Deciding to wear hearing aids can sometimes be a difficult decision.
Wearing hearing aids is something 35-year-old C.M. King wishes she would have done earlier in her life, but she still is grateful for how hearing aids have changed her life today.
Tinnitus at a young age
“Tinnitus,” says King. “It all started with the tinnitus, when I was pretty young, around three or four, I’m guessing, but maybe sooner. But that’s what I remember. My earliest memories are of lying in bed and unable to sleep because of the humming in my ears. The tone that I’ve always had sounds like an oboe A, and over the years I’ve gotten more and more tones in different pitches: tea kettles, bassoons, cicadas. I truly thought for the first 12 years that everyone heard these sounds. They never cease; I hear them every minute of the day, as long as I’m awake.”
Noticing from an early age that King couldn’t hear as well as those around her, her parents asked teachers to place her at the front of the class. Doctors at the time assumed her hearing loss was due to childhood infections. This was wrong, however. King wouldn’t get a correct diagnosis until she was 30 years old. She has sensorineural hearing loss, caused by a genetic disorder, that is slowly progressing towards complete deafness and has been told that she will likely lose her remaining hearing by the time she is 80 years old.
Tough social life
Having the opportunity to get hearing aids back in the ’90s is still a regret, however, due to peer pressure and the stigma attached to deafness, the chance slipped by. Back then there were some people who saw hearing loss as a mental disability, rather than a physical one.
Confusion and miscommunication became another part of life. This was difficult, particularly when others thought she considered herself above them, but really she couldn’t hear them.
First pair of hearing aids
It was around the time of seventh grade that King got her first pair of hearing aids. Fear of being bullied made her dig her heels in and refuse to wear them, which hardly helped the situation.
“I wish someone had been able to convince me how much I needed them,” laments King, “and reassured me that hearing was more important. I wish I had been stronger.”
Her school grades began to go up, despite the lack of hearing aids or peer interaction. This was because she made studying her life.
College as a game-changer
College was a game-changer. All of a sudden she was faced with large lecture halls filled with 80 plus students and all of the hearing challenges that this presented.
To read the rest of this interview go to Hearing Like Me
