Add me to the list! However the hearing aids the army issued me a decade ago are not longer set to my current hearing and the VA doesn’t think I need them at all because it is not “bad enough” by their standards. And of course they don’t have a way of updating my current settings anymore becuase they are so old…
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I purchased my last ones at Costco. Way more affordable than I thought they would be, and fantastic service through Costco. They also do free adjustments for the life of the hearing aids.
If you haven’t bought new ones in a while you will be amazed at what they can do these days.
Thanx. I may have to look into this. I have actually never bought hearing aids becuase I got mine from the Army after my first trip to Afghanistan.
My impairment happened when I was a baby and it wasn’t diagnosed until I was 6. Initially I was tested extensively for learning and language deficiencies. Because my hearing was deficient (but no one knew yet) but I was naturally chatty, I talked a lot but no one could understand me. Speech therapy said I created my own language basically. Once I started school and finally got diagnosed I had already gotten really good at compensating so I never got hearing-aids (but I lip-read like a spy!) I’m not completely deaf. I have 20% in one ear and 40% in the other. Most people I know don’t realize I have a hearing deficit, they think I just have the best eye contact in the world. But if someone has a bushy moustache or I can’t see their mouth well for some other reason, it becomes evident quickly. I will do anything to get out of talking on a phone.
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OMG…I do the lip reading thing too! And the eye contact thing scares people unbelievably! And I hate it when people talk with food on their mouth and cover it with their hand. I don’t care if they talk with food in their mouth, just that they block their mouth from my view to be able to understand what they are saying!
I am by no means deaf either. One ear is worked then the other but they both have difficulty filtering background noise to be able to understand not only WHAT someone is saying but their TONE as they say it.
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Yup. Lip-reader, too, with very focused eye contact. I’m also not completely deaf and have no hearing aids (prescribed but not bought). The eye contact can be unnerving for people.
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Definitely. When I was young, I think it came across as smart and mature but as I got older it just came across as intense. In some cultures, eye contact is not the norm and can even seem disrespectful, especially with elders. My time working at a Chinese nursing home had many difficulties (and my lack of Mandarin vocabulary was the least of them : )
I also have trouble modulating my volume sometimes, depending the other noise around or cuing. I’ve had so many of my elderly patients tell me, “stop yelling, I’m not deaf” to which I respond, “SORRY, I AM!!”. They always love it.
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I’m always having to tell people “If I can’t see you I can’t hear you!” Whenever we get a new boarder at the barn I have to tell them not to try to yell at me when I am out in a pasture - I have to walk all the way up to a few feet away from them before I can see them well enough to read their lips.
Mine is genetic so I was born with it. There are certain sounds that I cannot hear no matter how loud they are - s, k, p, t, ch, z, g, h, etc. It means that people sometimes assume I am not paying attention because it takes my brain a split second to fill in the holes - imagine if someone handed you a book which had every other letter deleted, sometimes entire words, and asked you to read it. You just have to guess which words are there by context.
It also means that it doesn’t help to repeat things to me in a louder voice - if I say “What?” more than once I need you to use different words, not yell out the same ones. I always ask my guests to communicate through the Airbnb app and I’m sure most of them have no idea I can’t hear.
Yep. The internet is pretty equal opportunity for the hearing impaired. 
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Interestingly, I am just the opposite. When I say “What?” and someone rephrases it with different words it is annoying because now I am back to square one with missing pieces again. If they repeat the same words I can fill in the wholes by actually hearing them with intent focus for where the holes were.
With any difference it helps to remind people. “I’m partially deaf but can lip read so …,” or “could you grab that thing on the top shelf for me” etc. Lack of hearing is hard to detect so it would really help me if someone told me.
One of my first guests was deaf and a retired professor. He could read lips and was fascinating to chat with. But I had to remember to keep facing him as I spoke.
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I always let people know when I first meet them, otherwise they will think I am incredibly rude when I don’t respond to them… 
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And then there are people like my now ex-boyfriend (who also has hearing loss from a blown eardrum so should know better) who would intentionally turn away and/or talk more quietly when I couldn’t hear what he said…or as he did about 5 minutes before I broke up with him…stuffed crackers in his mouth and started mumbling completely unintelligible sounds, trying to make me think I was crazy.
Yes, so also, don’t say anything in a glass office or even at a pretty good distance thinking I won’t know what you said ,)
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Well what an asshole he was, glad to hear (pun intended) that he is in the rear view mirror!.
I just had my hearing checked for the first time in a long time, I was sure they would find my ears plugged with wax and tell me to clean it out and my hearing would be fine. No such luck. They tried to sell me hearing aids, I am just not there yet I am going to train my family to stop mumbling, for now.
RR
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It’s tough. I hate the idea of going to the upcoming spring Rage Against The Machine concert with ear plugs in but it is what it is.
I am sure my hearing loss comes from my time in the Navy, I wore hearing protection but clearly not as much as I should have. This has been an issue for me for decades now, it just seems to be getting worse the last 10 years.
RR
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During a brief period in my youth there was too much proximity to loud noises including gunshots and rock concerts. Ted Nugent and shooting .45 cals. Unlikely beginnings for a lefty. 
I almost joined the military as well!
Ah geez, are you booked for that night? I might make the trip!
Yes but sadly he is mentally and physically sick and hurting right now…but he’s not behaving illegally according to the psychiatrist who released him from a week long involuntary commitment to a mental hospital following a 0.319 BAC many hours after exhibiting several classic signs of intent to commit suicide. PTSD, particularly in former Special Forces Soldiers, sadly can be a killer.
I measured this weekend after my guests left and most of the interior doorways are 27", some are smaller. Of course that would be if you removed the doors; with doors on it is a little smaller. It was a huge deal when I had to move the new fridge into the kitchen, it would only fit in through the back door. How wide are most wheelchairs?
If it swung out it would open into a short hallway that is a little wider than the door, you would have to back into a bedroom to open the door. It can’t swing open in to the bathroom any further because there is a closet behind the door inside the bathroom. To fit into the bathroom you need to go between the door and the sink, a distance of about 23". I don’t think I can change the sink base out to a pedestal as it is glued to the tile, which is glued to the wall. And these are plaster walls, not drywall.
Can you install grab bars through ceramic tile and plaster? I could do this if it would be helpful to anyone that could actually get into the house and into the bathroom in the first place.
This would be easy if I could store it in the closet. Old house so very little storage space. Again, would this be useful to people already able to get into the bathroom?
Sorry to sound negative about these things, I had originally thought to put a ramp in at the front door but it just seemed like it was pointless as the house doesn’t lend itself to being accessible for mobility impaired folks. I’d be happy to be proven wrong though!
If I continue doing well with the Airbnb I may save up a fund to fully remodel the bathroom, and if I do that I will plan on designing it as accessible as possible.
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