Is deafness a disability?

Today is International Day of People with Disability!

International Day of People with Disability Website

Is deafness a disability? Depends who you ask. In a room full of deaf signers, does a hearing person have the disbility? I suppose technically, and by definition, deafness is a disability but I'm sure if you asked a group of deaf people what they thought they would each have a different view depending on their own experience and level of deafness.

I met a girl the other day who called herself hard of hearing. She had experienced many negative responses from people over the years and this made her deafness a disability for her. My own experience has been different. I'm able to work so I don't need any financial support like a pension, I speak and listen so I don't need any special compensation like captions, I don't need any special care or any special consideration really, so essentially, I'm not really disabled am I? I do however, wear a device so I can be enabled. Does wearing a cochlear implant make me less disabled then? When I take the cochlear implant off am I more disabled?

 If deafness is a disability then, it's a complicated one! What other disability has it's own language?!

Five Days Post Op

Five days after my operation and I'm only just starting to feel normal again. Here is my medical update:

• I have mild pain, like an ear-ache but it's not too bad today and easy to manage with a few over-the-counter pain killers. Sometimes I get a stabbing pain in the ear.
• I'm tired but not in a sleepy kind of way, more like my body is tired and for that matter so is my brain. 
• I'm not driving because I still feel a bit dizzy and light headed. Really light headed actually.
• My ear is still swollen and provides my kids with endless amusement because the swelling causes my ear to stick out. My other ear is close to my head so the contrast is obvious and no, I'm not providing photos.
• Sleeping at night is a bit of a pain, literally, as I can't roll onto my right side so it's either my left side or on my back. OK, this isn't that bad, just mildly annoying, but in the interests of putting it all out there, my sleep is slightly disturbed.
• I keep forgetting I can't blow my nose until I try and do it and then have to jump around with the pain. I've got wadding stuffed down my ear canal and as you can imagine it is not pleasant sneezing or blowing my nose!
• I got to wash my hair today! Yay! And wash the dried blood off the back of my ear! Yay! 

That's the medical stuff but here's the psychological stuff:

• People keep saying that the second cochlear operation is easier because I know what to expect but I haven't found that to be the case for me. The first time I was totally deaf and didn't hear or notice alot of what was going on around me. This time, I have a cochlear on the other side so I can hear. For some reason this has been more stressful. I think maybe people expect more of me because I can hear already. They forget how much effort is needed to "hear" with a cochlear and this has made the operation and recovery more difficult. Of course it could also be because I'm getting old .........

I did it!! I have a second cochlear implant!

Yes, it's true, I have a second cochlear implanted in my right ear. While I did experience a bit of pain after this operation (unlike the first one), 24 hours after the surgery I was fine. The bandage around my head was very tight and this meant I couldn't wear my first cochlear so I had to spend my time in the hospital deaf. The skill of lipreading never goes out of style! The bandage came off the morning after sugery and the relief was instant, it was so tight it caused me to have a headache. The wound site is a bit itchy and I'm a little light headed but otherwise I'm doing well. The important thing is to rest at this point (something I'm not good at) and let the wound heal and my body recover from the surgery.

An hour before surgery, standing outside ESIA.

About to walk into surgery.

Four hours after surgery, feeling OK.

Bandage has come off my head, wound behind my ear.

The night before my second cochlear surgery

Tomorrow I have my second cochlear implanted in the right ear. I'm half excited and half nervous as I don't know if I will have any success with the second implant. The right ear hasn't heard a single thing for 37 years. I don't know what stereo sound is like, I don't know what it's like to know what direction sound is coming from, I don't know what it's like to have two hearing ears. I really can't imagine what having sound from both sides of my head is like!

Wish me luck, I shall report back in after the surgery :)

What can I do with a cochlear implant?

Credits to the Cochlear Facebook Community

Deaf Identity

I'm thinking about identity at the moment. Some of my cochlear friends see themselves as hearing, I see myself as deaf, but I'm not part of the Deaf community.

Some friends who were born hearing and have suddenly lost it, and now have a cochlear implant, see themselves as hearing depite the fact that they are technically deaf. I've always been singled-sided deaf so that deaf identity has always been there in a small way. Having lost my hearing in the other ear just made that deaf identity stronger.

Having a cochlear implant doesn't make me hearing. It's a tool that I use to hear I agree, but I can't hear without it. The same as a blind person isn't suddenly seeing when they put glasses on, they are still blind, they just use an assistive tool.

The following article is a beautifully written account of a deaf woman's decision to have a cochlear implant and shows the importance of identity, either way.


Familyshare.com: Deaf identity crisis

A little bit of inspiration via a party

I know how hard parties are for deaf people, cochlear or not. But sometimes you just have to dress up and go out. This is my minion costume for a 50th birthday party I attended last night. And these are my strategies for surviving a party:

- Distract yourself with the food. Take small portions so you can go back many times. This gives you    an excuse to leave a conversation if you can't hear it. 
- Do the same with the drinks, only fill your cup up half way so you can go back for a refill often.
- Offer to get other people drinks as well, this has the added bonus of making you look considerate.
- Try to talk about topics you know well so you can follow the conversation on guess work. I use movies and travel.
- Obvious but don't stand next to the music speakers!
- Smile, laugh and be really friendly, move around a lot, dance. This makes you look like the life of the party even if you have no idea what's going on.

If I can do it, you can too, good luck!


Minion image copyright Universal Studios