Recently I took a last minute trip to California to say goodbye to my grandma who was in ICU and not expected to live much longer. I'm grateful I had the chance to say goodbye before she passed away. I was able to spend quite a bit of time with the extended family, something I have not done in years. Being with them kind of broke my heart. I have one aunt who has normal hearing. The entire rest of the family has profound nerve deafness. They can not hear a thing. They couldn't hear the doctors or the nurses or each other. My mom and my aunts and my uncle just were lost about everything. Sometimes they thought they heard something right but in reality they had totally misinterpreted. And the information being exchanged was very important. So of course everyone was super loud and resorted to writing notes back and forth on the white board. The family could not understand me when I spoke. I tried signing with them (I took 4 semesters of ASL when I was going to college but only remember some of it). None of them know sign. It was just a sad, stressful situation to be in for everyone. When you visit someone in ICU you have to pick up a phone and talk with a nurse. You have to answer their questions right for them to let you in. But you have to hear questions to answer them, right? Because of the prevalance of hearing loss in the visitors that week, the nurses stopped asking us questions. They just opened the door for us. I'm sad that the current technology was not available to my mom's family in their prime. I wish I could give them all a CI. They don't want one but I still wish I could give them one!
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| Grandma Virgie |
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| My mom and the extended fam |
It's really quite shocking how strong genetics are. My sis now has a hearing loss. My brothers don't yet but they could still develop it. I suspect one of my nieces has a hearing loss and I'm sure my children will develop it. We are just going to keep perpetuating this weak gene. I truly hope, though, that my generation and those younger will be able to utilize all of the amazing technology that is available so we can still function in a hearing world.
3 comments:
Your sister now! Oh my! She thought she was the "lucky" one!
I can only imagine the scene at the hospital! It must have been crazy. The technology is truly amazing.
Melissa, yes, she does have hearing loss now! But won't do anything about it. And won't get her kids tested though I am 99% certain one of her daughters has hearing loss.
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