Switch Me Sides!

    If you know me personally, chances are I have told you to “Switch me sides!” If you don't know me personally, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Let me explain: I'm deaf in my left ear, so if you and I are walking along, talking about something or another and you end up on my left side I will say, "switch me side!," and Then I'll disappear behind you so that you end up on my right side, and I will actually be able to hear what you're saying!
    
    It has been this way for as long as I can remember, but I wasn't born deaf. I got my tonsils taken out when I was 6 years old. When the doctor took my tonsils out he also out tubes in my ears. I think this was due to my chronic ear infections I got as a kid. After a while the tubes are supposed to fall out, key word being "supposed," The tube my left ear did not just fall out, instead it had to be taken out, and in it's place the Dr. found a hole.

    The silver lining of this hole thing (lol pun intended) is that it lead the Dr. to what was really wrong with my ear which was that it was sick. So the Dr. went in and took out the sick part, and in doing so had to also remove 2 out of the 3 little bones in my ear drum. So at this point my ear drum is pretty much non-functioning. The Dr. tried to patch the hole and put prosthetic bones in my ear drum, but the patch didn't stick and the prosthetic fell. So they tried to just patch the hole, they did this three more times. When they did this they sliced open the back of my ear them folded it back so they had access to my inner ear. (low key making myself cringe right now) then they did their fixing. well after the fourth attempt the Dr. said to wait a few years and then we would revisit the issue. 

   I waited more than a few years to revisit the issue. My family moved from Ohio to North Carolina and it just kept getting put on the back burner, mainly because, It didn't really affect my life, and if I'm being honest I was a little afraid that if I got my ear fixed it would effect how I sang. Well about 2 years ago, My voice teacher told me to go have my ear looked at, and so last year I finally did! I went to the Dr. and he looked at my ear and we had a conversation about what my ear's future would be. and I told him that my understanding of the situation is that my ear was "fixable" meaning I thought they could make it to where my ear would be able to hear "Normally." The Dr. then told me that me hearing "Normally" was never a possibility, He said the other Dr. should have listened to what my body was saying by rejecting the patch so many times. Dr. May then told me that the other Dr. did not completely get rid of the sick part of my ear.

   So essentially my ear has been sick for most of its life. Now, I know why my ear liked to drain out nastiness! it was still sick! So Dr. May told me that even though he couldn't "fix" my ear he had another plan. His plan was to go in and scrape out all the air cells, where the disease lived:  

    Then he wanted to seal my ear canal from both sides, this would mean my ear would no longer drain, I would never get another ear infection in my left ear, and I could swim, and actually enjoy it, did I mention no more stinky nasty drainage?!? Dr. May's priority was getting my hear healthy., and that he did!

    I got the surgery done on January 4, 2017. and it was the easiest one yet! and once everything was healed. I got my abutment for my BAHA. That was an interesting experience. The abutment is the little metal snap that is screwed into your skull that the sound processor is snapped onto. When I had the procedure I wasn't put under, at all. They gave me numbing shot in my head, which hurt really bad, Then He sliced a flap and drilled the thing into my skull. I could feel everything but it didn't hurt. It was really scary until I knew what it felt like, but once I did, it wasn't so bad.
  

May 3, 2017

July 31, 2017

    So on Tuesday (Aug. 1, 2017) I finally get my sound processor. and I am so excited. I have been waiting for so long, and I can't wait to see how this will effect me and my journey and especially how it will impact my musical journey.

    I've been asked how being half-deaf has effected my musical ability and vocal ability and to be quite honest I think there has been very little musical ability, if only because I know nothing else. When it comes to how it has impacted me vocally I think it has had a positive impact. Singers focus on how things feel, and my left side is more aware of feelings because it can't rely on hearing. So I think that has been beneficial. and really Its all I know, and I think I've done pretty okay so far. 

    So, Look out for another blog soon, one that will be filled with all the little exciting things I discover with my new found hearing! I am so excited! I am also so grateful for Dr. May!

                Until the next time
                  -Bonnie