Musings from the City of New Orleans: Pardon Me, I Didn't Hear You

I lost the hearing in my left ear at 19. This resulted from the antibiotics given to me for bacterial meningitis, and that story is a whole other blog.

My discovery occurred, the day I came home from the hospital (for the first time) when trying to make a phone call with the phone to my left ear. I insisted the the telephone was broken. It was a very rude awakening.

But, today I want to write about the interesting things I've learned since losing my hearing.

Never answer yes to anything you don't hear. At 19, you are young and silly, seriously, and you do many bizarre things when you can't hear with both ears. I cannot tell you how many times I did this before the realization sunk in that this was not a good idea. But after many lewd proposals, I stopped.
It's impossible to ride a bike with someone riding next to you or with cars passing close to you. You'll fall over, you have NO balance. If someone comes up behind you and shouts that they are there, you'll have no idea exactly where that might be. I had huge mirrors on my bike and only rode early in the morning, but it became so stressful making sure I wasn't cutting someone off or pulling into traffic - I sold my bike.
In a group situation always sit at the end of the table facing everyone (preferably with your back against a wall, so the sound bounces off the wall), you can then see when someone is speaking and focus on them.
You cannot go to loud enclosed concerts, as you are at risk of losing the remainder of your hearing.
You never know which direction a siren is coming from.
When you're tired you walk too close to walls on your deaf side.

Reading lips is exhausting. 90% of lipreading is body language and context. A lot of words look similar (e.g. pig/big, hand/sand/stand, black/bland/blunt, cat/can). Men are harder to lipread than woman, because most men use little body language and minimal lip movement. If the man has a mustache, it's near impossible - especially a bushy mustache. You notice EVERYONE's teeth.
Loud noises and commotion will make you insane.
Be prepared for lack of understanding and (unfortunately) sometimes, stupidity:

People talking with no sound coming out (in my experience it's always men).
People pretending to do sign language.
People covering their mouths when they realize you're reading their lips or alternately covering their mouths and speaking.
Whispering in the deaf ear.

My niece, Jillian, used to tell me secrets...they were always in my deaf ear. I'd laugh and tell her they were secret from everyone. So I had my deaf ear double-pierced, then Jillian would come to tell me a secret and she would see two earrings and know there was no hearing. Then she'd come around to my other ear.

Standing behind shelves or in another room and calling you (when you're deaf in one ear you have no sense of direction.) Unless you can see the person, you have no idea where they are located.

Loud throbbing bass in cars to the front, back, or side of you will make you dizzy. Don't know the science of this...but it's happened to me many times. Roll your windows up and plug your good ear, and move away when you can.

Surround sound and headphones are useless...you only hear in mono.

But ultimately, there are many things that have occurred because of my deafness that outweigh the fact that I cannot hear correctly.

My other senses are sharper: