Deaf and Hearing Aid

If a person who is deaf wears a hearing aid, are they still deaf or are they now hard of hearing? There is no right or wrong answer for that. Its a personal question. I am deaf. I wear a hearing aid and I consider myself deaf. My twin sister is deaf. She also wore a hearing aid and she will never call herself deaf. She sees herself as a hearing person with a hearing problem. She now has a cochlear implant and still considers herself hearing with a hearing loss. She has no contact at all with deaf culture and is 100% in the hearing "world".

More than two months ago, before I went to bed, I put my hearing aid on the nightstand beside my bed. I normally put my aid on the dresser with my glasses but it was one of those nights I was especially tired. I did take off my glasses and put them on the dresser but after I was already in bed, I realize I hadn't taken off my hearing aid. I was too tired and didn't want to leave my warm bed so I just removed my hearing aid and put it on the nightstand next to me. That was the last time I saw it.

I work from home. When I am home, I do not wear my hearing aid simply because I don't need it being home alone all day. If I have to go out, I will wear it. If I have to deal with hearing people, I will wear it. It's mostly to help me with communicating with the public. Just makes a lipreading a little easier. That day I did not leave my house so I didn't wear my aid or even think about it. It was the next day I realized it was gone.

I looked everywhere for that thing. Over the next few days I did a very thorough cleaning of my bedroom. I eventually rearranged the furniture so everything in that room was touched by my hands and searched. I dumped the contents of my dresser drawers. It was about time I did that anyways so that was a good motivation. Nothing.

We have two cats. There was one other time I had not put my hearing aid high on the dresser and one or both of them played soccer with it during the night. I had found my hearing aid in the living room the next morning. I knew there was a possibility this happened again and I did search the rest of my house as well. Nothing.

Well I eventually gave up looking. I figured it would show up some day. That was over two months ago and it has not shown up. Thus, I began my life as a completely deaf person. Without my hearing aid, I hear nothing with the exception of very low or very high sounds and they have to be next to me to hear that. How has my life been different?

Living life as a deaf person with hearing children

The first thing I noticed was not being able to understand my own children. While they are around ASL here at home, they have not picked it up as a second language. They grew up as CODAs (chidren of deaf adult) but ASL was never their language. My oldest son is away at college and has probably lost whatever signing he knew. He does remember some basis words and finger spelling but doesn't have much, if any opportunities to use it. He works for McDonalds and does sign with customers if necessary. My middle boy is 15 and very stubborn. I had to plead with him to help me with communicating with him by signing "something". Don't expect me to 100% lipread him while he make no effort to help. He now will finger spell words if I stop him and say "what?". Unfortunately, we are at the point where he really doesn't talk to me unless he wants something. That breaks my heart. I can't force him to talk and I know he doesn't talk much to his hearing father either. He is a very quiet boy that keeps mostly to himself. He does have a wiry sense of humor and quick whit. My younger... my daughter is 12 and she signs the most to me. She is involved with the deaf ministry called Deaf Cafe along with her dad and me. She does have opportunities to sign and does sign "something" when she talks to me but still not 100%. I would say maybe 50% of what she says is in sign and the rest is spoken words and mime.

But anyways... without the use of my hearing aid, I had to depend on their limited signing and my lip reading skills. It has been rough. There have been many times I've been left out when the three of them (my husband, middle boy and daughter) are talking and joking and I have no idea what is going on. My husband will fill me in but its after the fact. The last laugh after the joke is already spent. Somehow it is no longer as funny as the first time. That was when I decided I'm going to get a new hearing aid so I could rejoin my family again. While I still consider myself deaf, I function best with the use of some hearing. I do miss the sound.