deaf

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 →

Answer the phone

~ Vera ~ 14 Comments
Copyright: iuriiau / 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright: iuriiau / 123RF Stock Photo

At home I’ve more or less stopped answering the phone.  If Nigel is in he will answer it.  If he’s out we’ve agreed it’s probably better if I let it ring.  The chances of it being someone phoning me via Next Generation Text are infinitesimally low.  The times Nigel has had to come home and solve the mystery of a muddled conversation in which I have completely misunderstood the caller (indeed sometimes misunderstood who the caller IS) are many.  It wasn’t worth it.  Let it go.  It’s a shame the Tesco delivery man can’t ring to say he’s held up, but life goes on.

However, the other late afternoon the phone rang.  It was dark, raining and I had been starting to fret about Nigel’s absence with our dog Izzy.  Continue reading →

Elmo’s Dog Blog: the preview

~ Vera ~ 19 Comments
Puppy Elmo - destined for stardom
Puppy Elmo – destined for stardom

One of the best things about starting this blog has been the fact that I’m now in touch with many more people with similar hearing problems to my own.  I was delighted when I heard that one of those people, Deb, was about to launch a blog about her life with a Hearing Dog.  Here’s a sneak preview.  It’s going to be great………

“I am the very lucky recipient of a Hearing Dog and Vera has kindly invited me to write a guest blog about Hearing Dogs. So where to start? It is, as you may imagine, a large topic so maybe I should address the most frequently asked question I get on a daily basis. But perhaps before that I should tell you a little about me and my Hearing Dog. Continue reading →

Don’t give up

~ Vera ~ 9 Comments
Copyright: garagestock / 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright: garagestock / 123RF Stock Photo

This post is an antidote to one posted in May – the one called I Give Up.  I Give Up was about deciding that some activity or other had passed beyond the realms of the possible.  For the sake of your sanity it was best to give up on it and look for new things that you COULD do.  The examples I gave were going to the theatre (I find captioned performances pointless because my hearing is now so poor that I have to watch the captions the whole time, completely missing the visual experience of the play) and attending events at a particular local venue.  Continue reading →

You can’t be a shrinking violet

~ Vera ~ 4 Comments
Copyright: juliatim / 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright: juliatim / 123RF Stock Photo

Since October I’ve been attending an excellent class on Art and Architecture, run by my local University of the Third Age.  The tutor, Ian, a retired university lecturer, is knowledgeable and entertaining.  A group of about twenty of us meet in a local village hall.  It’s great fun, and I’m starting to be able to tell my Baroque from my Bauhaus. (I was starting from a very low base).

About a week ago we had a morning in Leeds, looking at some of the wonderful buildings there.  Leeds city centre is a great place – very vibrant and very little affected by the sixties shopping centre monstrosities that are such a blot on the landscape in other towns.  It’s well worth a visit.   Ian pointed out to us lots of things I’d not noticed before and I had a lovely time.

It did, though, make me aware (again) that you can’t be a shrinking violet if you want to enjoy this sort of thing when you are deaf. Continue reading →

Communicating with the NHS – any progress?

~ Vera ~ 14 Comments
Copyright: mybaitshop / 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright: mybaitshop / 123RF Stock Photo

Audience participation time – that is, if you live in England.  A while ago I wrote about a new piece of legislation applying to the NHS in England (and indeed care homes, although I am concentrating on the NHS today).  A new Accessible Information Standard means that, since 31 July, all parts of the NHS have been obliged to ask all new and existing patients whether or not they have any communication difficulties – caused by hearing loss for example. Ta da! What an excellent thing! Visibility!

If you have, the health provider is meant to record the problem, and, in future, provide the help that you need to access the service.  Ta Da!  Another excellent thing!  Action! Continue reading →