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My thoughts on Parliament’s adjournment debate about NICE’s cochlear implant rules

~ Vera ~ 6 Comments

Whoah – what a long title.  Today’s blog comes to you courtesy of the Limping Chicken – the world’s most popular deaf blog, laying eggs every weekday.  Last Friday they published my post on the above (thank you Limping Chicken).  Here’s what I said…..

It’s not often that Parliament debates deafness, so Friday 24 March was important; an adjournment debate* discussed whether the current rules set by NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, are preventing some adults who would benefit from a cochlear implant from receiving one. Continue reading →

Just a little thing

~ Vera ~ 8 Comments
Copyright: iimages / 123RF Stock Photo

I used to have a work colleague who complained about people saying “could you just?” at work.  Could you just check this over for me?  Could you just remind me how to do Y?  He complained that the sum total of the “could you just” demands on him made big inroads into his productive work time.  One “could you just” was such a little thing – how could you refuse?  But they add up.

Sometimes I feel a similar thing about the minor irritants of deafness.  One such thing – poof! – it’s nothing, taking no time to sort out.  But the drip, drip, drip of a series of minor irritants – well, that can get you down.

My recent example of this is so trivial I’m almost embarrassed to tell you about it, but here goes. Continue reading →

To persevere or not to persevere?

~ Vera ~ 12 Comments
Copyright: photoman / 123RF Stock Photo

That’s the question.

And the answer is……I don’t know.  When do we persevere with something and when do we say “whoah, something not right here”?  I’ve written two previous posts on other aspects of this dilemma – I Give Up and Don’t Give Up (you can see I didn’t reach a conclusion then either) but this is specifically about hearing aids. Continue reading →

Do you take your hearing aids out to relax?

~ Vera ~ 28 Comments
Copyright: rrraven / 123RF Stock Photo

Amazingly, it is a year since I started blogging.  The first post on More Than A Bit Deaf was on 22 February 2016.  I’m still enjoying it hugely.  And I’m learning.  The more I read about deafness (other people’s blogs, Facebook groups, things I look into to research the topic of a post) the more I realise that everyone experiences their hearing loss in a different way.  We have different stories to tell, different preferences and different ways of coping.

Some of these differences are big ones, like the “Deaf or deaf” differences talked about in last week’s post.  Some are more trivial.  Continue reading →

Are you proud to be deaf?

~ Vera ~ 20 Comments

Are you proud to be deaf?  (Or proud to be hard of hearing, if you prefer a different terminology?)  No, I thought not.  I would guess that almost all the followers of this blog are people who have experienced hearing loss in adult life (that’s apart from the readers who can hear perfectly well, of course – hi there, hearing friends).  I don’t think we adult-onset hearing loss people feel at all proud.  Frustrated?  Certainly.  Tired?  Often.  Fed up?  Sometimes.  But proud?  No, I wouldn’t say that.  I try to be proud of how I handle the situation, but that’s a different story. Continue reading →

Blocked ears – the update

~ Vera ~ 13 Comments

Five weeks on from my ears becoming totally blocked after a virus, things are a lot better.  Not normal yet, but massively improved.  I can’t tell you how relieved I am.  Despite reassurances from the medical profession, it was scary.  Here’s what’s been going on since the first post.

By the end of that post I was talking about a slight but significant improvement.  Some sound got through.  Some speech came back.  But it wasn’t the speech I was used to hearing and it took a lot of hard work to understand, even sitting in a quiet room focussed on just one person. Continue reading →

Text 999 (and other stuff about phones)

~ Vera ~ 11 Comments
Copyright: Krisdog / 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright: Krisdog / 123RF Stock Photo

Are you signed up to text 999 (in the UK)?  I wasn’t until very recently but I am now.  It’s very simple to do (follow the instructions on www.emergencysms.org.uk) and is designed so that people with hearing difficulties or speech problems can easily get help in an emergency.  Once signed up, you can send a text to 999 with the information you would give on the telephone (what the problem is, where exactly it is happening and which service you need).  The emergency services then text you back within two or three minutes.  That’s slower than ringing them but if you can’t make a call it could be a lifesaver.  Continue reading →

Blocked ears

~ Vera ~ 19 Comments
Copyright: yayayoy / 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright: yayayoy / 123RF Stock Photo

I’ve had the flu.  Not a very bad dose, but enough to put me in bed for a couple of days and enough to block up my ears and cut off my hearing completely.  I’ve had blocked ears before after a head cold or a virus but they’ve always “popped” again after a few days.  This time they’ve still not “popped” nearly three weeks later and, to begin with, the loss of hearing was almost total, even with my powerful hearing aids. I originally lost a lot of hearing following a bout of flu in my twenties so it’s been hard not to fret that it might all be happening again.

Things are slightly better now but not enough for normal functioning.  Here’s what happened. Continue reading →

The power of doing small things

~ Vera ~ 8 Comments
Copyright: indomercy / 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright: indomercy / 123RF Stock Photo

A few weeks ago I received a letter from my credit card company.  They were very happy with how I was managing my account, the letter said, but they were reducing my credit limit.  They didn’t say why.  If I wanted to keep my existing limit (I did) that was fine, it was my decision.  Just ring the call centre on……….

AARGH!!!!!!!

The letter didn’t include an address to write to……

DOUBLE AARGH!!!!!

I am so sick of this.

However, my new strategy kicked in.  Continue reading →

Lip reading classes rule OK

~ Vera ~ 16 Comments
Copyright: krasimiranevenova / 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright: krasimiranevenova / 123RF Stock Photo

Since I’ve starting reading more blogs, websites and Facebook pages about hearing loss I’ve become aware of a wide range of attitudes towards, and experience of, lip reading and lip reading classes.

Some people seem to think lip reading is a miraculous “cure” for deafness.  One organisation selling lip reading tuition online markets itself with the words “learn to hear with your eyes and never miss a word again”.  Put politely, this is nonsense.  Be assured, you can be an excellent lip reader and miss an awful lot. Continue reading →