You know you have more work on accepting hearing loss when:

The responses: Page Six

Various members of the SayWhatClub
Copyright 2002

Peggy Pilot Hi Bob, I guess the best thing we can do is to keep doing what you're doing - venting, grieving, sharing and pondering about it. When you snapped at Ling, you felt guilty about it. As that sort of thing happens again and again, you'll see that your guilt over your reaction just compounds the original problem, and know that you don't want to go there again. Lesson learned. As we continue to vent, grieve and share, I hope we'll eventually get it out. That's not to say we won't ever feel those feelings again, especially if /when our hearing drops even lower, but if we look back on how much we needed to do these things when we first started experiencing the pain of hearing-loss, I think most of us are able to see that we don't feel the need as much now as we did then. Life's a lesson. - We all need to throw out what doesn't work, and start embracing what does. But it's the mistakes we make, the venting, the grieving, the sharing, that is the best teacher of that lesson. Curtis Dickinson Hi Bob, First of all. You are one of the greatest humans I've been fortunate to meet. Nothing wrong with your feelings--you are very much in tune with the truth of them. I don't think your case is at all unusual. In fact I don't think you'd want to accept it much better then you do. Because if you did how could you remain a good advocate? Just treat Ling better. She is one jewel worth working harder for.

Jan Christensen Oh, Bob, how can we hope to get totally used to our hearing losses? It hits us every single day and every single time we interact with anyone! It's like the tooth that hurts every time your tongue touches it, and yet you keep touching it with your tongue. The only way I see out of it is to become a cloistered nun or monk in a non-speaking order. Don't think that will work for either of us! LOL I know I am a more impatient person since my hearing loss. I used to be very serene and calm. But something the majority of people take for granted is now a struggle for me. I think we have to accept this along WITH the hearing loss! For example, I never used to startle when someone touched me from behind or if I came up on them unexpectedly. (My husband, the Vietnam vet, always does this.) But now I do, and it's a bit annoying. The whole hearing loss "experience" is annoying! After we acknowledge this, I guess we simply have to apologize when we snap at people. If other people can be grumps without the excuse of a hearing loss, then people will just have to accept the fact that we feel a bit grumpy because of our communication difficulties! Certainly our loved ones will be patient with us. The rest will just have to accept us the way we are. After all, we do the best we can, don't we?

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