vivereloud

I like to think it impacted my life in a positive way. It sucked in the aspects that playing music and soccer and dance (which I all continued to do!) were MUCH harder, but it made me a tougher person. I was young and resilient which helped - I'd say the DJD has made me more depressed than the deafness.

Because I had to go through that rough patch I'm very inclined to help out other people whose handicaps are not fixable as mine was. I volunteer to play piano in a nursing home now.

I started to cry. I was in the recovery room and I could hear a nurse stacking chairs and I just burst into tears. Then, I asked for water and she said no.

My taste in music hasn't changed, I'm still very into piano... in terms of pop music it absolutely has but thats related more to growing up I suppose.

Ah, the voice thing. Put your fingers in your ears and talk... notice how you can hear your own voice but not much else? that's what it sounded like whenever I talked... I could hear ME clear as day and nothing else. I was sick of my own voice by the time surgery came around.

I learned how to read lips very quickly. When I first noticed I couldn't quite hear as clearly as everyone else I was embarrassed that I would look silly... so I started staring intensely at people's faces.

With practice and no other option, reading lips is quite easy! I'm still able to do it a little, it's a great party trick.

It would seem that way, but when it's the only thing you can do you pick it up VERY quickly. I guess its just like how when I see someone with no arms using their toes to do stuff we would do with our hands ... it looks crazy difficult, but when it's all you've got to work with it's pretty easy to catch on to.

I'm Italian also! So you can only imagine how much yelling was happening while I was deaf.

Holy shit I didn't even see that. I should groped her face I hope I didn't offend her.