Freddy Kruger gives the gift of hearing, haha!

Job Interview with new HAs?

The good news of the day is: I received an email from Bergen County YJCC, and they want me for an interview this Thursday afternoon! I'm debating wearing my hearing aids or not, I'm still getting used to wearing them (out in public yet), let alone a job interview! They aren't as noticeable as I thought, but I'm still nervous about hearing/listening with them, and even though I have ADA of 1990 behind my back, I still am nervous about wearing them into a new situation dealing with possible employers.

I'm just coming to terms with accepting my hearing and HAs and finding my identity as a musician with hearing loss, but a job interview probably isn't the best place to be "still finding one's self", eh?

Any thoughts??

Audiogram!

As some fellow bloggers have done, here's a snippet of my audiogram!

O = Right ear, X = Left ear.

I was told I had a mildly-moderate "ski-slope" loss (still from birth).

Baseball Player wears HAs! Cool!

Sorry there aren't any captions, but I found this rather inspirational video about a baseball player who wears HAs, is happy, optimistic about playing, and that his hearing impairment is just a part of him. :)

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=5558493

Peace all,
~Justin

Movie Theater Help??

I went to the movies (Toy Story 3, awesome film!), and it was my first time wanting to try out my new HA's. I went to the Customer Service desk, pointed to my HA's, and asked for a loop. A guy brought me a rather conspicuous flagpole-looking device with a plastic 'flag' attached. I've asked on other HoH Boards, and have been informed that apparently I was given a "captions reflector"...?! (No wonder it didn't work when I switched my HAs to 'T'!)

Have any of you had experience with ALD's / loops and such, in theaters? How should they work (with my HAs)? I suppose I'll have to really make sure that I get an actual "loop" next time, eh?? If they give me some kind of infrared headset, will I have to take my BTE's out to use them?

Thanks for your advice!!

Peace,
~Justin

Sigh of Relief!

Hey everybody!

After much nervousness and such...!

Well, after my empowering therapy session this morning, I came home and "show n tell'd" my HAs to mum, first.
I had actually walked around in the kitchen for a few minutes and she had to peer at my ears to see my bte's, hehe...
I told her the NJCBVI paid for them, and that luckily my loss hadn't changed since high school.
She gave me two hugs during our conversation and told me she was proud of me...
She mentioned that a friend of hers wears them too.
She asked how the sound quality was and I said good so far.

I mentioned the support I receive from here, AAMHL, and HLAA, and that I was glad to see other musicians and therapists with them, and that I had really done a lot of thinking about it.
Told her about the Music-Links that would work with my ipod too, so I can still enjoy my music, and she thought that was cool.

Both Nate and dad have walked around me and haven't seemed to even notice yet, hehe! :P

So... I feel a big sigh of relief coming over me! Thank you all for being here and supporting me, and here's my happy "end" to my big nerve-wracking debute hahaha!

Peace always,
~Justin

Auditory Halos & Depth Perception

I have a couple questions based off of observations I've been noticing with my HA's...
I'd best describe them as "auditory halos" or "after-ringing/noise" that immediately follows the amplified sound into my HA's when I'm hearing things. This doesn't occur when I'm not wearing them.

Any thought on what it is? Just residual amplified noise bouncing around inside my ear? Do "normal" hearing people experience this too??

I've also found that my "auditory depth perception" when wearing my HA's is much different than my "norm". When wearing my HA's, sometimes it feels like a person talking next to me or even a couple feet away, (even if I'm not looking at them, or even if I am) is almost "inside my brain"...?! Mainly, people sound louder and closer than they actually are, which can be disorienting at times. What are some effective tools I can use to offset this "distance distortion"?? I've played around with my volumes, but it usually just leads to me just letting things be, and accepting that this is my new way of hearing, and that maybe things were also louder like this, but I just couldn't hear it??

Peace all!
~Justin