Tomorrow I’m going to get fitted for my hearing aids, which you see above. Yes, it’s quite sad that I have to get two hearing aids. The disabilities just keep piling up. My colleague, Tara, suggested I just duct-tape my head together and be done with it.
What this means is that I won’t be blogging until later in the day. But I’ll be able to hear your comments with crystal clarity.
liz | 10:05 PM | DISABILITY
Liz Spikol was born in Philadelphia sometime in the 20th century. She started writing about her experience as a person with mental illness in 1999, while employed at Philadelphia Weekly as the paper’s managing editor. Aside from serving as that paper’s web editor, music editor, staff writer, senior editor, executive editor and a host of other random roles that she couldn’t make up her mind about, she has also worked as a Spanish teacher, as a Certified Peer Specialist during Philly’s system-wide transformation and as a communications specialist for a prison reform organization. Currently, she works at the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania and writes book reviews for PW. This blog — named one of the Top 10 Bipolar Blogs of 2007 and 2008 by PsychCentral — is about medications, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD, PTSD, SAD (and many other acronyms), mad pride, Big Pharma, celebrities, hospitals, stigma and the recovery movement. And other stuff.
Liz,
I started wearing two behind-the-ear hearing aids about four years ago. At first, it was exhausting, with my brain was processing so many sounds it hadn’t heard in so long. I got used to it and now I feel naked without them.
Good luck. We’re lucky with the technology of hearing aids available today.
I wear in-the-ear hearing aids but I’m forever taking them out when I’m working since they tend to itch after a while. Once you get dependent on them, it gets harder to hear without them.
The title reminded me of “See Me, Feel Me / Listening to You” song of the band the Who.
Hey, we all have things we collect! Wear them with pride! If it makes you feel better, I have a friend who’s had one since high school. He jokes that it’s useful, because if he’s in a crowd situation and he wants to get through or not deal with it, he just puts on a very serious face and taps his ear, and he says crowds part for people wearing ear-pieces that look serious and tap their ears! Get your secret agent gravitas on!
Your new loayout is lovely. Very clean and reader friendly.
Aww, Sweetie, when it rains, it pours
. I second Katharine’s sentiment. Play Secret Agent Woman.
Dennis
Could you repeat that, Liz?
Sorry, but I’m deaf in one ear & that lame joke actually works almost every time, even with people who know I love doing it. I highly recommend using it whenever this topic comes up with people who know you’re hard of hearing.
No doubt I’ll be joining the hearing-aid world soon, so save me a seat.
My dad is deaf in one ear from an injury in WW II.
My mother just started wearing hearing aids from all the years of my dad blasting the TV and car radio.
Hearing aids have come a long way since my grandfather wore them.
I had my hearing tested last year and the audiologist said I do have a loss of high pitched frequencies in my left ear and there are very small, inconspicuous aids (for a few thousand dollars) but I’m holding out until it gets worse! I’m a 55 year old teacher about to retire. Sometimes it’s good not to hear those high pitched sounds!
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