Cindy is 42, a single mom and lives somewhere in the state of Florida.  She chronicles her experience as a hearing impaired person at beethovensears.com. 

What kind of job do you have? I’m a Librarian

Personal Story:  I love to read!  Now that I’m blogging, I’m enjoying writing, too.  When not reading or blogging, I’m playing my piano keyboard. I’m a single mom and my 15 year old son lives with me.  My 18 year old daughter moved out a few months ago and is sharing a house with friends.  

Hearing Loss Story:  My hearing loss story is on my blog:  http://beethovensears.com/2007/08/13/the-lucky-one/ 
 

How does being hearing impaired affect your life? I’ve always had a hearing loss, but in the last few years, it has declined further. “Recruitment” makes me shy away from loud group settings and I have a tendency to enjoy outings with only 1 or 2 people at a time.

Do you have a moment when being hearing impaired taught you something?  Not sure about this.  I’ve learned that there are decent people that willingly accommodate a person’s hearing loss and others who adamantly refuse.  Don’t lose any sleep over the latter.  Just move on with your life and do what you need to do.  

Have you ever thought that being hearing impaired held you back?  Or helped you in some way?  This is how my hearing loss helped me: My hearing loss qualified me for assistance from Vocational Rehabilitation - they provided monetary and tuition support for me to complete my B.A. (I was on my own for graduate school, though).

Any advice or information to share with other hearing impaired people?  I encourage HoH people to not be ashamed of their hearing loss; we can’t help the fact that we’re HoH and it’s not a shameful thing. Be “matter of fact” about it - acknowledge it and let other people know so they can communicate with you better.  Also, more HoH people need to know about Vocational Rehabilitation - see http://beethovensears.com/free-hearing-aids/Is there anything you thought you wouldn’t be able to do anymore, but overcame it some how?  I’ve always been HoH, and know the type of situations that I don’t do well in - like large groups (background noise, with people talking too fast or too soft), aerobics class (can’t hear/understand the instructor - always lagged several steps behind), going to movies without captioning, watching tv without captions.  Now that I’m getting older, my hearing loss is getting worse, and when I can’t understand my Library customers, I simply ask them to write down what they want.  That works!

Anything you wish you knew sooner in the process?  That many other HoH people experience the same things that I have - reading other HoH people’s stories has given me a strange kind of “comfort” for lack of a better word.  I’m not weird, I’m HoH. : )

What kind of hearing aids do you wear?
2 Siemens digital BTE aid.

What kind of hearing loss do you have?Sensorineural.  It ranges from mild in the low frequencies to profound in the high frequencies.  I’m going to post my new audiogram on my blog soon. How did you find your doctor and/or audiologist? Vocational Rehabilitation referred me.

Where did you purchase your hearing aids?Vocational Rehabilitation purchased them for me. They paid over $3000 for two very good quality hearing aids - this is the discounted amount. 

Any other funny, sad, interesting story to tell?  Check my blog - I’ve written several stories people seem to enjoy!