I went to a wedding this weekend. The wedding was an hour and a half away, and to get there, I had to drive through some winding, mini-mountainous roads - maybe about three miles of it. I started thinking of childhood and how I never got car sick or threw up on carnival rides. When I have had vertigo due to progressive hearing loss, I've gotten queasy but never actually threw up. I got seasick once when I was eight years old, but then again everybody on board the ship was seasick except for the crew. Funny what you remember.
In the past, I took Antivert for vertigo. It generally makes Hearing people sleepy. I never reacted that way to Antivert. Not at all.
Babies and small children probably recover quickly from cochlear implantation than adults. I was surprised to read that only 25,000 babies/children have been implanted with a cochlear implant in the United States. I think cochlear implants should be more affordable to families and a viable option for their child.
When I think back to my deaf school days, I am amazed that I was as successfully mainstreamed into a hearing world as I was. Don't get me wrong. Hearing Aids weren't "magical." It wasn't a scenario of fitting me with a hearing aid at two and a half and then "following the Yellow Brick Road" to success. I have learned more from my failures in this life than I have my successes. I appreciate my success and the small and big victories that much more. One caveat: I am NOT looking for a cochlear implant to "fix" my life, only to improve my quality of life. A cochlear implant doesn't CURE deafness. I will still have to take off the sound processor to bathe, shower, swim, and sleep. Who wants noise at night when you are trying to fall asleep anyway?
Do I take success for granted? No, because success can be so fleeting. God, there have been so many bumps along the way. Setbacks, even. Anybody who tells you "life is coming up roses," is lying. You know those yearly letters people send at Christmastime? Some of them read like a Norman Rockwell sort of fairytale. I appreciate those letters that keeps stuff real. What are friends for? You can't be "rah, rah, rah," all the time. I have friendships that have stood the test of time and people who have seen me at my absolute worst as well seeing me when I am happy.
I wasn't born yesterday. One of the gifts of being deaf, I think, is the ability to read people like a book. We are visually oriented. I can usually tell what kind of a mood somebody is in without that person even opening his or her mouth.
Will my ability to "read people," go away once I am implanted? I think that is one gift I'd like to keep.
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