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Open Your Minds: Living With A Hearing Impairment (By Johnny and Mario) by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Monday, January 6, 2003
Not rated by the Author.
I am 10 years old, and I am gonna' write about another problem I have BESIDES my muscular dystrophy, which I explained about the last time I wrote!
You may think I am okay other than having muscular dystrophy; but the truth is, I am NOT okay. I have other disablities BESIDES my muscular dystrophy. I happen to wear THICK, thick glasses because I have trouble seeing, and I also have to wear hearing aids in my ears because without them I can hardly hear a thing. I am almost totally deaf, and I am considered to be legally blind by a lot of people.
When I was small, like about a year or so old, I got sick with spinal meningitis, which is a disease that can be very serious, especially to very young children. It makes the lining around the brain and spinal cord swell up; and it causes a very high fever, seizures, and bad pain in the neck and back; and it can hurt you very badly if you don't get to a hospital right away; or worse, it can kill you.
Well, I was very sick when I got the meningitis; and mama tells me that I was convulsing all over the place, on account that my fever was so high; and I had a rash all over my body. I also was unconscious; and I don't remember a thing when this happened. I only remember having a cold, and then I guess I got worse a few days later, and I don't remember anything after that. When I woke up again, it was three months later, and I woke up in a hospital, tubes all over me, and not being able to talk. Mama and daddy were there, and they were both crying. I got scared because I thought I had died. I also got scared because I couldn't see; and I thought I had gone blind (which, in a way, I HAD).
I didn't realize I had lost my hearing at first, but then I noticed that I couldn't hear AT all; if I could, it was only SOME; and it scared me! I wanted to say something to them, but I couldn't hear myself speak, and I couldn't hear them! It was AWFUL!! When the doctors tested my hearing, it was found out that I had lost almost ALL my hearing in my ears, and I had to soon be fitted with hearing aids, so I could hear a LITTLE better than I could now without them! As for my eyes, I couldn't see much excepting for shadows or bright light, and I would have to wear extra thick glasses in order to see. My hearing and eyes were a MESS! And I DIDN'T like it ONE bit!!
I eventually had to get used to wearing thck, thick glasses, and I had to get used to wearing the hearing aids, which buzzed in my ears; and the noise bothered me. But once I got used to them I found out that I could hear, and I could hear my parent's voices and the birds and stuff; and then I wasn't so upset anymore.
But without my hearing aids, I usually have to resort to using sign language, which I have known for quite a few years (thanks, in part, to my therapy, plus I have a little brother, Mario, who is totally deaf. [He had meningitis like me; he was just a baby then; I think he was even younger than me when he had it!]). So all is NOT lost!
But it STILL isn't easy! Kids pick on me sometimes because of my hearing, and they also pick on me because when I speak I stutter; and sometimes, when I am on my crutches, I stumble because I really can't see where I am going, and I bump into things a lot. But I still try my best, and besides, I would rather use the wheelchair! It's a lot easier for me, for one thing, and I can save myself from becoming one gigantic purple-and-blue BRUISE!! :o
Unlike me, Mario, my brother, CAN'T talk AT all; he can only make noises, and when he tries to "speak" he can be awfully hard to understand. It's because he really doesn't remember how humans are supposed to sound when they speak, and he was just a few months old when he got the meningitis. I CAN talk, but I DO stutter (and that's another dang problem I have to learn to live with!! GRRR!!).
I TRY not to let my problems get to me, but sometimes I get SO FRUSTRATED and so fed up I want to SCREAM my head off! It is NOT easy being multiply handicapped, but there ARE people who have it worse than even ME, and so then I have to learn to count my blessings and thank God for all that I DO have and for all that I CAN do!!
If my sister Jodie or my sister Ronee' can live with THEIR problems, then I can, too! I am a living, talking (not so good at walking!) little Miracle, and I thank God each and every day for His letting me live THIS long!! Every day is a blessing from God for me!
Gemma succeeds in starting a girls' football team at her new school, but bitter rival Tyrone does everything he can to stop the girls playing. So begins a battle of wits between the girls and boys, and also between Gemma and sports teacher, Mrs Lawfo
