Karen K.

While writing my story for this community, images were invoked in my mind when touching on turning points that changed life for the better or for the worst.

Diagnosis of severe hearing loss around the time I turned four at the University of Florida at Gainesville....

This memory lived for a long time without captions before I finally realized what it was and captioned it.  It was being in a room with sofa chairs, a couch and a  coffee table with toys to play with.  My mother sat on the couch next to me, helping me with the toys.  Her face showed worry, concern and apprehension.  A dark reflective mirror-like window was on one wall with outlines of people faintly seen.  Every so often, sounds came from somewhere which I reacted to.  I don't remember the trip to the University nor anything after that testing.

The crash of remaining hearing at age 21....

Whenever I think back to that time, it always starts with that July morning at church, not knowing then that little incident marked the dividing line of "life before" and "life after".  I went home after church thinking the hearing aid had moisture in it.  When the usual fixes didn't work, I tried the hearing aid from the other ear on the affected ear and found it was my ear, not the hearing aid.  After it affected both ears, it was emotional putting perfectly good working hearing aids on and turning them on and not hearing anything of the world except ringing tinnitus.  That struck home on what profound deafness was like. I went to work for months after that morning unable to hear, feeling very alone, my mood matching the early fall nights.  The two or three specialists visited for the hearing problems never gave a diagnosis, and prescribed drugs which helped somewhat, but did not bring back all that was lost.

Activation of the first CI....

After the activation of the first CI, the audiologist told me and my parents to go outside for 20 minutes to relax.  For the first time in many years, I heard rustling leaves and footsteps.  Traffic came rushing by in the familar sounds of long ago.  The world became noisy and alive again!  We stopped at a nearby sandwich shop to have ice cream cones.  My mother and I didn't have money with us (we left our bags in the audiologist's office), so my father ended up paying for the cones from his wallet!

Activation of the 2nd CI....

When the CD player started playing that singer's song, it was like a time machine, sending me back to find myself (in my mind) sitting on the couch, seeing her sing on TV, just a few months before the crash.  I was young again, and a flood of memories crowded in from my younger years into broad daylight to remember once again. 

Do you have strong images that are invoked with turning points in your life?