Sorry Mr Pritchard Hearing loss in war After writing about the ex-marine I worked with, I realised he wasn’t the first deafened person I had close contact with, or even the first ex-serviceman I met who’d lost hearing during active service. The first was my primary school teacher, Mr Pritchard. Mr P had the internals of one ear […]
Stormy Weather Sue is a great weather forecaster, as air pressure fluctuates she feels her ears change and knows what to expect. Her balance changes in concert with the tone, pitch and volume of her tinnitus and she knows to avoid ‘complicated’ situations. Lip reading is also harder as her head’s filled with distractions. Over the past […]
First impressions No matter how we may try, we judge a book by its cover and go by first impressions. It’s only natural. On Tuesday, when Sue and I were dining out …… well, actually we were heading somewhere and stopped to eat at Pizza Hut’s lunchtime buffet as it was cheap. Sorry, affordable. I was finger […]
Eye Eye Meniere’s and balance problems Sue is sporting one very black eye and a swollen, misshapen, nose. Her nose has a wide black ‘hoop’ over the bridge – I think there’s at least a crack if not a break. But she’s determined not to go to A&E again, so we can’t be sure. Cause? She fell […]
Out of sight, not out of touch Hearing loss, hospitals and mobile phones Mobile phone texting is the best thing to happen to deaf and deafened people (don’t start emailing threats yet) since hearing aids. Ha, thought I was going to denigrate hearing aids? Well, I’m not that stupid and, anyway, hearing aids are genuine life savers. Texting, which I think was developed […]
In print or on the screen? Deaf characters in novels and on TV I read, and thereby learn, a lot, even from fiction. Deaver’s, ‘A Maiden’s Grave’, provided useful info on ‘deaf’ (my quotes, no one left out here) communications before Sue’s hearing finally deteriorated. Deaver provided a perfect example of miss-hearing, which I’d experienced with Sue, due to impairment as […]
Would Easy Rider work without the music? Hearing loss and background music on TV and radio Subtitles again. Sue recently said how difficult it was differentiating between subbed dialogue and subbed song lyrics. Background music is often subbed in a different colour, but for Sue (other’s may not agree) she didn’t even know background music was playing and didn’t actually want to […]
