When I was about six months old, my parents suspected something was wrong with my hearing. They made an appointment at the Children's Hospital and the doctor ran an "Impedance under a Sedative" test. He concluded that I had normal hearing in one ear and slightly abnormal hearing in the other. Well that turned out to be very wrong! I turned out to be profoundly deaf in both ears. When I was about two years old my parents believed that there was something wrong with my eyesight as well, after testing I received my first pair of glasses.
Years of testing and recommendations by doctor after doctor followed. Ideas such as "Don't wrap her in cotton wool" to protect my eyes, to "Don't ever let her learn Sign Language, or she'll never learn to speak" were the weirder ones I've heard my folks reminisce about.
The first time I knew I was deaf was at two years old. My folks took me to a place, some man stuck "things" in my ears and I could hear noise! For a while after that I followed everything with my eyes for I didn't dare move my head for fear that those "things" would fall out and I'd be hurled into silence again. I'd protest and cry at bedtime when it was time to take the hearing aids off and go to sleep.
Being legally blind at the same time and not being able to see beyond my five foot boundary of vision, I just assumed that everyone had "hearing boxes" like mine. I attended an Oral School for preschool and all the other kids had them. If I saw a kid without one I just guessed they didn't get theirs yet, and because I didn't see any adults with any, we must not need them when we grow up.
My parents reaction to finding out their child is "disabled" wasn't so much as shock, but more disbelief, sadness and a lot of worrying. They remember when they told the rest of the family, their parents, brothers and sisters, that there wasn't much of a reaction except make me more "special" to them, but insisted I not be treated differently.
Well, it turns out I'm just as crazy as they all are heh.
Years of testing and recommendations by doctor after doctor followed. Ideas such as "Don't wrap her in cotton wool" to protect my eyes, to "Don't ever let her learn Sign Language, or she'll never learn to speak" were the weirder ones I've heard my folks reminisce about.
The first time I knew I was deaf was at two years old. My folks took me to a place, some man stuck "things" in my ears and I could hear noise! For a while after that I followed everything with my eyes for I didn't dare move my head for fear that those "things" would fall out and I'd be hurled into silence again. I'd protest and cry at bedtime when it was time to take the hearing aids off and go to sleep.
Being legally blind at the same time and not being able to see beyond my five foot boundary of vision, I just assumed that everyone had "hearing boxes" like mine. I attended an Oral School for preschool and all the other kids had them. If I saw a kid without one I just guessed they didn't get theirs yet, and because I didn't see any adults with any, we must not need them when we grow up.
My parents reaction to finding out their child is "disabled" wasn't so much as shock, but more disbelief, sadness and a lot of worrying. They remember when they told the rest of the family, their parents, brothers and sisters, that there wasn't much of a reaction except make me more "special" to them, but insisted I not be treated differently.
Well, it turns out I'm just as crazy as they all are heh.
RSS Feed