Filed under Hearing Health

World Hearing Day is March 3: Let’s Change Mindsets

World Hearing Day is March 3: Let’s Change Mindsets

March 3 is World Hearing Day and is organized annually by the World Health Organization. This year’s theme that is illustrated below in the vibrant purple visual of a person’s side profile with a red orb radiating from the ear is Changing mindsets: Let’s make ear and hearing care a reality for all! As a … Continue reading

What Swimming Pools Do to My Ears

Go back in time with me to the summer of 1983. My family owned an above-ground swimming pool that kept me and my sisters entertained most days. I was nine years old. It wasn’t the first time I had worn plugs to keep the water out of my ears. Wearing ear plugs with water was … Continue reading

I Will Miss You, Maya

Weeks after my second child was born, I was in the throes of a horrible postpartum depression. Something motivated me to pick up a copy of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the memoir of author and poet Maya Angelou. In the book, Maya shares about growing up in racially segregated Arkansas and how … Continue reading

I Just Want to be a Wife and Mom

The words flew out of my mouth in between pneumonia-induced coughs. “I’m tired of trying to do everything perfectly. Writing. Speaking. Volunteering. I just want to be a wife and mom.” Wait, did I really commit myself to something here, something purely domestic and…simple? From childhood, I wanted to be lots of things. Writer. Actress. … Continue reading

One Thing I Would Have Changed About School

Even though my hearing loss wasn’t diagnosed until I was 27, I remember having difficulty hearing as a child. In grade school, I struggled to hear lessons via headphones. When an audiologist tested my hearing, he told my parents I had normal hearing but had trouble paying attention. A second opinion was not sought. I … Continue reading

How I Cope with Depression and Hearing Loss

Lipreading Mom has a confession to make: I live with clinical depression. In fact, severe depression can be traced back at least four generations in my family. This is yet one experience I share in my book, Confessions of a Lipreading Mom. One thing I’ve learned about depression and hearing loss: It can be managed. … Continue reading