Hearing loss and me

From the latest issue of AARP Magazine with the cover story on Rob Lowe…

Q: Why does the always-approachable Lowe sometimes snub fans?

〇 Agoraphobic    〇 Antisocial         〇 Hard of hearing

A: Lowe has been deaf in one ear for as long as he can remember. "I always am very careful about not wanting to lose that one good ear that I have," he says. The only bummers are not getting to hear Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon in stereo "and that when I come into the house and I say, 'Honey,' my wife goes, 'I'm here,' and I have no idea where she is because I can't hear where sound comes from." But he is also hypervigilant about fans approaching him. "I'm always worried that people are gonna think I'm standoffish because I don't hear them," he says.

OMG! Finally, another person like me. I am hard of hearing in one ear too. And until this article, I didn't know another person like me. I was diagnosed at 2.5 y.o. with profound hearing loss in my left ear.  I felt I straddled the two worlds of being deaf and being hearing as an adult. As a kid, I didn't know to care. I didn't feel I fit into either world. A few years ago, I was told at my annual audiology check-up that I was starting to lose hearing in my right ear. I would need to get a cross-channel hearing aid set.

Another OMG! If someone had told me how a cross-channel system would make it easier for me to hear (and for my life), I wouldn't have believed them. Hearing at parties is still an issue, but I have never been a party girl. And the best part is that my hearing aids are Bluetooth. I use them like earbuds to listen to music (and occasionally to keep listening when Sylvie is talking).

It took me over 25 years to feel completely comfortable with my hearing loss. Now that I am, I noticed that I have more comfortability in my skin. Yeah, me!