Comments on: What I've Lost

By: Chel

Chel — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:12:20 +0000

One day I hope technology does help you (and well me) get it all back.

That will be a beautiful day.

Can I poke you for a link to the bluetooth aids? Thrilled with the idea that this is coming to the market.

By: CT Moore

CT Moore — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:36:20 +0000

In regards to telling the difference between “cat” and “hat,” I was going to quip that “context is king,” but then I scrolled down the page and saw that you already beat me to that in an earlier post.

Because you deprived me of my wit, that way, the next time we’re having a drink, I’m totally going to f**k with you by mumbling, rhyming, and doing whatever else I can think of that makes me a jerk. It’s not my fault, though. My mother held me too much as a child, so now I act up to push everyone else away.

On a related note, my a**hole friend shot me in the head, right behind my left ear, with a high velocity pellet rifle when I was 15, and that ear rang for about 6 weeks afterwards. Now, to this day, the f**ker just starts up ringing out of no where for a few days on end. It’s really f**king annoying.

It doesn’t mean that I can at all relate to you, but it does make for a cool story when I’m trying to show off how “tuff” I am, so I can’t pass up an opportunity to tell it.

After the surgeon dug the pellet out of my head, he wouldn’t even let me keep it – something to do with sending it to the lab for tests. So I guess that that’s something I’ve lost.

Hey look at that, I can kind of relate to you after all…

By: Julien

Julien — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:56:45 +0000

Thanks Lynette, I really appreciate that. :)

By: Lynette Young

Lynette Young — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:55:17 +0000

Amazing of you to share this, thank you. For whatever reason you were compelled to write about this now, I’m glad. It reminds me that everyone has hurdles to jump, whether physical, emotional, or educational – and what counts is what you choose to do at that point. I have admired you for years and think you are just at the beginning of your awesomeness. Thanks again for sharing.

By: Ellen Rossano

Ellen Rossano — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:18:36 +0000

Thank you for sharing that…I am diabetic and never realized that it could affect the nerves in my ears. I have a some hearing loss in my right ear, and I notice that I am leaning in more and turning my head when I am in a group. I have to ask people to repeat their names more often, and I get anxious because I don’t want them to think I wasn’t paying attention to them when they were talking to me.
Thank goodness technology improves every day – hopefully you will get new and better stuff all the time.
Now, when we finally meet, I will have a little insight in to communicating better with you, and excuse me if I lean in a little so I don’t miss what you are saying! Hope we meet soon – that Brogan kid is signing all the books, and I need yours to make mine complete!

By: Chris Lamothe

Chris Lamothe — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:25:52 +0000

I feel for you. I also suffer from serious tinnitus day in, day out. When I’m in the middle of the wilderness late at night, staring at the stars, what I notice the most is eiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

By: J.C. Hutchins

J.C. Hutchins — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:58:07 +0000

This was beautifully written, and resonant.

You’ve shared what you’ve lost. I’m curious to know what you’ve gained.

By: Whitney

Whitney — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:18:05 +0000

This is fascinating to me, because James has tons of ear infections as a little boy, and for a long time, he could hear, just not clearly- like he was under water, because of all the fluid in his ears. Even though his hearing is fine now, it’s the subtle differences in sound and speech that trip him up in pronunciation, closing off the end of words, etc. because he missed learning to hear and incorporate those sounds very early on in his life.

While he’s learned to work around these issues, it’s constantly amazing to me how deficits in one of the senses makes you work harder to make up for it, and how when other people understand this, they can also help adapt, minimizing the overall impact of the problem.

The bluetooth hearing aids sound cool- keep me in the loop on that one- I know a bunch of people who could use them.