My name is Lisa. I am deaf, and I am currently married to a wonderful husband and am living in New Orleans. I installed this blog to talk about the possibility of getting a cochlear implant. I have not made a firm decision yet, but see this blog as a place to put my thoughts about it. I am not looking for people to encourage me one way or another, but to teach me more about cochlear implants and share their experiences. This is also an opportunity to talk about my experiences as a deaf person and a little bit about the deaf community.
I lost my hearing to meningitis when I was two years old. As a result, I have a profound hearing loss in my right ear (the ear I may get the CI in) and a severe-to-profound hearing loss in my left. I wear a hearing aid in my left ear. Since that age I was put into a oral education program and mainstreamed my entire education career – whether it be my parent’s decision or my own. I also made the choice to learn sign language in high school and used interpreters in college.
I am an advocate of both languages. I feel frustrated with the way education is for people with hearing loss. I feel knowledge is power. The more you know, the better. The more communication tools you have, the better. I hope that soon we will see radical changes with the way people are being taught – and hopefully that is in a positive direction.
Thank you for visiting.
4 responses so far ↓
John // October 15, 2007 at 10:51 am |
I’ve known Lisa since she was a sophomore in high school. What a dynamic thinker, force for change, and utterly delightful person to get to know over the years. I know that Lisa started this for her musings on the CI, but her communications skills also make her an advocate for whatever causes she undertakes.
John W. // October 19, 2007 at 11:29 am |
Good luck with your CI decision. I have only had HA’s for just over one year. I feel like I have been born again. My new hearing is wonderful. Since getting HA’s, my meniere’s problems have almost disappeared; (dizziness, tinnitus). I have done a lot of research into the design of hearing aid molds. I now have a wonderful hearing aid fitter who is very patient with me and together we came up with a wonderful design that really works for me.
John // April 27, 2008 at 2:18 am |
I wear binaural aids, but find them less and less effective for hearing whatever range elementary students talk at. Most of the little ones, particularly the little girls, are so soft spoken.
Does anyone have a solution for this? I also live with dizziness and tinnitus. The tinnitus is much more pronounced than the dizziness, even though I managed to total my car during an episode a few weeks ago.
quixoticdeaf // April 27, 2008 at 4:39 pm |
John, the first thing I would do is talk to your doctor, don’t settle on solutions from the non-medical person (like me) before talking to your doctor. I believe there are medications out there for this, also maybe you need a new hearing aid, or your hearing aid needs to be adjusted. I think sometimes a good hearing aid can help “mask” tinnitus (I think what it does is makes the environmental noise louder so you don’t notice it as much). There’s also a therapy (which I believe is the last step – if all else fails) where you listen to “white noise” and this also helps to “mask” the tinnitus.
I don’t know much about dizziness, but the people I know who have this problem take medication.
Again, talk to your doctor first. I’m only telling you some ideas so that you have some information to ask your doctor about when you go in there.