Re: Technology Rocks! -Return to Beth

[Guest guest]

I am so happy for you and your DH! It does not sound as if the hearing aids he

has gotten are like what I have seen with Cochlear implants. Maybe because your

husband once had hearing it would be similar but I do not think so.

I have a friend with 2 children who have had cochlear implants done in 1994 and

5. Now maybe things have greatly improved since then, but her children have

needed INTENSIVE - many hours a day- training to make sense out of the NOISE so

that it is useful to them.

Your husband is well deservedly fortunate!

Sara

>>> paul.3@... - 04/05/0 8:21 PM >>>

Hi All,

This is off-topic, but not really, since we do rely on a lot of technology

for our kids. But this has to do with my DH. As I have mentioned, he is

deaf. He was born with a mild to moderate hearing loss that has

deteriorated throughout his life. Profound hearing loss was evident after

a bizarre prank that some teenage " friends " pulled on him- they drove off

while he was stiing on the back of a car. The fall resulted in destroying

the hearing more completely in what had been his better ear.

(DH) has always been able to utilize a really powerful hearing aid in

his better ear. It helps him pick up environmental sounds and he is a

skillful speech (lip) reader but he relies on a sign language interpreter

for some parts of his job or else uses a real time captioning service. He

is taxed completely by the end of the day. Lip reading is stressful, as

well as " reading " signs for the duration of long meetings. Family

gatherings and restaurant dinners have never been fun. And lately,

Ben has been using his Dad's hearing loss to figure out when he can make

his move to get into trouble. He knows that if Dad can't see him, he can't

know that he is going to do something forbidden, like touch the stove or

other appliances.

Well, came home today from a new hearing aid service offered through

Ohio State University. Not only will OSU pay a generous amount for hearing

aids now (previously not covered at all under benefits) but he gets two

months to try out new devices. He came home today wearing TWO computerized

hearing aids- and asked if the house was usually this noisy. I assured him

it is. He can hear me if I call him behind his back. He can hear music

again for the first time in almost twenty years. He can hear people across

the room. He can also hear PB's loud noises upstairs, as well as a lot of

little things. I just cannot believe this!!! (I never learned to sign

beyond baby signs and the alphabet- he lip reads me very well- but it gets

very stressful late in the day or when we are out because neither one of us

is at our best by then). He said he can even get a remote contol card so

he can adjust the sound for different settings. IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! I am

really excited!! Can you tell? He thinks that this is similar to the what

can happen if a person gets a cochlear implant.

We've been married almost 17 years. It has been exciting over this time to

see all of the changes (for the better) that developing technology has

contributed to helping people with hearing loss participate more fully in

the hearing world. Having closed caption options built into every tv meant

we didn't have to jiggle the closed-captioning machine like a bad antenna.

Just the advent of computers and in the last few years the massive

utilization of e-mail for correspondance has made the playing field more

even for my DH. But now for him to be able to more easily and quickly

communicate- this is like a dream come true. And Ben is going to

find out very quickly that he won't be able to take advantage of his dear

old dad just because he's out of eyesight. (I'd been thinking that we

might have to look into a service dog). Anyway, it's fun to share some

good news for a change!

{{{{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Beth

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