Watch this little chipmunk stretch his toes, yawn hugely, and snuggle the fresh sheets--very cute:

[tblue37]

[CatMor]

1. I love chipmunks, they are so damn cute.

[Leith]

2. I Would Have Enjoyed It More without the Sound

There is somebody crying in the background and having a terrible time! Maybe it's because of the audio of the children chump kidnapped crying yesterday is fresh, but I'm kinda sensitive to it.

[tblue37]

3. I am severely hearing impaired. I can't hear the audio. Sometimes my hearing impairment is

more blessing than curse.

[Leith]

4. Sorry, I Didn't Mean to Bring You Down

It sounds like a girl and she's very upset about something. I couldn't tell what she was saying. Plus, there's music like what you would play for a baby to sooth it so it will sleep.

The juxtaposition of the two sounds was kind of unnerving.

The chipmunk is cute as the dickens, though. I like to stretch and feel the sheets when I get into bed, too.

[tblue37]

5. Oh, it doesn't bring me down. I am well adjusted to my hearing loss. It is

progressive--caused by a condition called Meniere's Disease. I have had it all my life, but at 67 (68 in August!) I have gone from being moderately hard of hearing to being severely so, even with hearing aids.

I manage surprisingly well. I still teach college English. I watch movies and TV with closed captioning, and I read lips pretty well.

I have a website called I'm Listening as Hard as I Can! where I post articles (mostly humorous, but a few are quite serious) about coping with hearing loss in a world designed for "hearies" who don't usually mean to give us a hard time, but who nevertheless don't do much to accommodate our hearing issues.

I'm Listening as Hard as I Can!
http://www.deafnotdumb.homestead.com/index.html

[Leith]

6. I Just Looked at Your Website

And I read the article Sound Puzzles. Very interesting!

My stepfather had had hearing loss in his left ear. He got a hearing aid, but he wouldn't wear it while driving because the sound of the wind through the open window irritated him!

[tblue37]

7. Two articles on my site deal in part with those who deny their hearing loss and those

who refuse to get a hearing aid.

http://deafnotdumb.homestead.com/denial.html

http://deafnotdumb.homestead.com/mac.html

I don't wear my aids around the house unless I have someone around who wants to talk to me or unless I am watching TV. (Even with closed captioning, it helps to have what sound I can capture.)

I don't wear aids In public generally or to drive, either. The sounds in a car are distracting, and also loud noises make me startle because I have hyperacusis*, and I fear I could swerve into traffic if someone honked a horn or something.

That means I just watch for the flashing lights of emergency vehicles In my rearview mirror and for other drivers pulling to the right and stopping, since I can't hear the sirens unless the vehicle is almost passing me and my windows are down.I

Running water, crinkling paper, and wind are bothersome with analogue aids, but even though I have expensive digital aids, those sounds can be a bit annoying to me, too, when I wear them.

I also sometimes get a painful pimple in my ear if I have to wear them for too many hours too many days in a row, and they can give me a stuff neck, probably because I tense up without realizing it when exposed to the unrelenting noise pollution you are subjected to. I have always believed that my lack of a temper is related to not being stressed all the time by noise pollution. I think that constant noise makes a lot of people short tempered.

When I get home from campus or from a social activity, it is a relief to take out my aids. It feels like slipping into a warm, soothing bath.

BTW, my very best friend learned early in our friendship to project his voice without telling (remember, I can't tolerate loud noises because of hyperacusis.) I love that I can converse comfortably with him without my aids.
----------

*Hyperacusis (also spelled hyperacousis) is a health condition characterized by an over-sensitivity to certain frequency and volume ranges of sound (a collapsed tolerance to usual environmental sound). A person with severe hyperacusis has difficulty tolerating everyday sounds, some of which may seem unpleasantly or painfully loud to that person but not to others.

---,Who says the universe has no sense of humor? Hyperactive is actually common in people with hearing loss. When I first saw tested for aids, they feared they might not be able to help me, because I had only a 10-decibel window between my threshold of heading and my threshold of pain and distortion. Probably that is why although my aids help a lot, they don't make it easy to understand speech, just somewhat easier. Glasses correct most vision problems 100%, but hearing aids aren't anywhere near that effective. A joke about that limitation:

My hearing aids help me hear about as well as Grandma's walker helps her run.

[Leith]

8. Thanks for the Info

I haven't known deaf people (family and circle of friends) well so this was interesting and useful.

You should start a post about it in GD. It may not get many views or replies, but if it helps just one or two people, it would be worth it. There was a post recently about a service dog who tried to get their person help and most people shooed it away or otherwise ignored it, but it was a worthwhile public service announcement.

Thanks again. This kind of thread is one of the reasons I read Lounge posts.

[tblue37]

9. Many hearing impaired people tell me that their friends, families, co-workers, and bosses

discount and refuse to accommodate their needs, but when they send people to my articles, their people finally get it and become much more accommodating.

I am going to list a few of my relevant articles, which can be accessed through my article index:
http://deafnotdumb.homestead.com/articleindex.html

People with hearing loss often become withdrawn and depressed because in addition to not making any effort to help them participate in social situations,they often get impatient and even angry at them for not understanding what is said the first time or for not responding when they don't hear someone speaking to them:

"Left Out"
"Not Stupid, Rude, or Ungrateful--Just Deaf"
"Reasonable Accommodations"
"Deaf Power!"
"Mush-Mouthed Professors"
"Deaf People Are So Annoying"
"No, You Come Here"

One of my readers said when she visited chats and sites for hard of hearing people, she would encounter people who would say be how they used to become embarrassed and apologetic whenever they couldn't hear and understand, but then many (my readers, obviously) would say, "Then I thought to myself, Wait a minute! I am not at fault here. What would Tina do in this situation?"

Since the woman had an online store, she began to sell T-shirts, mugs, and bumper stickers with a picture of a little dog cocking his ear and WWTD spelled out in ASL.

My readers could see from my articles that I am quite insistent on not being treated rudely just because I am nearly deaf. I work very hard to understand what is said to me. I read lips, context and body language so well that many people don't know I am heading impaired unless I tell them, and even then many don't really believe it:

"Oh, Tina, You are Not Deaf!"
"I'm Already Listening as Hard as I Can!"


Despite my best efforts, though, sometimes I get it hilariously wrong:

"I Just LOVE Having a Deaf Mother--I Never Know WHAT You'll Come Up With! "
"Deaf Gaffes"


I have many other articles on my site, and most of them really are humorous --but even the humorous ones make serious points about living with hearing loss.