“It was during a high school hearing test that I found out I had a hearing problem. Several years later, when I was 24 years old, I received my first set of hearing aids. I never loved them; they did the job of amplifying sounds and voices, but I always felt like someone stuck microphones … Continued
“My oldest daughter Macy was born hearing in August of 2012. I began to notice around 6 months old that there were times that she would seem to be ignoring me, but then at other times she was very attentive. I chalked it up to her being stubborn but always had that gut feeling that … Continued
Have you seen the viral video of mother, Anna E., and her child, Ayla’s cochlear implant activation? The sentiments that Anna experienced were palpable and showcases how emotional a cochlear implant activation can be. We asked Anna for her perspective on the journey to her daughter’s cochlear implant and what being a part of a … Continued
“Hello! My name is Abriana and I was born deaf. Sometimes there are not always answers to how someone can lose their hearing. I was born without hairs in my cochlea, and without hairs in your cochlea, you cannot hear! My journey to cochlear implants started with my parents deciding for me to undergo surgery … Continued
“Casey Marie was born on May 21, 2010, and it was the happiest day of my life. Casey was born at 5 pounds and 15 ounces; she was small but very healthy, wide eyed and hungry from the start. After spending bonding time with her, she was soon taken for her routine newborn hearing test. … Continued
“This is my unique story about my hearing loss and the journey back to hearing. Everyone’s journey is different, but we may share many of the things I went through. Fifty years ago while in high school, I noticed a tonal difference between my right and left ear. Over the years my left ear just kept … Continued
“’Your son has severe bilateral sensorineural hearing loss and will not develop speech without the use of assistive technology.’ We can still remember the silence and shock of that moment when the audiologist uttered those words after Levi’s first auditory brainstem response (ABR) test. Words that changed our lives and sent us down an unfamiliar … Continued
“I am a singer, born and bred. Having an internationally respected choral conductor for a father and a French teacher for a mother, our family always joked that they were breeding opera singers. Yes, I was the child that heard ‘Happy Birthday’ at the age of 2 and sang it back perfectly after one listening. … Continued
“I began to be aware that my hearing was changing when I first realized that I could not hear people in the back seat of the car. Hearing loss was a new experience for me at the age of 47. I had never experienced an earache or been evaluated by any hearing professional. I was … Continued
“When Chance had his initial newborn hearing test, he failed. A few weeks later, we took him to get another hearing test and he passed. When Chance was 2, we could tell something was not right, so we then got an auditory brainstem response test (ABR) to see what was going on. I remember crying when they … Continued
“At the age of 16, ‘what’ became my most used word. For the next 43 years after waking up with sudden and total hearing loss (single-sided deafness) in my right ear, I constantly asked people to repeat themselves. Back in the mid-1970s, my parents took me to doctors, but no one had an explanation. More … Continued
“On May 20, 2014, our son, Maxfield, was born five weeks early, but otherwise was perfectly healthy. This was our second child and everything seemed to be just the same as our daughter’s birth. When he did not pass the hearing screening in the hospital, we assumed it was a fluke. The second screening showed … Continued
“I was born with excellent hearing. Unfortunately, about 35 years ago when I was in my 40s, I had a traumatic experience, nothing physical, and slowly started to have hearing issues. When my daughters began complaining that I left the directional signals on in the car, I accepted the realization that I was not hearing … Continued
“I can remember hearing everything when I was younger. I remember the way birds sang in the spring, the sound of leaves rustling in the wind and the sounds of insects on a warm summer night. I also remember when it all disappeared again and again. That is the exhausting problem with hereditary progressive hearing … Continued
“Olivia was born profoundly deaf due to an unknown cause. She failed multiple newborn screenings before receiving the final diagnosis of a bilateral profound hearing loss. She was the first on both sides of the family to be born deaf. Scared for future of child born with hearing loss As hearing parents, we were scared for … Continued
“Our 5-year-old son, Myles, was born with a birth defect known as unilateral microtia, Grade 3. Microtia is rare and affects less than 1 in 10,000 live births (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) with various grades ranging from simply a smaller ear to possibly no ear at all. Doctors have not … Continued
“I lost my hearing at 20 months old and had ear infections from the age of 20 months old through my early 30s. My hearing loss had remained consistently in the same range of a severe to profound hearing loss, and I had always worn hearing aids in both ears. My journey to my cochlear … Continued
“After the birth of our first child, we discovered he had a bilateral sensorineural profound hearing loss. He had failed multiple newborn hearing screens at birth, which resulted in a referral to the ear, nose and throat doctor (ENT) for further examination. We were in shock and had no idea what laid ahead. We were … Continued
“I first became aware that I might have hearing loss in my early 30s. At that time, I was the Regional Vice President of Sales & Marketing for a small company that sold services to the tourism industry. I had been married for about four years and my husband was becoming annoyed with how frequently … Continued
“In my memories, it seemed I always had either a sinus or ear infection as a child, and the two alternated just enough that I was a constant presence in my doctor’s office. Things hit a peak when I was in the 7th grade, when my left ear started draining and I was referred to … Continued
“My name is Donnie K. and I live in Houston, Texas. I have a profound hearing loss in both ears due to meningitis that I contracted when I was just over 1 year old. It was a pretty traumatic experience for my parents, but I was young enough that I did not know any better. … Continued