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Hearing Loss Silences Mouths, Not Ears
Day 17, Tuesday 3rd April 2018
2018 feels like it’s going to be an incredibly exciting year. It started with a palpable sense of anticipation, that boundless possibilities will come to fruition in this amazing year. It started with a miracle, by regaining the hearing in my left ear. Through the talented care of doctors and nurses at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South London, the smallest bone in my body, the stapes, was replaced, thereby reinstating some of the hearing which had disappeared from my left ear over the last 10+ years.
More than miraculous, it makes me a very lucky person, there are very few people whose hearing losses are of the type which can be rectified with an operation. The most common hearing loss is sensorineural, whereby the inner ear has been damaged permanently and that’s that. No turning back time, just the fond memories of being in countless raves, nightclubs and concerts and the great fun in those times, which may have contributed to the loss. I have some of that loss as well, the operation can’t return all of my hearing, but that’s ok and hearing aids are a miracle.
Losing hearing creates an incredible sense of isolation. In the 2018 Oscars, a short film called ‘The Silent Child’ about a little girl with profound hearing loss, won a gong. It very accurately portrayed the…
