I am open with my students about my hearing loss. I want them to be as comfortable with it as I am, and understand it requires some adjustment on their part, just as it does on mine. In order to hear them I have to ask for silence in the classroom when another student is speaking, because background noise is a killer when I am trying to listen to someone individually.
Distance Learning With a Hearing Loss
In the classroom, Alex has a captionist who ensures that he gets most of what the teacher is saying. He also carries a small microphone, or mini mic, for teachers to talk into so that their speech streams directly into his hearing aid and CI. Together, these two tactics were by no means perfect, but they worked for Alex. Unfortunately, like every other student across the world, Alex’s in-person education routine was interrupted a few months ago.
Cochlear Implants: The Miracle Ears
In the hospital, our daughter, Saghar, passed the otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test, while our son, Sina, needed a follow up after failing his. The doctors indicated there might have been amniotic fluid left behind his eardrums. Always an optimist, I didn’t give Sina’s test results a second thought. However, Keyvan has always been a realist. He was worried. He was right to be.
The Day It Happened
My hearing had been gradually declining. I knew that because I would hear ringing in my ears, and I knew what that meant. (Scary organ chord here.) It meant hearing loss. But how bad could it be, I figured. I’m still hearing. I’m still on the phone. I’m still talking to people. I can manage, right? This had been going on for several years and it was my new normal. Sure, I have to say “What?” a few times, but so what.
New Connections
I am remaining social and engaged in the world from the safety and comfort of my home. This is so important to do when you have a hearing loss. For almost three decades—since I was in my early 50s working as a secretary in a bank—I’ve so appreciated the value of hearing aids to stay connected and to be able to function. Now, I’m feeling immensely grateful for electronic communication, too.
Parenting With Hearing Loss: It Is What It Is!
I was diagnosed in my late 20s, and my boys have lived their entire lives with a mother who hears differently than them. There’s never been a big conversation or explanation, and they’ve never had to adapt to anything new. It is what it is. We’ve had conversations about the genetic risk. My mother, her sisters, my grandmother, and my great aunts all have hearing loss. So my sons are tested once a year to make sure I didn’t pass it on. Day to day, though, it’s our reality, and my boys don’t know an alternative.
Valleys and Peaks on My Hearing Loss Journey
My hearing loss journey has been gradual—like driving slowly up into high mountains on a twisty road, adjusting to changes in altitude at each major peak. I have been hard of hearing since my 20s, with hearing loss accelerating in my 30s to 50s, and now stable with small age-related changes each year.
Processing Auditory Processing
In January 2018, working as a digital producer, I was running a test setup in the auditorium of a London art gallery. Due to faulty audio equipment, a large set of wall speakers blew right behind where I was standing, exposing me to an incredibly high-level sound blast.
More Than Winning
With the help of my employer, OneLife Fitness, I scheduled the challenge for my 55th birthday at the gym. I chose to pair the event with a fundraiser for HHF on Facebook, where I was able to not only raise funds, but bring more awareness into the community about the good work of HHF.
No Excuses
Around the age of 3 and a half, my parents started noticing that I was always turning my right ear to the person speaking. Something wasn’t right. I was not reacting to sounds the way the typical hearing child should. My parents took me to my pediatrician who referred us to an audiologist. On September 28, 2000, at age 4, I was diagnosed with bilateral moderate-severe sensorineural hearing loss and immediately fitted with hearing aids.