I feel like I am being introduced to a whole new world that I really didn’t even know existed.  I guess that’s probably because I am!  There is so much out there to learn about the deaf/Deaf and hard of hearing world.  I just learned that Deaf with a capital “D” refers to those who are part of the deaf culture, usually primarily those who were born deaf or have been deaf since childhood and take pride in deaf culture and all that it entails.  Deaf with a lower case “d” refers to those who are deaf, but not necessarily in the other category.  There are a lot of nuances to it, but that’s the way I understand it in a nutshell.  Those who are hard of hearing are also a part of the deaf category.  I also learned that most deaf people prefer the term “deaf” as opposed to hearing impaired or other terms that are often used.  Many actually consider “hearing impaired” to be insulting and negative.  I’m reading a really interesting book that is written by two deaf people to hearing people and it basically takes the questions that hearing people most commonly ask deaf people and gives detailed answers to them.  There are a lot of them and it’s pretty interesting reading.  If I understand it correctly, during the time when my hearing was at it’s worst (before I regained some of it with treatment) I was actually considered deaf.  Now I think (if I understand it correctly) that I am back in the hard of hearing category, but not really that far from the line of being considered deaf.  I was wondering about that.  It’s not that I care one way or the other which category I fall into (some people are in denial or have strong feelings about being classified as deaf) I just want to use the terms correctly and really didn’t know which way I should refer to myself.

Our ASL class on Monday was great. We all had the chance to get up front and practice signing dialogues.  It went well and that was only our second class!  It was a lot of fun and we are all learning rather quickly, just like our instructor said we would.  We have an assignment for our class that requires us to do something that involves the deaf or hard of hearing community in some way in our area.  I was trying to think of an idea, and our instructor, Debbie, suggested that I meet with a woman who is  a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Specialist at the Minnesota Department of Human Services to interview her and set up a tour of equipment and devices available.  I’m really looking forward to this.  I suspect there is a lot more out there that I am still unaware of.  I’ll write a paper about it afterwards for class.  I know Debbie suggested it so I would have the opportunity to learn about all of these things.  The book I mentioned talks about the fact that many hard of hearing people feel caught between  two worlds  (deaf and hearing) and don’t really fully belong to either one.  I actually do feel that way.  I think I’m trying to do what I can to function in both worlds – for the hearing one, having my captioning telephone, hearing aids, assistive listening devices, closed captioning on the tv, improve my speech reading, etc.  For the deaf world, learning more about the culture, learning sign language, investigating the organizations in our area, meeting people who are a part of that culture, finding out more about accessibility in our area.  I started this blog with the idea that this is a journey, and it definitely still feels like one.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with the audiology department to get my repaired hearing aids and my new molded ear piece, and have them adjusted for my new level of hearing.  I’m ready for this!  It’s been about 10 weeks now since I’ve had the use of hearing aids that are tuned to my specifications and I’m anxious to see how much difference they will make (I suspect quite a lot!).

I saw the orthopedic surgeon today to go over the results of the MRI of my knee.  It showed that I have a torn ACL, a small tear in the meniscus, and a broken bone (a small part of the tibia)!  The doctor said that it’s possible some of the damage was from previous injuries – you can’t really tell from the MRI.  He thinks that some physical therapy should get me back to where I was before this recent injury and that I won’t need surgery.  I was glad about that!  He did say that there is a lot of wear on my cartilage and I will probably have arthritis in this knee and eventually need a knee replacement, but he’s hoping that will be another 10 or 15 years down the road!  Overall good news, I guess, although I was surprised by how much damage there was!