Lengthy Introduction

Hello, all! Welcome to Turn It Up!

I was born 2lbs, 2oz, in August 1980. I was diagnosed with Retinopathy of Prematurity, and a hearing loss. At 6, I had surgery to correct my left eye's detached retina, forever leaving me with, as I call it, "the ability to SEE out of both eyes, but only LOOK out of one at a time (my right eye being my much stronger eye)." Without my specs, I am legally blind; with them, I am 20/80.

I was given various hearing aids for my left ear as a kid, and deeply disliked them all, mostly due to the amount of taunting I received in school from peers, but also, secretly, the unbalanced' feeling I had wearing only one. Sometime in high school I stopped wearing it, because I disliked both the feel of the thing and the sound quality, and I kept it quite hidden from my peers during the very rare instances I would be brave enough to "try out my new ear."

A bit more than a decade has gone by, that I haven't worn hearing aids. I know at nearly 30, it shouldn't matter to me, but still there's a part of me that's afraid that things will sound horrid, and people will be just as impatient and nasty as they were when I was younger. Trying to detach myself from those thoughts, I think to myself how nice it will be to be able to hear my cat purr again, how much easier it will be listening to the telley, and maybe even how much nicer music through my HA's will sound, if I get Music-Link hooks... Those seemingly small comforts bring me much excitement and happiness,and I will certainly try and let them be my guides as I start my journey of hearing in new ways.

Big "Thank you!"s to both Sarah (http://speakuplibrarian.blogspot.com/) and Elizabeth (http://ehwhathuh.blogspot.com/) for their warm encouragement about starting this blog, friendly advice and great stories!

By the way, did you know that Stephen Stills (the guitarist of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young) wears Starkey HA's I think?! ;)

Feel free to say hello!

Peace always!