Life Without Noise

The world is loud. To some people, it is a lot louder than for others. I'm one of those others.

I'm Katie. I'm 60% deaf, and have been living with hearing loss for a few years now. I wanted to start a blog to share the experiences and lessons that only come from losing a majority of your hearing, and I have a bit of a hope that maybe my stories will help someone else going through the same issue to deal with it a little more smoothly.

First of all, the history.

I grew up a fairly normal girl. Tomboyish, adventure-seeking, stubborn and sassy. When I was thirteen and my brother was ten, he started to lose his hearing. I felt bad for him, but didn't know really how to handle it. He got hearing aids but never wore them because they were bulky, "uncool" and embarrassing. In college, I noticed that I occasionally wasn't hearing things as well as I used to. As time went on, and the problem worsened, I knew that there was a definite problem, but I was too embarrassed to deal with it. I ignored the issue and lived in denial for a while, but finally in July of 2008, I bit the bullet and went to an audiologist. That was when I found out that my hearing was definitely declining, and was on its way to matching my brother's hearing loss pattern, which is 60-70% loss. I was upset, shell shocked by getting my suspicions confirmed, and wanted to blame someone. One month later my new hearing aids arrived. I didn't quite know what to think of them, but I decided to give it a go. A year later, in July of 2009, I went back for another audiology exam. Sure enough, my hearing had declined to 60% loss - almost exactly the same as my brother's. It was at that point that I realized what I needed to do. I needed to own my hearing. I couldn't hide from it any more. I wouldn't make it entirely who I was, but it was certainly a part of me and I wasn't going to hide it. Since then, I've had my ups and downs, but I'll wear my hearing aids without being embarrassed and have no problem telling people to speak up. It's been a trying and empowering experience.

The posts to follow will include everything from random insights, amusing stories and relevant research. I am still in the phase of trying to figure out what caused my hearing loss, but I have learned to be patient. I keep an eye on all possibly applicable research, and I'll share that with you.