My day without aids...

NOT AIDS!!! Hearing aids.  Oh how you fell for it.  Thinking it was one thing, when in reality aids means something different to those with a disability.

I spent Thursday without my hearing aids on.  Which is not all that profound.  I go many days and weekends and such without them on.  Why?  I like the silence.  The world is a very loud place and it's nice to not have to hear every single thing.

What I don't usually do is go without them at work.  When you're dealing with a lot of clientele and staff all day, you kinda need to be able to hear them.

On Thursday, I forgot that I had to move my car early and so I had to quickly leave for work when the reminder came over the speaker.  I grabbed my hearing aid case, got on the elevator, checked and realized that it was empty.  I decided to just go to work and give it a go.

Surprisingly it wasn't so bad.  It was difficult, but not impossible.  Perhaps, the hearing aids have been merely a crutch that I've been holding onto.  I find that when one aid dies and I don't have a battery that it impacts my self esteem.  I don't feel quite as confident when I'm not fully hearing abled.

Recently, I've had a few meetings with members of the deaf community.  We've communicated through using an interpreter, a laptop, me simply signing out letters, lip reading and it's worked out quite well.  It's got me thinking about the world that I live in and the world that I've missed out on by not embracing deaf culture younger in life.

My current (hearing) aids are on their last legs and replacing them will cost like $4000.  I've gone one full 'normal' working day with out them, could I go a life time? 

I can hear you now!

WOOHOO, I can hear you now!!! Spending 10 days in the land of the semi hearing is not an enjoyable feeling whatsoever. You see, I've got a mild hearing loss and wear hearing aids to help to get it to full power. Some people confuse having a hearing loss with being deaf. To explain it to children, I say that just like how some people wear glasses, some people wear hearing aids to help them hear better.

The major difference between glasses and hearing aids would be the insane cost for them. Ontario government will pitch in 500/aid every 3 years and your employee might be nice enough to chip in some too. Mine are probably about 5 years old and slowly dying. I had to get them in prior to the warranty running out or else I'd have to buy a new pair sooner than later and be a bit more broke.

Being one hearing aid short was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. For years, I only used one. The last 2 years, I've been using 2 and became quite comfortable with that. Spending 10 days without one, meeting new people, working, etc was not so much fun at all. It was a gentle reminder that I do have a disability and could face a potential future of struggling with it daily. On days when one feels invincible, it was a reminder that one is not.

My other one needs to go in too, but I've got a series of presentations coming up. Hard to be semi deaf when you're presenting to a room of 200 people. Well I could do it, it'd be one damn huge struggle. Two years ago, I went two weeks with nothing and pretty much just faked my way through the experience.

So if you've had the (dis)pleasure of hanging out with me over the last couple of weeks and I seemed a bit off, now you know why. For this week, I can hear you now. Next week, it'll be another week of just smiling and nodding along. :)