28. The old man ~ 25th June

An old man who had suffered for years with severe hearing loss decided he had had enough and needed to get help with his hearing. He went to the audiology clinic and the audiologist provided him with hearing aids that gave him perfect hearing. A few weeks later he went back to see the audiologist. Having examined the old mans ears, the audiologist congratulated the man for his progress and said "your family must be overjoyed and amazed  since you are no longer deaf". The old man replied "I've got no intention of telling them yet. I pretend I'm deaf still, but I secretly listen to their conversations. I've already changed my will four times!"

27. A quick shave ~ 25th June

It's only two days since I got the new hearing aid moulds and I am already back at the audiologists because the moulds are so painful.

You know the discomfort of wearing a brand new pair of shoes for the the first time and they give you a horrible, painful blister? Well that's what's happened with my ears. The bit of the mould which goes inside my ear is fine and a much tighter fit than the first pair which is great. However the outside part of the mould is rubbing under one of the folds in both ears.

With a sanding machine the audiologist shaved the bit of the mould which had been hurting me so much. When examining it he said that it had been bleeding hence why it's been so sore. Just as he started to shave the second hearing aid, the machine overheated and decided to stop working...typical! I have to go back on Saturday by which time the machine will have been replaced. 

26. Collecting mould ~ 23rd June

I've just collected the new moulds for my hearing aids. They are made out of silicone as opposed to my old ones which are made of vinyl. They aren't as soft but they appear to be a better fit because they go deeper into my ears.

25. Day 4: Thinking ahead ~ 20th June

This morning we were given an interesting talk about cochlear implants. 'Surgery Encyclopedia' says "A cochlear implant is a small, complex electronic device used to treat severe to profound hearing loss. It is surgically implanted underneath the skin behind the patient's ear" (quoted from 'encyclopedia of surgery'). I am not going into any detail about cochlear implants because they are such an incredible and complex invention that they warrant their own entry on my blog.

It was then time to say goodbye. It was really difficult to leave the course. Whilst saying goodbye to my fellow students was sad, leaving the actual course was the worst. Leaving the things which I had never imagined I would experience. I went on the course for four reasons: 

1. learn more about being deaf, 
2. meet other deaf people, 
3. get some support for my family, 
4. use the hotels swimming pool. 

Other than that, I wasn't expecting a thing.

What did I gain from the course? Not only was the course content educational, it was supportive for my family, it provided me with a wealth of information, I received support from experienced staff, I gained courage, strength and I'm emotionally stronger than I was before. I am grateful for what I've got compared to those less able to use technology for example the much older students on the course. I was made to feel normal, spending time away to reflect, knowing that there are things available to help me lead the best quality of life I'm able to. I was given hope, allowed to talk openly, we shared experiences, gained tips from each other and I never felt alone. I have been given so many suggestions of things to look up when I'm home. I have learnt things in preparation for my future but being realistic at the same time, knowing that there are challenges ahead but also knowing that I'm normal and that I'm still the same person I was before going deaf.

Thank you NHS for funding the course and thank you Hearing Link for an amazing few days!

24. Day 3: Yogi Alarm ~ 19th June

For me, the first session was one of the most important topics of the course. A man talked to us about different sorts of equipment available for those hard of hearing. After talking to us he showed us some of them and we were allowed to touch them, feel the weight of them and generally have a fiddle around with them and to get the general feel to see whether they could help us or not. There were different types of amplified telephones, alarm clocks, door bells, pagers, fire alarms etc. I asked the man if he could let me hear how loud the fire alarm is to see if I could hear it (I can no longer hear our two fire alarms at home which were fitted by the fire brigade...that's another story!). The man pressed the button on the alarm. Can you remember me telling you in my last post about Yogi the hearing dog? Yogi is trained to react to particular sounds ie a particular doorbell, fire alarm etc. As soon as the man pressed the alarm button, Yogi bounded over to Steve (his master) and firmly put his paw on Steves leg to get his attention and then lay completely flat on the floor. This is Yogis way of alerting Steve that a fire alarm is ringing. That wasn't even the fire alarm which Yogi had been trained to respond to....a highly intelligent and amazing animal.

To see how Yogi has helped change Steve's life, please watch this short video (he is on at the start of the clip)  Click here.

During the morning, I learnt that there really are things available to help me lead as normal a life as possible. The only problem is that sadly the majority of all these things are very expensive.

We discussed 'tinnitus' this afternoon. I already know a bit about tinnitus as I have it. Most tinnitus sufferers have a very high pitched ringing in their ears. I find the louder the background noise and also being very tired being makes the ringing sound worse. I have had it several years. Since wearing hearing aids I have found that they have stopped the ringing in my ears, however the moment I take my hearing aids out, it comes back with a vengeance. I have a love hate relationship with tinnitus because whilst I hate the tiring, annoying, monotonous ringing, it makes me grateful that I am able to hear something.

As soon as the session had finished, I drove to a nearby shop to buy a present for Yogi after all, he deserved it.

             

We finished the evening by watching The World Cup...Maybe I should avoid that subject!

23. Day 2: The Crown Jewels and Paw Yogi ~ 18th June

This morning we discussed lip reading and we practiced various sentences such as "I went to London to visit Buckingham Palace to see the Crown Jewels". We lipread where each of us lives i.e. Leatherhead, Staines, Ashtead, Farnham, Guildford and Shepperton. We used words that sound similar to each other ie pad, bad, mad. We also talked about certain numbers i.e. 13 & 30, 14 & 40, 15 & 50, 16 & 60, 17 & 70, 18 & 80, 19 & 90 - stand in front of a mirror and notice how similar the lips look like for each pair of numbers. The hearing people were told that using their fingers to indicate the number. The lady came over to me and suggested I learn sign language as she thought it would be more beneficial to me than the older students, so she kindly said she'll look into it for me. We also talked about assertiveness and asking people to stand in good lighting, ask them to repeat what they have said, ask them to speak up and for us to keep asking until we achieve what we set out to get. When you ask a hearing person to repeat something, they will say it exactly the same way as before. We were told to ask people to speak slower (not necessary louder because the person will shout and this alters their lip movements, making it even harder to lipread), ask them to face me, ask them to use different words, ask them to keep their hands away from their mouth and if necessary ask them to write it down (I haven't had to use it yet but I now always carry a small notebook with me). I have found that with significant hearing loss you have to be more assertive as well as confident, which I am struggling with. When you can't hear someone behind a counter for example, it is too easy to look at the person you are with to get them to repeat it to you. The thing I find the hardest is going into a noisy restaurant, cafe, bar etc and asking them to turn the music down. I have never had the confidence to ask yet as I have always asked someone to do it for me.

The hearing people were given headphones to wear which were attached to a MP3 player playing white music and then huge builders headphones on top. Those who managed to keep them on for the duration of the break, the rest of the session and lunch, reported how tired, confused and isolated they felt. Whilst I would never wish for anyone to feel like that, it was a good exercise to allow hearing people to experience a taster of being hard of hearing. The big difference of course is that they were able to remove the headphones, either when they couldn't hear what somebody was saying to them or when they had simply had enough. We (the hard of hearing) were told that we should always make time for regular non-concentration breaks to stop us getting so tired. A snooze every afternoon does sound appealing don't yo think?!

A lady from an audiology unit of a nearby hospital talked about hearing aids, what they do, whether private hearing aids are better than NHS hearing aids and so on.

She said that all hearing aids do is make things louder and whilst she's the expert, I disagree. It is true that hearing aids amplify sounds, but it is not a case of making peoples voices louder. Background noise become louder, music becomes louder, building work becomes louder. Do individual voices become louder? For me the answer is no. Even with my fancy hearing aids which are meant to minimise background noise, these other noises can overpower the sounds I want to hear making them hurt my ears and making me tired. My reason for disagreeing with the lady is because the hearing aids don't just amplify noises but make them sound different to the way I used to hear them when my hearing was good. A lot of noises sound 'tinny', some people sound as though they don't have any teeth(!) etc. I will write more about this topic in a future post.

I noticed yesterday that there were two people at the course along with a dog which had a coat on it saying it was a hearing dog. The couple, Steve and Chris, were in fact volunteers. Chris has good hearing whilst her husband Steve can hardly hear a thing. This is where Yogi comes in. Yogi, a soft gentle and placid dog, hadn't had the best start to his life, but things changed when the charity 'hearing dogs' found him. After a very long period of training he was found to be a suitable match for Steve. Steve said that Yogi had changed his life for the better. I've got a few questions lined up for Steve and Yogi tomorrow as I want to know more!

              

We had a social event in the evening. Our "classroom" had been transformed by the staff; all the tables had been moved around and were beautifully set. We had been told that there would be evening entertainment....a magician. I automatically had visions of a clown prancing around, not my idea of fun (sorry if there are any clowns reading this!). Therefore I was relieved to see a man in a suit with no face paint in sight. The evening turned out to be great fun with the magician going from table to table. With a lot of persistence I succeeded in getting the magician to reveal some of his tricks to me! He even told me his biggest secret which is.....I suppose I shouldn't reveal all to you in my post though! The evening made me realise that I must never have a career as a magician. I was worse than awful!