# Could you imagine being almost completely deaf for your whole life? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 31, 2005, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006 "2005-07-31T13:04:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MrPlatypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@MrPlatypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrPlatypus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/21 "2005-08-01T07:33:04Z")
> [@Snowboarder Bo](#): > > re: your last two posts… > > yeah, that’s what I meant by “filling in the gaps”. > > Facial expression, posture, hand gestures… is a person’s gaze steady or are their eyes roving? Which way are they facing (at me or slightly away or all the way away?)? I can tell a lot (and a lot more than most people think) just from what I see. I guess it’s one of those over-developed-as-compensation things. Like I said, twice I was without hearing and no one (not even me) realized it. > > I been thinking a lot about this since reading your OP, and I figure that maybe after I get my knee fixed I’ll see about getting a bionic ear or sumthin’. 😃 > > OTOH, when it’s too noisy to sleep (I frequently work late or overnight), I would miss the option of sleeping “bad ear up”. :smack: Hehe. I wear glasses and have always had what you might call “sensitive” vision. Really sensitive to light and always having to have my glasses prescription just right. When I can hear, I notice that I can walk around without my glasses (ie half blind) and it doesn’t but me at all because I’m not relying on visual stuff so much to get around. ---
**Author:** ![MrPlatypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@MrPlatypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrPlatypus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/22 "2005-08-01T07:56:14Z")
Thanks for all your responses by the way. This has really helped cement the feeling that I am not crazy. You said you knew of a place with other stories like mine? If you could provide a link I would be really interesting in reading about it. ---
**Author:** ![MrPlatypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@MrPlatypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrPlatypus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/23 "2005-08-01T07:59:57Z")
Wow sorry for all the typos too. I’ve been typing in a bit of a hurry and not reading the posts before posting them. Apparently there is no edit button. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/24 "2005-08-01T08:19:44Z")
Eh! Say What? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/25 "2005-08-01T08:33:34Z")
:smack: I totally forgot to ask, **Kiminy** : Was your son was as astounded at sounds as MrPlatypus and myself? Does he enjoy music? You listed a lot of effort that your family has gone through (and I am applauding your parental acumen as I type this, no mean feat in itself); I guess I’m hoping to learn that your son appreciates his sense of hearing as much as we appreciate ours. ---
**Author:** ![MrPlatypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@MrPlatypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrPlatypus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/26 "2005-08-01T09:08:53Z")
I’m curious if allergies played a role in any of your hearing loss. The ENT who gave me the nasal spray (not knowing or testing whether I was deaf at the time) said the pressure I was feeling in my ear was probably from allergies. Hence the antihistimine nasal spray. My parents have bad allergies. My alleriges are worse than theirs. My grandfather, I just found out, was also deaf from time to time and was constantly getting tubes in his ears. Not only that, but my mom just recently informed me that when she was younger she used to suffer from severe vertigo and had a balance disorder. So anyways I am in the process of conducting a very expensive experiment. I’m pretty sure my allergies are mold and pollon. So I have closed all the doors and windows to my room and bought two hepa air filters and an air conditioner/dehumidifier with a prefilter to suck in fresh air from the outside as well. I’m still dusting and wiping, but I’ve had the filters running for a day now. I can tell that when I shut myself in my room for more than 15 minutes I suddenly feel a lot better. I slept better last night than I have ever slept in my life. Usually I wake up feeling all groggy but I was totally refreshed. Man not only can I hear but I can actually breathe much better. My nose is so much less stuffy. Now that my hearing is back again (it comes and goes almost instantly throughout the day lately) I am going to sit here and listen to some music. ---
**Author:** ![MrPlatypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@MrPlatypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrPlatypus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/27 "2005-08-01T09:11:11Z")
Oh one more thing. Do you notice that your memory improves when your hearing is better? For some reason my memory has just been totally shot lately (ok last three years) and I am constantly forgetting where I put stuff and what I was doing. But when I can hear again even though I am not trying to remember things things just seem to stick in my head better. Not sure if it is related to the hearing or the relief from constant anxiety that I am experiencing. ---
**Author:** ![MrPlatypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@MrPlatypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrPlatypus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/28 "2005-08-01T10:56:48Z")
Wow. At the present moment the hearing has actually cleared up even more. It’s like when I think that I could not possibly hear any better because my hearing was previously so incredibly good it takes another step and goes to a whole nother level. I’m listening to a song by the Cranberries that before sounded like a big blur. Now I hear a guitar very distinctly. I can hear the modulation from cord to cord. There is also a piano at the beginning that plays a little melody. Now all I have to do is focus on her voice and I hear ever single word that she is saying. Now I can focus on the drums and hear the rhythm perfectly. Actually there are two drums - a regular one with a guy mostly using the symbolds and antoher person apparently on bongo drums. Like I can just focus in on any one of those sounds and hear only that sound and forget about all the other sounds for the moment. Before it was all just a big mess. I remember taking a music class where the final exam was to do exactaly what I just did above. I strained like hell and managed to pick a few things out. Now I feel like with a little bit of practice I could take probably take dictation of the entire song. WOW ---
**Author:** ![elfbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b782af/32.png) [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/29 "2005-08-01T11:27:58Z")
Something tells me that **MrPlatypus** isn’t going to have any trouble with boredom for a while. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![MrPlatypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@MrPlatypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrPlatypus)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/30 "2005-08-01T12:03:03Z")
> [@elfbabe](#): > > Something tells me that **MrPlatypus** isn’t going to have any trouble with boredom for a while. 😃 lol. Your not kidding. Man now that so many people are sharing similar stories I’m really starting to be very certain that this is not in my head and that I truly am deaf. It’s amazing how the lower part of the sound register just suddenly disappears and every goes wrong. I just want to bang my head against the wall until I can hear again. Man it really sucks that I have my final exams for summer this week. Otherwise I would drive home and see about getting tubes in my ears or something tomorrow morning. My mom works with the ENT and she could probably get me right in there. The funny thing is that I bet some of my friends somehow aren’t that surprised when I am telling them I might be deaf. They have always known that I am somehow the one person that might just be absent minded enough to go through life deaf and not even notice it. 😛 I’ve always been very well known for my “lateral” thinking. I guess it is because I have basically had to teach everything to myself so I figured out a lot of unique ways of doing things. It’s just so funny now to think that those tennis coaches and people who just kept saying “man just hold the racket like this. why is that so difficult? and i was like huh?” And it would just go on like that for an hour. I’ll tell you school was the worst of all. Like through junior high school and stuff everything was just common sense for me so it’s not like I had to learn very much. But taking hard classes in hgih school I would have to try so hard to hear what the teacher was saying that all I could do was desperately scribble down what I could make out and then read it at home and figure out what they were actually trying to say. I couldn’t figure out how all these kids I was so much smarter than could answer all the teachers quesions and I couldn’t even follow what the hell was going on. You know what is even worse is that I basically had to read everthing to learn it. And I am most definately NOT a reader. My parents are probably an extreme example of auditory learners. My dad had an easy time making it through dental school and says he rarely read the books. And my mom is the on with the good memory. ---
**Author:** ![elfbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b782af/32.png) [@elfbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfbabe)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/31 "2005-08-01T14:59:39Z")
> [@MrPlatypus](#): > > But taking hard classes in hgih school I would have to try so hard to hear what the teacher was saying that all I could do was desperately scribble down what I could make out and then read it at home and figure out what they were actually trying to say. So… you didn’t even realize that you couldn’t HEAR them, and thought you just couldn’t understand? Wow. I’d be interested in knowing what you think of, say, really good classical music now. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/32 "2005-08-02T00:21:38Z")
Wow, this is fascinating. It is hard to imagine what life must have been like for you. I am not surprised that someone thought it was psychiatric, though. Whenever doctors run across something they don’t understand, it must be psychiatric. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2005, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/33 "2005-08-02T03:04:25Z")
The summer before college I worked at a sleepaway summer camp. There was one camper in our section, about 11 years old, who was a little willful – not a brat, but seemed to “go her own way” an awful lot. One night shooting the shit after hours, discussing this girl, one of us floated the idea that she might have hearing loss that she was unaware of. The evidence was that she paid better attention when she was looking at you than not, and this “selective inattention” was present even in her favorite activities, like horseback riding. The more we thought about it and observed her, the more likely it seemed. We put a note in her file suggesting that her hearing should be evaluated before she went back to school. I have often wondered over the years whether her parents considered our recommendation and what, if anything, came of it. ---
**Author:** ![MrPlatypus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb9ed0/32.png) [@MrPlatypus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrPlatypus)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/34 "2005-08-06T06:13:34Z")
It’s not as simple as I had hoped. I “hear” fine on a hearing test. Deaf might be the wrong word, it’s more like comprehension. But sounds are all louder too. It’s been improving slowly. Over the last five years I’ve gone from not hearing piano music at all to slowly becoming a bit of a prodigy. If it gets disagnosed as Landau Kleffer Syndrom i’ll be one of the few. The more I grow up the more I realize how different I am from other people. I’m finding out that I’m what they call a “high functioning autistic.” It runs in my family. I don’t learn like others. I know what I know and unless I teach myself I don’t have any interest in learning from others. It’s not a pretty life. You don’t hear or feel emotions like other people. My gift is a cruel irony. I understand people better than anyone because I’m more like an observer looking in, studying behavior instead of participating. It gives you a unique view on life but you don’t get to have much fun. I do get better as I get older though and as much as I want to quit I’m going to keep on trekking. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/35 "2005-08-06T06:50:17Z")
**jayjay** said: > [@](#): > > This sounds so familiar to me, except that mine hasn’t been lifelong. I have serious problems with fluid drainage in my eustachian tubes, along with a nasty tinnitus. I have major problems following conversations if I’m more than about two feet away from the person, and it takes all of my concentration to keep up, which is incredibly frustrating and tiring. When I CAN clear my tubes, I’m fine for a couple of hours and then it shuts up again. I’ve had the drainage tubes FIVE TIMES and every time they help while they’re in but my hearing problems return after they come out. I had this fluid problem for years. I was told by doctors several times that my eustachian tubes “didn’t work” although none of them knew why. I had tubes installed three times and finally gave up. I lived with a horrible sinus drainage and upper respiratory infections one after another for years. And then I quit smoking. No more drainage, no more respiratory infections, and no more need for tubes. When I tell doctors this, they look momentarily baffled and then they say “Interesting.” Tests show that my eustachian tubes now work normally. Unfortunately, stopping smoking didn’t do a thing for the ~60% hearing loss and constant tinnitus in my left ear. I think now that there is something in cigarette smoke to which I am terribly allergic. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006/36 "2005-08-06T07:06:17Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > **jayjay** said:I had this fluid problem for years. I was told by doctors several times that my eustachian tubes “didn’t work” although none of them knew why. I had tubes installed three times and finally gave up. I lived with a horrible sinus drainage and upper respiratory infections one after another for years. And then I quit smoking. No more drainage, no more respiratory infections, and no more need for tubes. When I tell doctors this, they look momentarily baffled and then they say “Interesting.” Tests show that my eustachian tubes now work normally. Unfortunately, stopping smoking didn’t do a thing for the ~60% hearing loss and constant tinnitus in my left ear. I think now that there is something in cigarette smoke to which I am terribly allergic. Hmmm…I smoke. That’s something to think about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-imagine-being-almost-completely-deaf-for-your-whole-life/315006.md?page=1)