Are You Deaf Turn Up Your Hearing Aid

“I am Deaf!”

“No you’re not, you’re hearing impaired.”

“What’s the difference, for all I care I can hear, but I cannot interact with dialogue. If I take off my hearing aid I am totally deaf. The blessing comes at bed time when I take it off I hear nothing to disturb my sleep.”

If I find myself in a 3, or more group setting, I can be left out merely by the other two lowering their voices, and speaking in a low tone so I am unable to hear. You can tell secrets, or confidential information in my presence just by lowering your voice, and I will not tell. Even if you call down evil upon the king I will not tell what I cannot hear. (Ecclesiastes 10:20)

In an auditorium. In an auditorium with a speaker from a platform with or without a microphone, I can’t follow the dialogue. I don't go to movies, because I can't hear the dialogue. I watch TV, but prefer closed captioning.

Deafness is direct cause of insecurity. Deafness existed before, during, and after grammar school and high school. For example, at the start of a new class I would request the teacher to seat me in a front row so I can hear. Some were agreeable, others reproach with:

“You’ll sit where I tell you!”

I could have given her a gift if I was a Fuller Brush Distributor then. I think a good one would be:

Before the battle (with a teacher) I could have sued for peace—Hey—it’s better than an apple!

Before class and after class I would never know all of the specific details of what’s going on without asking the classmates after dismissal to fill me in with what I had missed.

Deafness in school. Deafness in school has been noted as handicapping my ability to interact with others. I feel ill at ease, unsettled, & introverted. Merely the others by lowering their voice speaking in a low tone suggests that their dialogue is confidential—I imagined they are talking about me.

I could have used my new girl friend, her name is Ann Fuller, and I invented her. We like to go shopping in my new store I just opened. She’s there to greet at our grand opening. She’s holding some of the products featured in our store. The brooms are made to last one million sweeps. With riveted steel construction that means it would take you 20years of sweeping your kitchen every day to finish half of that number. Look! She’s holding the Fulsol, an excellent cleaner.

I’ll miss most of the comments in a group setting unless I am face-to-face to a speaker from a platform with or without a microphone, because I can’t hear the dialogue. If there is audience participation I will not hear speakers in front & ones far off. Is my opinion that hearing impairment is a direct cause of attention deficit disorder—can’t hear what’s going on, so the mind drifts.

Here’s a quiz: What Bible book, chapter, and verse does this log-on come from:

In public places. In public places there is so much dialogue all combined in a continuous din more like a distant ocean roar where it’s impossible to single out one so as to pay attention to wisdom with one ear that I can incline toward understanding one person—the one facing me—with 155 people in a room simultaneously calling out each one giving forth to join the voices to a very audible continuous din. There’s no way in a crowd that I can understand one singled specific coherent structured sentence.

I cannot hear stereo! Just as stereo needs two speakers, to hear stereo you need two ears. What if you have only one working ear? Some one will call you from a distance; I turn around 360 degrees looking for the source of the sound.

“Here I am, over here!”

Binaural hearing means just that, one cannot hear stereo, and it affects how one detects the source of sounds.

All through life I have been deaf in my right ear, but nobody believed me. Doctor’s would say:

“You’ve got wax!”

Wax was cleared, but I still cannot hear. Soundness of mind helped me to be vigilant with a view to prayer. I have learned not to be anxious over it, and not to think about it more than is necessary. I petition God by making the handicap known to him while begging for the peace of God that excels all thought to guard my mental powers. (Philippians 4:6-7)

Do I Need a Hearing Aid? To use a hearing aid took time, about a year and a half. It took time and discipline to get used to this new artificial ear. At first, about 54 years ago, when I heard certain sounds I had not heretofore heard it surprised me, because it’s something I had become used to not hearing. During the year, and a half of wearing it I would complain of too much noise. I would refuse to continue—“take it off!” Then try to learn to accept the noise while trying to ignore the undesirable Tinnitus.

At first, I was fooled, because I thought the Tinnitus would disappear as soon as I turned on the hearing aid, but it did not! If I think about the Tinnitus, it would drive me crazy. I choose to ignore what will never go away it’s my constant companion of mutual coexistence.

Associating with a person who is hearing impaired is a trying experience. One man is known to shout:

“Turn up your hearing aid!!”

Talking with one’s regular voice and with the usual louder volume whether he shouts or your aid is turned up will cause distortion. It is best to get my attention and to speak with me face to face so that I can see your lips and face, and visually “read” the lips and facial expressions for clues as to what is being stated.

“No, I do not read lips, that needs to be learned, but I do look at lips, face, and attitude for clues as to what’s being said.”

Rephrasing is more helpful than loud annoyed repetition for emphasis. If you are loud, or look annoyed, I will turn you off, and we are both without an audience.

Tinnitus—A Noise to Live With? Tinnitus is constantly with me—a noise—like that of a rushing stiff breeze, combined with steam under pressure escaping from a boiler. Being constantly present, this noise is so loud it drowns out normal conversation from persons not directly in front. Instead of understanding vowel sounds consonants and syntax of what’s going on, loud Tinnitus drowns it out. Instead of making the supreme effort to hear —I hear but without understanding so I might ignore the one speaking.

Living with a handicap. Ears cannot only receive sound, but can also send sound. With Tinnitus for example the sound seems to come from the cochlea in the inner ear where vibrations normally are converted into nerve impulses. Apparently the mechanism can also work in reverse, setting itself into vibration and thus emitting an acoustical signal. It can sound like a “buzzing, ringing, roaring, whistling, or hissing. It may be intermittent, continuous, or a ringing may come unexpectedly as a pulse. These sounds can range from hardly audible to disturbingly loud.

Tinnitus cannot be turned off can be a source of side effects: emotional distress, concentration difficulties, fatigue, communication problems, and depression.

What Causes Tinnitus? Besides being an ear disorder, it could be caused at infancy. The cochlea, with its 15,000 or so microscopic sensory hair cells has been damaged, so they send and receive an unbalanced stream of nerve signals. These unwanted signals are perceived by the person as noise, or Tinnitus.

I would like to say I am deaf, because without my hearing aid I am indeed deaf. Others object with no you are not, you are hearing impaired. I refuse to accept it as a dilemma, but I have spent a lifetime teaching my brain to coexist with both.

Tinnitus and hearing impairment is one of many maladies that must be endured until the arrival of God’s coming new world, in which no resident will say: “I am sick.” (Isaiah 33:24) The people who are dwelling in the land will be those throwing away hearing aids, crutches, eyeglasses and other prosthetics. Gehen-2011 ©