Pre-BAHA: A Day in the Life of "Me"

There are so many things that I have been through as someone who is single-sided deaf. I'm sure if you are even hard of hearing you "get it". If not, nothing I can say will ever allow you to see into my world completely, but hopefully this helps :)

I wake up in the morning and, if I hit my snooze button, I have to sleep on my deaf ear so I guarantee to hear the alarm go off again (because I'm already too tired as it is...) If I don't I risk the chance of sleeping in, which isn't good in my profession.

My deafness doesn't really affect any morning activities (or at least I thought it didn't). If someone is talking to me, or trying to, when I'm doing something that is making noise (taking a shower, drying my hair, brushing my teeth with a battery-operated tooth brush) you might as well start the entire conversation over again because I didn't hear you.

Once at school I have to make sure I'm on double the alert because I can't face one way for fear of not hearing whispering, answering questions, etc. I've had students stand at my desk out of my peripheral vision for over 5 minutes while I'm working on my computer. (Then I have "the talk" with the entire class and explain that I'm deaf in my right ear and ask that they come to the front of the desk to get my attention :)

Talking with my colleagues is fine as long as I'm on their right side. When walking down the hallway it's almost natural for me to be standing on the right side. If I find myself on the left I ask to stand to their right so I can hear them.

When I'm sitting down to eat I always sit on the very far right of the entire table so I can hear everyones' conversations, but usually end up at some points just nodding and smiling like I know exactly what is going on (but really not having a clue). I'd say that happens more often then not, or I have to ask them to repeat themselves 20 times while I stare at their lips trying to lip read (which surprisingly is more successful than I think it would be - I guess I'm just getting good at it after all those years!)

If I'm driving home we might as well just listen to the radio because I would have to look at the person in the passenger seat to talk to them over all the noise on the road and I'd rather stay alive than strain my neck for half-heard conversation. My friend Suzy is SSD on her left side in the car - which means as a passenger she is in my situation. I'm sure she has a lot of hours in behind the wheel!

When I'm watching TV the volume is incredibly high. In fact, one day recently I was cleaning and watching TV and my husband stormed out of the computer room and screamed that it was way too loud - that he just felt the entire house shake! I hadn't noticed because it was the volume I was used to and needed to be able to understand what was going on in the show. Apparently it was WAY TOO LOUD! (It was, actually, but how am I to tell without my hearing aid on?) Lol. The same goes with the radio in the car.

Finally, the best part of being deaf in one ear is that my husband is the worse snorer ever. I don't even have to listen to it because of my disability. It's the best! (Never thought I'd say that, huh!?)

All in all, when you look at it through my eyes here it seems like a big intrusion on my life. The fact is, I've been living with SSD for over 27 years. I've learned to cope quite well and barely notice now because everything I do to adapt has become second nature to me.

There are a ton of other times that annoy me, but none that were as prominent as what I've written here. Honestly, I didn't notice the other things until after I got my BAHA. Then they really started to stand out.