Musings from the City of New Orleans: deafness

Hissy and Maurie

Recently, Hissy my feline gray ball of fur has been getting louder and louder. It's a constant LOUD nightmare. I have tried everything to discourage this behavior, as being hearing impaired myself - I am very sensitive to loud noise.

Randomly, while at work I looked at the flyer for the Cat Daddy's new book and one of the things listed was that a cats hearing is much more sensitive than humans and dogs. I found myself saying aloud, "If that's true, how can Hissy stand to be around himself he's soo loud."

At that very moment a light bulb should have popped on above my head. I actually replied to myself..."Oh my god, Hissy can't hear himself. He's deaf."

So when I arrived home that evening, I did a hearing test with my 16-year-old furkid. He was laying on the bed and I put my hand behind his head and snapped my fingers...he did not move, nor did his ears. My immediate thought was, oh no he'll never hear music again. Oh that's right...that's my personal hearing fear. Though Hissy does like when I sing to him, I make up songs with his name in them. Nothing anyone else would want to hear.

Hissy

Now, when I'm home, he wants me to sit on couch with him constantly and do nothing else. Or else he MEOWs constantly at the top of his lungs. Makes it quite difficult to clean the apartment. No quite difficult is absolutely incorrect...it makes it impossible.

He knows "No" in sign language...but I need to make sure he's looking at me when I sign and sadly this often stops that loud voice of his, for half a second.

He is otherwise quite normal, eats, drinks, sleeps, uses the litter box - but he is 16-years-old and I suppose it's age. I'm going to try an ear plug to clean the apartment ( I only need one, only one ear works).

Maurie

His brother (yes, really), Maurie, has recently decided he'll live under the bed. This was after months of scratching himself obsessively until he bleeds (no fleas or disease, just OCD). He'll answer me if I call him, but he will not come out (except to eat, drink, use the litter box).

So I am living with two curmudgeonly old men who may drive me insane, as I live on pins and needles daily because of their age.

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: