My hearing loss

The history of my hearing loss was pretty stable before 3 to 4 years ago and I suppose i considered myself to be much more hearing impaired than actually deaf - but now there was no doubt about it I was Profoundly Deaf and that was a big impact on me, also for my family peers and everyone who are around me.

I was born deaf - but no one will ever know how or why as i was diagnosed so late ( there's a story abt that which i will share with you one day!)- at this start in life my loss then was moderate to severe and began my pre-school years learning speech.. I have a hearing family and there is no genetic history of deafness - so i suppose it seemed natural that i would use my speech. I thank my parents for the determination of encouraging me to speak as i do still hear compliments. Ive pretty much experienced  the throes of mainstreaming and also went to Ovingdean hall school in Brighton for  the hearing impaired in the 80s -90s. For much of this time i was wearing post aural hearing aids, although i do remember the old phonak hearing aid boxes i used to have to wear at infant stage and also for my class sessions at school  hahah I've enclosed a picture of me wearing one at the age of 6 - i also was lucky to meet prince Charles when i was at preschool age - he was quite interested to hear how well the phonak worked for us deafies - running around  the playground wearing one of those was no fun when your chin was hacked to pieces- I can still remember the weight of them too ! lol

Being at ovingdean hall school  meant i got the best out of what residential hearing and also helped me develop skills to cope with my hearing loss such as lipreading - snippets of sign language( it was an oral school but we still communicated amongst us in sign when we could get away with it !!) I was quite a confident person then and even began to play a flute quite fluently through the vibrations and sounds i already had. Things began to start changing though -6 years ago they discovered that my moderate/severe loss was no more and i was becoming much more along the lines of severe to profound.

When they changed my aids from analogue to digital i also struggled too and although they changed and re tuned me my family was beginning to notice a difference in me. It wasnt untill 3 - 4 years ago that they realised that there was a deteriation and i was now classed as profoundly deaf.


My confidence was beginning to crash which changed me as an individual - I couldnt hear behind me, started shouting instead of talking - due to inability to hearing tones, people were ramming there trolleys behind me when i was visiting the supermarket ( i think that was when supermarket rage began!!)it was my biggest horror as they never could see my deafness! My husband was having to be my soul carer as he did all my phone calling, repeating what was said. Going places like swimming, cinemas, socialising and restuarants he was with me at all times as i couldnt hear the dangers around me. I didnt feel confident going out alone.

I also struggled in the workplace and changed roles from customer facing role to an administraton role which required less of the use of the phone  - i was using a BSL interpreter ( british sign language interpreter) and for every time i mis-understood - the paper and pad became my best friend! 

The biggest thing throughout all this was that i was beginning  to get depressed and soo soo tired with all the constant watching and being alert all day it was really taking a toll on my well being.