Same here, but we didn't catch it in time, and surgery wasn't an option, although hearing aids have helped for the last 29 years.
Wow, you too? It's really amazing that there aren't more people like us - you are the first adult I've met who's been deaf and then hearing like me. I still have problems, but they're mainly auditory processing problems. I was a lip-reader, and I still feel like I need to watch someone talking in order to understand what they're saying. Phones drive me nuts!! If I can't see a person talking, it's hard for me to understand them.
I don't have hearing aids yet (I'm 43) but I probably will someday in the not-to-distant future. I'm really glad you found some that work for you!
The hardest part of deafness is the fact that no one knows your deaf - others just think you are stupid or rude. But there are so many things I learned from being deaf - and I know that even in the silence, life is beautiful. How many times I have heard people say "oh, I wouldn't want to live if I were handicapped". I know they are saying it out of ignorance, but I can testify - life was still fun, still wonderful, I still loved and was loved, even when I couldn't hear. Life was sometimes more difficult, but it was still worth living. Hearing is just one very small part of living, and I am still me - with or without it.
I hope that this girl felt the same. Witnesses say she was simply trying to cross the tracks - that means that she simply didn't catch those forward vibrations. So sad.
"I was profoundly deaf in my early childhood (unknown to my parents until discovered later), and corrected by surgery when I was five.
Same here, but we didn't catch it in time, and surgery wasn't an option, although hearing aids have helped for the last 29 years."
I went the opposite way. I had "20-20" hearing most of my life and then virus struck several times, degrading my hearing several steps downward until I was left with about 40%.
I'm still better off than deaf people in that regard, but having had great hearing taken for granted has made the loss hard to take.
My hearing aids, though digital, amplify everything better than they amplify speech. As for being in any room where more than one person is talking, forget speech recognition.
Scrolled the thread and gathered your names as mentioning you are either deaf/HOH or had direct experience with it.
If youre interested in being on a new Deaf/HOH ping list please let me know. Its something I've always wanted available here at Fr. If you have some interest certainly Freepmail me if you'd like...also please see my profile.