I would say that this day marked the beginning of a new chapter but I can't really say that. I mean if I woke up from surgery and they switched it on straight away and I had better hearing I guess we could call that a new chapter. But actually there are many hurdles and much waiting until that happens so I like to refer to this day as the end of one chapter and the beginning of a period of waiting for the next one to begin.
So what have I left behind?
Early twenties I begin to get an inkling of something not quite right with my hearing. There's no accident, horrific illness, etc that brings it on. All I can say is that I started becoming aware of a ringing in the ear. The big T as doctors call it..tinnitus. Annoying but I'll live. It'll probably go....but doesn't. It gets worse to the point where in that ear...left...I struggle to hear someone on the phone. Worse still I start getting sudden dizzy attacks of vertigo. Not fun when one of those was whilst riding my bike!
It carries on getting worse the hearing but the vertigo is not often and so I adjust and use my fully functioning right ear for any conversation in public or on the phone. OK so its embarrassing when someone on your left side thinks you're being rude when they are saying "excuse me..." like five times and you don't respond!
Teacher training finishes in 1994 and I begin a teaching career as a partially deaf person but its entirely doable. I try an analogue hearing aid in the left ear but I can't get used to it and it doesn't feel like it offers me any great improvement.
I get married in 1995! Gorgeous woman Christina.....She's an amazing person....she needs to be to cope with what the future will hold!
So things carry on for about ten to twelve years with one ear and life goes on. My two boys are born in those years. N and J in 1999 and 2001.
But then I get that familiar feeling that something isn't quite right with the right one! I try to tell myself it'll be fine and its just temporary and its not the same as the left. Well, at first it seems that way......
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