I'm not one for bemoaning my lot (well, not much) but being hard of hearing (although immensely improved since getting a CI) can be a bloody bore at times. I have relatively recently discovered that being among fellow deafies, hearing aid wearers and CI implantees can be very heartening. Last Saturday was another opportunity to sport my CI and discuss things openly, knowing fairly positively that you're not boring the pants off of anyone because everyone there is in the same boat as you. It's really rather liberating!
This time it involved a wee trip to Utrecht to join the St. Plotsdoven (Society for the (Sudden) Deaf') 'Contact Day'. Not being an early riser, I took the liberty of arriving late so missed the first wee talky sessions but that's ok. I found my designated group after the tea-break where a number of items were discussed, such as 'how do your hearing problems affect your relationship?' and 'how has you hearing affected your work situation' (words to that effect). All very interesting. Among the 10 folks in my group, there wasn't one similar situation other than that we all wore a CI now. Nobody travels the same road but we all end up at the same destination :) Well, kinda, in that we all have a CI. But the results really do vary and I have to consider myself among the very luckiest.
I suppose it depends on the individual problem - if you've been totally deaf for years and you can now understand speech with your CI on, you're going to feel great about it all. I can imagine you'd be disappointed if infections after the op caused problems or adjustments still didn't improve your hearing by much. But I got a much bigger improvement to my hearing than I could have hoped for... and fast too! Plus, I wasn't totally deaf, 'only' very hard of hearing. I still think 'they' should adjust the protocol (again) for who gets a CI and when. Of course in the beginning, they were only considered for deaf people and now they are for the hard of hearing too but it's my contention - certainly after hearing some stories - that perhaps including those who are hard of hearing *before* it affects their lives too much, could be a huge advance. Too many (HoH folks) seem to have to wait until they've been almost deaf for too many years. I myself was considered to be 'on the edge' and 'might not improve enough to justify it all'... and yet it has made a huge difference to my level of hearing! I know, it's an expensive joke and all that but... I want for others what I got!
Anyway...
Lunch was yer usual tasty filled roll affair and introductions all round. Hysterically, I made a new friend my age, who lives in Almere, in the same district and with a CI only a few months after me (although at the VU and not Utrecht). I say 'hysterically' because she moved from Weesp (as did we) to Almere, only 2 months before we did - and as a joke I asked 'when's your birthday?' and she's the same month! So, may well be seeing more of her :)
After lunch was 'workshop' time. I'd signed up for 'song signing'...which I just knew I would be no good at but it was fun all the same. I was very surprised to learn it was to be 'The Animals' version of 'House of the Rising Sun' from 1965... I mean I'd expected a nursery rhyme or something easy! And as it's Dutch sign language (NmG/NGT) and that's an English song, I couldn't get my head around how that was even going to work. There's also a whole bit where it's just music, and you're supposed to use mime to cover that part and I just thought 'well that's not happening' haha.
But it was kinda fun, and very informative. I did indeed hold back at miming the empty part... just not that far gone yet!... but it was definitely possible to sign the song at the end of our little workshop. Just how interesting it would look to a proper signer is another story entirely.
Workshop no. 2 was actually mime... or at least facial expressions and how important body language is - certainly to the deaf and hard of hearing. It's rather surprising to learn something you actually instinctively know already. One of the 'games' was like Chinese Whispers... only with no whispers. Five folks stand in a row with their back to the one in front. The one at the back is shown a card with an expression they have to convey to the person in front of them. So... 'fear' for instance. That person conveys what they think shows the word they read, to the one in front of them and so on until the last of the five mimics what they understand to have been conveyed. So funny to watch, especially if the first one already doesn't really pass on anything useful! The end results were really comical and well worth trying at a party too - two word combinations were even funnier, like 'worried and sad'... how the hell do you do that?!
We were then split into groups of 3 or 4 and given an object we had to do a tableau for, which portrayed a story around the item and the other groups had to guess what yours was. We had a book and used it as a bible with a 'marriage ceremony' happening - they got it, although I'm not sure how.
All in all, a fun, informative and interesting 'contact day' held by the society which ended in the usual half hour of drinkypoos and canapes. I've been to a few of their gatherings now and always been glad I went so it all augers well. Nice bunch of folks, well organised and worth chewing through the straps and making the effort for. I even got a lift part of the way home so for the first time experienced being in a car full of deafies... very relaxing because you know, they know and you know, they know you know... you know?
When's the next one?
