← Return to Hearing Loss: Come introduce yourself and connect with others

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@jymm

Hi, I'm Jim. Will reach full retirement age soon. I guess in baseball terms, you could say 2020 will be my 'walk year.' Got my first hearing aid at age 6. That's no typo. First grade, 6 years old, fitted with a body-aid, strapped to my chest.

My hearing deteriorated during my school years. Currently my left ear is profound and my right slides moderate to severe. I've come to accept hearing loss as part of my being. It is deeply ingrained into my identity and personality.

Whether emotions run high or low, this has been an amazing experience of empathy!

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Replies to "Hi, I'm Jim. Will reach full retirement age soon. I guess in baseball terms, you could..."

Hi, @jymm I see you have posted a while ago, but welcome to Connect. My daughter started wearing HAs at age 4 so I understand how it is for children. I was in my 50s when I started wearing HAs. My loss is totally different from my daughter’s. She always just wore regular HAs. She is in her 30s now and her hearing loss is, I believe, classified as moderate.

I too have had to accept my loss, despite the social difficulties it causes. I am severe in one ear and profound in the other with 30% and 50% word recognition. It sounds as if you are doing very well though, which is great. For me, it was the loss of word recognition that made things the most difficult. How is your word recognition? I suspect that loss in me may have been due to either a medication or to having had cirrhosis because it happened very quickly.
JK