The person who's been most affected by my hearing loss has to be my son. He's the one who talks about the most unexpected things leaving me in a daze. He's the one with the longest stories told in an excited manner that leave me lost somewhere in the middle. He's the one who helps me out in public places when I don't quite catch what a shop clerk or another customer is saying. He's the one who has to repeat himself the most often. Sometimes when I'm stuck on a word he will resort to fingerspelling it as only a frustrated pre-teen can do.
Sometimes he turns the situation around to his advantage. Last April 1, we had the following dinner table conversation. Charlie: "Is your sinus infection better, Mom?" Me: "I think so." Charlie: "Mom, I said is your science infection better?" Me puzzled: "Huh?" Charlie with a smile: "April Fool!"
He also likes to give me spontaneous tests. Charlie: "Mom, tell me what two words I'm saying." Me: "OK." Then I hear him say ah and ah. Charlie responds to my reply: "Wrong! I said off and toff" (fingerspelling both for emphasis). Me: "Toff?" Charlie knowingly: "Short for toffee." [Note: You can see he's well aware that t's and f's give me trouble.]
The other day I told him about a four eared cat I saw in People magazine. His comeback was "I bet that cat hears real good!"
Clean Tubes
Yesterday I went to the audiologist to get my hearing aids' ear tubes replaced. This has to be done about once every 3-4 months. In the last week I had noticed a reduction in my hearing ability probably due to ear wax accumulation. Soon afterwards the tip of one of the eartubes started breaking apart. Time to call the audiologist. When I got home from my appointment, I mentioned to Charlie that I had new tubes. He decided to give me one of his tests. This time I could easily discern between his ah and his off. Then when I was across the room from him, he gave me another challenge: uh and the. I got it right again. "Hooray!" he cheered, "you can hear better again."
3 comments:
Oh--this reminds me sounds so much of my household when my kids were younger. I raised three. It's wonderful Charlie fingerspells for you. Mine also do that and help in the store when I don't hear. The youngest took ASL in highschool but he's forgortten a lot of it over the past two years.
I used to feel badly about not being able to hear them. I've missed so much, but looking back I can see there are advantages to being exposed to disability in a parent at a young age. I might blog about this later.
What a wonderful, sensitive, smart boy you have. :-)
Yes, Kim, he is a wonderful, funny, loving, and bright boy. I'm truly blessed to his mother. Who knows how this experience will play out in his life choices later on? I know he'll think twice about blasting his favorite songs as a teenager.
Those pesky tubes and the way they get clogged up!
We have a couple sitting in the kitchen drawer as back ups. Someone is always busting a tube around here.
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