Thank you everyone. My internet has been down this morning and I just got online. I had my son call the internet company, all disgruntled about our service and it turns out Hubby forgot to tell them about the checking account changing to a new account! So our automatic withdrawl did not happen and we didn't pay our bill. Obviously, we have now.
Moolie, SSI is Social Security Insurance, us Americans pay a percentage of our income from every paycheck (mandatory) to this fund, it is for the elderly and the disabled. In order to qualify as disabled, you can't just have a doctor SAY you are disabled. It is more of an approval process and impartial doctors are chosen to examine you. I've been waiting four months now and they say the quickest it ever happens is five months, so I expect that my wait will be over soon. I did not have hearing loss or vertigo to this extent up until about three years ago, and the hearing loss being this bad has only been about six months. My disease is characterized by fluctuating hearing loss, I could still experience a spontaneous improvement (has happened to me several times).
Abifae I am really debating the coclear implant. Hubby is now saying we need to find a way to afford one. But I have heard you can no longer hear music right. I OCCASIONALLY have a day I can hear music if I turn it up really loud, and I am of course hoping for one of those dramatic spontaneous improvements again. And for them to improve coclear implants. But from what I've heard, you hear with them but it isn't really the same, you have to relearn sounds. I won't hear hubby's voice the way it is or my granddaughter's learning to talk, I would hear sounds that resemble speech. I'm not yet ready to give up on a few moments of REAL hearing yet. Just about two weeks ago, I had a night I stayed up all night with headphones on, because I could listen to old songs I've been dying to hear. I love music SO much, I just sat there, listening with tears rolling down my cheeks. But I want to have that again. I'm afraid to have them take my real cochlea out.
But your roommate hears better than me, at one point about a year ago, Dr. Kim told me I could hear about as well as a person with a coclear implant. So I don't think it would put me to a level where I'm "happy" with my hearing, I would just be able to discern speech better. How is your roommate in this regard? I have never met anyone with a coclear implant to get a chance to talk to them, except one person who never heard at all before getting one, so of course their experience was different than mine and they did not relate to my question of how music sounds.
Thank you for your prayers, Dace. That is so thoughtful. It is very hard getting used to late-in-life changes like this. I am not a part of the deaf community nor are my loved ones, my friends or family. My only "community" at this point is Facebook and all of you here, and lately it has been all of you hear that I think about when I think about my "friends."
While my hearing isn't as bad, I do have a horrible time understanding people if they turn away from me while talking, have trouble understanding people in a group, and if we're on a bird walk, I can hear the people in back of me, but not in front of me.
for your SSI!!
