Publisher: Cara Lippitt

“I started losing my hearing in 1960, just as I entered the University of Illinois. Over 12 years, my hearing loss declined to profound, leaving me little time to adjust and cope. Living with hearing loss was very stressful. I relied on vision, lipreading and the help of others. To manage phone conversations at work, … Continued

“My name is Krystal, and I was born profoundly deaf in 1995. I am a bilateral recipient who received my first cochlear implant when I was young. Implantation and becoming a case study in cochlear implantation I used to live in Australia, and my first surgery was in North Queensland, Australia where I received a … Continued

“I had meningitis when I was 5. I fell into a short coma from the illness and when I woke up, I couldn’t hear. From then on, I wore a hearing aid until 1987 when I experienced total hearing loss at 35 years old. My parents found an outstanding program at a local university that … Continued

“My name is Leeolie. I am currently 30 years old and I have a Nucleus 7 Sound Processor. When I was 7 years old, I was diagnosed with cancer, having a slim chance of survival. I fought my way through at such a young age, but it came with a cost. I lost my hearing. … Continued

“Around the age of 5, my parents first noticed that I had mild hearing loss in one ear and a slightly more severe loss in the other ear, but it wasn’t deemed severe enough to require hearing aids. In first grade in 1972, I contracted the mumps, which destroyed the hearing in my ‘good’ ear … Continued

“During my senior year of high school, my hearing began to decline. At home, my mother would often call my name and after numerous attempts, she would come to my room and say, ‘Torie, I’ve been calling you. Did you hear me?’ I would reply, ‘No, I’m sorry – I did not hear you.’ Losing … Continued