5. I’ve never missed a Deaf Chat
6. I am learning ASL so I can communicate with others.
7. I was finally able to see a movie using the SONY captioning glasses.
8. I got a CaptionCall phone to communicate with my family.
10. I’ve met some amazing people online - Dan Schwartz, Monica Hood, Shanna Bartlett Groves, Cynthia Dixon, SayWhatClub, DeafandHoH.com, and many others.
11. On my blog I ran a fun deaf-insight contest; 10 people won Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover books and 1 person won a Deaf-Insight T-Shirt. You can read the story here: Hearing Aids Are Expensive
As you can see my list is long. In fact, I have a separate thank you list here: Thank You.
I am not poetic nor a research writer but I write with my heart. I
write with the intention to bring people into my world so they can learn
to appreciate silence and know deafness is not the end of the world. I
get so upset when I tell people I am deaf or becoming deafer and they
say, “I’m sorry.” My response is usually, “I’m sorry you hear. I’m
sorry you can’t experience a moment of silence in a world where there is
so much noise and nowhere you can go to find quiet.”
Question and Answer Time:
1. What is going on with Jeff - I Year Later
My
hearing is getting worse. I go for another hearing test in a week and
hopefully the audiologist will be able to make some adjustment. My last
hearing test showed that my hearing loss is severe and now I have
difficulty hearing even with my hearing aids. Although hearing aids are a
wonderful resource and I’m thankful ReSound has amazing technology,
there are not a perfect solution. It can be annoying to stick something
in my ear just to hear annoying people and sounds. I am finally able to
function at work with my hearing aids and devices and listen to
conversations on telephone, but it took a long time to get to that
point.
2. Where do you feel at peace?
I
feel at peace when I am writing my blog, when I can pull out my hearing
aids, when I am with my family, and being myself. I am at peace being
deaf. I don’t like when people say, “I am sorry for your loss”. I
don’t see my deafness as a loss but more of a gain where I can chose to
block out noise just by pulling out these two little things in my ears.
But, I also believe God and my wife gave me strength to work through my
fear and find peace.
3. What will Jeff do next?
It
was my goal at the end of 2012 to find offline deaf people and connect
with them. It’s not easy to find people in my area who sign or admit
they are deaf - I DON’T KNOW WHY. For me, I wear my deaf t-shirt
everywhere I am not ashamed to tell the whole world I am deaf. Most of
the time people don’t care. Well, I am meeting deaf people offline. I
joined an ASL Meetup. I am taking an ASL course at the University of
Georgia so I can properly communicate with my family in the evening and
weekend when my hearing aids come out. Finally, I want to start a
support group for married couples struggling with hearing loss. I know
there are organizations but with my professional background as a
marriage counselor and growing knowledge of deaf culture, I can help
others in need.
“In conclusion” . . . Sorry but conclusions only happen when you die, and I have only just started living in this wonderful World of Silence.
No comments:
Post a Comment