Some of my deaf history, part 1

I got a wild hair and decided to type up some of my early history in dealing with my hearing loss, a nutshell of this aspect of my life.

I was born hard of hearing, but my hearing loss was not discovered until age 2. At that time I was fitted with hearing aids, one in each ear. I did pretty well and had experiences like being astonished by the sound of the vacuum cleaner and running water. I would wake up in the mornings, stand up in my crib, and when a parent walked into the room I would point to my ear -- "put my hearing aid on!" I had a stuffed bear that I loved, "Bear-bear," and my mom made hearing aids for the bear using buttons and some pipe cleaner. Really cool.

Between the ages of 4-6 I lost more of my hearing (not sure why -- genetics?) and became profoundly deaf. I then had to quickly become GOOD at lipreading. Not an easy thing to do.

I somehow made it though regular, mainstream school, from K through 10th grade with nothing more than lipreading and copying my friend's class notes on the school copier. Okay, that wasn't really all -- I also had speech teachers from the local oral deaf school/program spend at least an hour during the school day with me. We would work on speech, schoolwork if I needed help understanding concepts, and also social and relationship issues. They weren't just preparing me to speak in the real world, they were helping to prepare for living in the world. I remember most of them with great affection.

November of 11th grade year I got a cochlear implant. This was actually something my parents had encouraged me to get since I was in 7th grade, but I had had no interest in it until suddenly one day I just up and decided I was ready to get it, and completely surprised my parents. In hindsight, I think this was because I realized that I had gotten as good with my speech and listening as I was going to get with my hearing aids, and if I wanted to get even better, I would need to get a cochlear implant.

So I got one. And it was very strange in the beginning, but it did improve my listening and speech. (And the whole story about that is another blog post.)

Back to making it through school -- nothing but lipreading and notes until 10th grade, then for 11th and 12th grade my parents paid for Real Time Captioning (RTC) just for my honors English class as I would get completely lost with the constant classroom discussions. (RTC is just what a court reporter does, but it is translated into longhand onto a laptop in front of the deaf person/me in real-time.) (We tried to get the school district to pay for it. Their argument was that in order for them to pay for RTC, I would need to be taking regular English AND failing. Jerks.)

I went to college and my parents strongly advocated for the university providing RTC services for me. (I was so lucky -- they kept the background dealings from me so I could just enjoy college.) I had a Ms. Somebody for the first semester or two who did the RTC. Then the university realized how expensive that was and found someone else to do it for less money. Fine. Then I think after my sophomore year, they really realized how expensive it was overall and told my parents "the next two years we will only pay for RTC for 2 out of the 3 classes that she takes." (They were already lucky because most students took 4 full classes a term, while I only took 3, with some half-credit classes added in that didn't require RTC.) My parents response? "Of the 3 classes that she takes, gather the 3 professors together and they amongst themselves can decide which of their classes she will only understand half of." My parents won.

Need to type up another post about my cochlear implant experiences!

Deaf Yoga

Today I finished my 3rd deaf yoga class. It is awesome! I previously took an entire year of yoga through PCC, and while it was great and I learned a lot, it wasn't good, like this is. For that class I had a hearing teacher with an interpreter, so while I was able to understand quite a bit of it, it is still impossible for me to do downward dog and continue to get instructions in sign language, unless I can somehow get those instructions through my legs and understand them upside down.

To understand why it is so awesome to have yoga taught in ASL, imagine yourself trying to learn yoga in a soundproof box with a teacher speaking a language you don't understand. Sure you can imitate the poses you see, but there is so, so much more to yoga than that. When do you breathe? While in the child's pose, how do you know when it is time to come out of the pose? How do you know you are supposed to clench your butt tight when in the cobra pose so you don't hurt your back? You start to get the idea.

Taking a yoga class with a hearing teacher and an interpreter is an improvement, but still not ideal. This is because a hearing teacher will continue to give instructions while you are in the pose. Thus I risk injuring my neck while in some poses because I'm trying to see the interpreter while doing the pose attempting to breathe in and out at the same time. You just don't quite get the same focused, meditative effect.

Currently, there are only 20 yoga teachers for the deaf in the entire USA, and none in the Pacific Northwest. Until now! Teacher J is fluent in ASL and she graduated from yoga teacher training last June. She has now set up deaf yoga classes here in P-town and we are so lucky! And it shows that there is a real need/want for deaf yoga classes -- for all 3 classes so far, more than 20 people have shown up (yeah, it is a bit crowded).

J is still working out the kinks... exactly how to set up the room so that everyone can see, how to communicate particular instructions, etc. She has been in touch with another deaf yoga teacher in NYC, and taking suggestions and ideas. The classes are an hour and a half long, longer than most because instructions for each pose have to be given just prior to each pose, and not during them. But it works! We are shown each pose, what to do and what not to do, and then we hold each pose for a certain number of breaths in and out (3 or 6) at our own pace, before coming out of the pose to go on to the next one. It actually works really well. I find myself much more relaxed and also learning much faster than I did during my previous yoga class. And then at the end, during savasana (corpse pose), the lights are dimmed. When it is time to come out of savasana, the lights are brightened again. It is relaxing, restorative, and best of all, totally comprehensible!

He said what?!?

Sure, I can eavesdrop from across the room, if I have a good view and the person is easy to lipread. Which doesn't happen as often as you'd think, or I just haven't tried in a long time because I learned quite some time ago that it is not polite to stare :)

So when I came across this blog, Overheard in New York, I bookmarked it right away. Now, when I have some downtime and need a laugh, I love to read about the crazy things that people can and have said in public. It's like eavesdropping porn!

Voices in My Head

I like reading posts on Erin Pavlina's blog, and getting more spiritual insight from the things she posts about.

Well today she posted about How Should You Communicate with Your Spirit Guides? In it, she defined the three different ways that people receive communications from the spirits --

For one, you may get an image in your head, a form of clairvoyance. You may hear a thought come back to you like, “Yes, my child, you are indeed loved.” That’s clairaudience. You may get a warm tingly feeling in your stomach or chills up your back. That’s clairsentience. Alternatively, you may get signs, symbols or synchronicities in your life, which is their way of letting you know they received your message. Interpreting them isn’t always easy, but you do the best you can.

When I read this, I realized that I have had clairaudience my whole life. I will express distinct thoughts or gratitude, and will immediately "hear" a voice respond to me and get a warm fuzzy feeling. I even get this from my deceased grandfather sometimes.

I asked the Urban Shaman which type of communication he mostly gets, and it is also clairaudience.

Don't you think it is totally fascinating that 2 deaf people use clairaudience to communicate with spirits?