Somewhat Silent

Just when I have been using my Sprint Blackberry to communicate with deaf people here in Vermont, I just got a Sorenson VP (videophone) for VRS (video relaying services) and/or face to face communications to a deaf person.

Deaf/Hoh people get the Sorenson VP-200 for free…the technology is sick (I mean that in a good way). It requires high speed internet access via DSL or cable.

And still enjoying my new apartment situated among the mountains….so…does anyone here have a VP or such?

Im getting quiet gittery about thursday, Iv gone through grommits before, but the doctors uncertanty on how my eardrums will take the new T-tubes and I may need extencive ear drum surgery if they dont hold, it gives me the slight fear!!

This will be my 9th op on my ears, now and the only bad experience iv had with going under a general anistesia is I get very low blood pressure and get pretty weak and tired, but other than that its usually fine!

So out of interest, whats your surgery experiences, good bad or indifferent? Im just curious really!

well I went to my Specialist thismorning, and saw his understudy, who eventually got stumped about the thing thats happening me, he went and talked to the Proffessor and to cut a long story short, they dont know!….great help huh?!! So they just put it down to Estachian tube dysfunction again!
They now want to put in T-Tubes, this will be my 9th opperation on my ears, and they said it should work to stop the pressure and air building up behind the ear drum, but they are worried that my ear drums are so very thin and weak, they may not be able to hold the tubes for long or at all, so they are risking completely wrecking my ear drums beyond repair….hmmmm!
Not the thing is they are not like the regular little Grommit type T-Tubes like they have put in before, just in the ear drum, these will be the long straw tupe tubes and they well be inserting them in to the Estachian tubes to open them out and ballance the air, the ends of the tubes will be sutured in place in my ear drums like the grommits would be, but the rest of the tubes will trail down into the Estachian tubed from the ear down behind the nose!…
Has anyone heard of T-Tubes like this, and do you think it will be worth the risk of irriversably destroying my already damaged ear drums?!!
The thing is, if it works, it will stop the horrid ‘breathing through my ears’ sinsation that if had for years, if not my ear drums will be, well, gone! so I dont know!…. This sinsation is killing me at the moment and im almost willing to try anything to stop it!
What do ye think?? HELP!

Hi all, I’d just like to say that i found this site by accident but I’m glad I have! I was actually using google because I wanted to find out about what the link is between my hearing imparement and my voice.

Let me start from the beginning……

I was born deaf (profound in the right, moderate in the left) because my mother caught rubella when she was pregnant with me. I was raised in a hearing family and I was educated at a mainstream school. I had speech therapy for many years and now lead a “normal” life, however normal one can be! I don’t allow my hearing problem to cause me barriers in my life, I’ve got to university, I’ve had relationships and I’ve had jobs where I’ve used the phone and worked with customers 1-2-1.  As I’m sure your all aware that its not completely fuss free! I still have days when I go out for a night and my battery runs out half way through and I dont have a spare on me, or when I’m doing things like swimming or having a shower it can be annoying because I cannot hear very much at all and rely on the vibrations to get by…..but like I said, its not a big deal!
I haven’t had a proper chance to look at the site so appologies if I mention something that has already been spoken about but,  the thing I cant shake off in all of this is my voice. I know its different. Speech wize I’m more or less normal- again I use the term normal loosely! and my pronoucation is fine, but I HATE my voice. I know most people do but I can hear the difference and I can feel the difference too, sometimes I think its ok and others I feel like yuck! stop talking! Even though I have my friends who don’t judge and I dont care for people that find my hearing/voice an issue, I can still tell when someone is thinking, hmm her voice is different.

 BASICALLY!! what my question is: what experience have others had with their voice? Has anyone got any advice on what I can do to change it? I think its mainly to do with my breathing but I don’t know how to change it! I don’t want to do this for anyone else, I’m not trying to prove anything I just know that if my voice wasn’t so obviously different, I’d be alot more confident and self assured! THanks for taking the time to read this!

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