Somewhat Silent

There was a recent post here on Somewhatsilent, that I replied to, she wanted us to give our ‘deaf/Deaf/HOH opinion’ on music, and a particular subject she is studying, I desided to write to her and she responded with this,’

So I responded with my honest answer and she gave me the link to the video, which was very interesting, thing is, I said id help her get more responces through here. She is a proffessof and Deaf studdies are her speciality so to speak, so it is a genuine study and she and I would appreciate if you would respond to her, at the above email address and she will forward the link of the video to you also where you write back again if you have changed your mind on the answer, either way, help her out Thanks guys

Im having a little problem in college, Im doing well in everything but one area, and that is Art history Lectures, where it is held in a dark room, where I cant hear or lipread the lecturer, he gives me notes, but they are in his own high falutin language and I have to go home after a day long lecture and try to learn and understand them entirely on my own, because I may as well not be in the lecture at all, I dont hear a thing!!
now the college know this and are currently persuing help, and in the mean time im turning to you if ye know anything that may help me please tell me here or on my email! my overall grades in college, are excellent but im only bearly hanging on with the art history and that is an essential part of my degree !!
I lipread to a high skill level, and I have level 1 irish sign language, thing is there are no lip speakers that I know of in ireland, and I dont know if they would issue someone a terp at level 1 which is the next level up from basic, I can hold a very good casual conversation in sign, but Iv yet to hear back if they can find anyone for me! so PLEASE HELP!! drop me ideas here, please of find someone who may know Thank you!

Deaf, deaf, hard of hearing?? I can never tell!, I can hear certain things perfectly without effort, like my family, I have no problem hearing them, I can hear certain music, but i missout on parts like certain frequencies my ears just dont pick up, I can sometimes hear Car horns, and doggies barking and babies crying, and other days I cant hear these things at all!! In college id swear that fellow students and lecturers think im lying! when they talk to me, I answer them, and they forget that I have a problem, than the days I dont answer them they think im ignorant, *well thats how I feel! they probably dont think that at all!

but i dunno where I fit?!! I tell people I am severely deaf as that is the title i have been given by my audio, but somedays i think i hear better than the hearing folk! and I can get very confused! I know my ears are severely deaf, but my family dont think so as I have no problems with them ever! I dunno if its just because im used to them or what! then there are days Keith has to shout at me or tap my shoulder to get my attention! I dunno, I wish my ears could make up their mind or something!!!

Anyone else get this wierdness?? what do you say to people about your hearing difficulty? I let people know I am severely deaf and that I lip read a lot of the time, and then some days ill answer them when I wasnt looking at them to lip read and they look at me funny!! i feel like a lier but im not! I often wonder will I just sign all the time and use a note book to avoid confusion?!! Meh!

I cant warm to my Audiologist! im sure he means no wrong but I truely find the man useless!, he is indian and I cant read him properly, he also talks into his chest and mutters and for an audio who deals with HOH and Deaf people everyday he has no skills to deal with it!!
when I was small, i was looked after through school, at the age of 7 teachers and parents noticed i wasnt responding when spoken to and sent me to get my hearing tested, I had glue ear, a regular kiddies problem, they put in tupes and drained the fluid. thing is your only supposed to put tubes in twice at most, as they leave a scar on the ear drum every time they are put in and they dammage the cilia. But my hearing would drop again after the tubes came out! so they would put the tubes back in every time! from the age of 7 to the age of around 16 they put tubes in 8 times and in turn destroyed my ear drums and cillia hairs!I did not go back to see the specialist ever again after that, he was the cause of my hearing as far as im concerned and it will never be fixed as a result.I did nothing till a few years ago so I went to a new ENT specialist 3 to 4 years ago when my hearing got noticably worse, He was fantastic, and did everything he could over the few years i stayed with him,he discovered that the problem lay in my Estacian tubes, as I grew, they didnt!! they are under developed and in turn my ear canalls are tiny and only leave in a certain ammount of noise and the ear drumms are tattered!! in the end he gave me 2 options….1: have an operation to cut certain tubes behind the nose to solve the problem to a degree, but the thing is, they could sever certain cappiliraries, and i could bleed to death!! what kind of option is that?? but he had to tell me!! either that or put tubes in again and we know what they do!! so obviously they were two options i couldnt pick! they are useless to me!! in the end we agreed to be referred to my current audiologist and got new Bilateral aids.
He tested my hearing a few times b4 fitting me for the aids, and at one stage he told me i was lying in the hearing tests!! how can i lie?? I didnt like him after that!
after i got the aids, i got used to them and all was fine tho iv noticed with out my aids on my hearing has gotten worse than it was b4 i went to him!
I was called for a review last thursday morning, and i told him about the hearing loss, and the feeling of like im breathing through my eardrums, and it feels like there is something moving around in my left ear, all my concerns, and he looked into them and said that, ‘your eardrums are retracted yes’ which is nothing new!! they are always like that!
he said that nothing can be done and that he wasnt going to try and that it was just a review to see how the aids were working! the aids are fine but my hearing is not! it pisses me off to think that he obviously doesnt care! and Im left to just put up with it!
Im going to call the specialist back and voice my concerns to see if anything at all can be done, if not, ill just have to leave it be! but my current Audiologist is useless!! anyone have one like him???

I gave birth in silence–not my own, I moaned and grunted and mooed my way through the contractions.. But the world was silent to me. There were no beeping machines, the people that rushed about were quiet, and the only sounds I heard were the ones vibrating in my chest, and the words that my husband would communicate to me- first softly touching my arm to get my attention, then allowing me to read them off of his lips as he would ask me a question or communicate some filtered piece of information to me. There was no excess sound. There was no discussion or argument or things overheard. I trusted him to make my arguments for me, and so all I had to do was utter short sentences to make my wishes known.

One of the things that is supposed to be the most difficult about a hospital labor is that there is no shortage of sounds to distract you. People rush in and out of your room, people ask questions and shout orders, and babble on in long rationalizations of the procedures they wish to do- when you’ve let them know you have no desire for the procedure. People interrupt you constantly with a barrage of useless noise.

I had none of that. I birthed in a silent bubble, my hearing aids tucked away in my purse not to be pulled out until my new son and I were safely alone in our hospital room for the night.

And I would have it no other way. The peaceful quality of silence makes it so much easier to focus on keeping the pain at bay. It was one of those times where I was deeply happy that the sounds of my world could be so simply switched off, and that silence was an option.