I was talking to a friend about hearing loss today and the word disability came up. \u00a0 Technically I am considered to have a disability because I can’t hear. \u00a0I have always rejected that designation because I feel completely able. \u00a0I don’t consider being deaf a disability, I consider it an inconvenience. \u00a0And a challenge.<\/p>\n
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When I first lost my hearing, I couldn’t believe it could be happening to me. \u00a0I couldn’t believe it couldn’t be fixed. \u00a0I always thought if something was wrong, the doctor would make it better. \u00a0The idea that something in me was broken and couldn’t be fixed, was beyond my comprehension at the time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It took awhile and it wasn’t easy, but I finally came to terms with the knowledge that this was the new me. This would be (as some people say) ‘the new normal.’ \u00a0 Once I got past the denial, anger, frustration, and sadness, I made a very conscious decision. If I had to be deaf, I was going to be the best damn deaf I could be.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rather than think of what I can’t do because I can’t hear – and hearing would be pretty much it – I think about what I can do and what I’m so very grateful for. \u00a0I can see the faces of those I love. \u00a0I can feel the sun on my face and the breeze in my hair. \u00a0I can walk. I can talk. \u00a0I can go wherever I want to go. \u00a0I can do what I want to do. \u00a0I have far more limitations because of age and arthritis than I do from being deaf.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I don’t mean to make light of it. \u00a0I don’t mean to make it sound fun. \u00a0I don’t mean to make it sound like it doesn’t matter. \u00a0I know firsthand the pain and suffering of the loss. \u00a0But I also know that it doesn’t have to be the end of our world. It doesn’t have to take away the pleasure of living and having new and varied experiences. \u00a0It doesn’t have to keep us from interacting with people. \u00a0We can get help. We can compensate. \u00a0We can live without hearing. \u00a0 Life is different, but it is not less.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was talking to a friend about hearing loss today and the word disability came up. \u00a0 Technically I am considered to have a disability because I can’t hear. \u00a0I have always rejected that designation because I feel completely able. \u00a0I don’t consider being deaf a disability, I consider it an inconvenience. \u00a0And a challenge. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":422,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lostmyhearing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}