Hello world - late-deafened adult here!

 It has been a while since we connected!

And so much has changed in my life. I was going through my profile that I must have written a decade ago, and how I have described self as someone who “may” lose all hearing! And well, here I am – 38 and deaf. Not a sound passes through these ears and alerts the brain – so much so that I can sit on a tarmac and not even hear a plane taking off!

I truly believe in karma. I truly believe in the power of manifestation. And I truly believe that if we keep thinking about certain things in life – they do happen. Sadly, that is the case for both – good and bad things. I had dreaded the day of losing all my hearing and being completely deaf – since the time my progressive hearing loss journey started at the age of 20. The doctors who narrated the stories of hope about how some patients do not lose all hearing and continue to have a normal life with the help of hearing aids remained like the blue sky that I knew I would never touch. It is just that you know certain things. The gut feeling.

I knew this day would come. I did not expect or anticipate it to come so soon.

My hearing started going at the bottom of the charts around 2020-21. I tried to blame the hearing aids or weather or just a case of ‘sudden loss’ and things would be returning to normal soon – but that was not to be. The audiologist’s announcement that ‘this is it’ – this is the best hearing aid or amplifier that we have right now and if this is not helping you, I doubt anything else will! How a simple statement, a matter of fact, said at the moment has the power to alter the course of our lives. 

And that was it.

It has been close to 3 years now. I am in a much better place with acceptance than I assumed I would be. But these new labels – a late-deafened adult, deaf, disabled – take time to get used to. Social setup adjustments have been the worst. So many relationships ended – so many new began.

I am surviving so far with the faith that things are ok. Technology has been a boon – my being a technophile has helped me to take up accessible tech easily, rather I have reached a stage where I am advocating for it #a11y

Let me share my experiences in a larger post for laters – for now, glad to be e-back!