Have you ever found yourself in this situation, where your at a party and your hearing aid battery decides to go dead? Then you panic when you realize you left your purse at home because you didn't think you would need it and home is a good half hour away, meanwhile hubby and kids are having a great time so you don't want to ask them to leave for something as trivial as that. What do you do? Well this is what I do, tell my friends that I'm deaf, no I'm really deaf, as in I can't hear anything right now (my friends already know I'm deaf and that I can hear when I'm wearing my hearing aid), that my hearing aid battery has died and I'm stuck to lip reading only. They look at each other, then me, then look at each other again, then me again, then we all burst out laughing because what else can you do?
I'm incredibly blessed with kind, wonderful, understanding friends and family, they take the time to make sure they are looking at me when they talk, they patiently repeat what they just said 1, 2, 3, sometimes five times if need be (thankfully I usually get it after a couple of repeats and if I don't after that, I fake it). I even asked one guy with a long mustache to lift his mustache up when he talked and he kindly obliged me. A deaf girl can't ask for better than that!
I hope you are as richly blessed as I am and remember, laughter is the best medicine!
I'm a deaf mom, just getting through life reading one pair of lips at a time. Here I share my adventures, journey to health and things I love.
I love this! It is such a blessing. I have some hearing loss and I hate talking on the phone when the children are home...any background noise and I can not hear a thing on the phone...even when repeated 2 or 3 times. and any place where there is noise. My closest friends know...and are patient about repeating things, especially in public where other noises make it hard. When Ryan and I get mad sometimes I lay in bed on my good ear ;) He will get close to my face so I can see he is talking (I knew already)
ReplyDeleteLOL...my phone just rang and #3 was playing middle C over and over...I have to find a corner in the house that is quiet. Good thing for cordless phones. My friend's grandpa used to turn his hearing aid down at family gatherings, he would smile and nod...they didn't know he was doing this for awhile. Guess he enjoyed the quiet and the company at the same time ;)
Lol, I can sympathize with your friends Grandpa, I find myself doing the smiling and nodding thing sometimes too (I don't turn my hearing aid down as I do like to hear everything that is going on) as I cannot keep up with a conversation amongst several people...my head would be going back in forth like ping pong ball to follow everyone talking in the conversation :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you can laugh about it! It takes positive people like you to help us all look at life a little better!
ReplyDeleteAnd I can add.. no, that's never happened to me :)