Listening to Music With Hearing Aids

I’m trying to come out of the hearing loss closet, both because it’s a part of who I am and because these entries might be useful to someone else with hearing loss. 

One of the questions I get asked the most is how do I listen to music with hearing aids.  When my hearing loss was more mild, I would just take my hearing aids out and use regular old earbuds.  Now that my hearing loss is creeping into the moderate range, earbuds don’t work as well.  I can hear through them, but not very clearly, and I can’t make out any lyrics at all.  When I listen to music through my hearing aids, the sound is much clearer and crisper, and I can usually understand at least some of the lyrics.

If you want to have music on in the background and not use your hearing aids as earbuds, you can simply leave your hearing aids on your normal channel, or if your aids have a music program, you can use that.  My current hearing aids don’t have a music channel, but I’m about to get new ones, which will have it.  I’ll let you know what I think of it once I’ve given it the old college try J. 

There are a few different options for using your hearing aids as earbuds.  I’ve used a neck loop for the past few years.  A neck loop is an FM transmitting system that plugs into the headphone jack of a computer, CD player, or MP3 device.  The top part goes around your neck (thus the term “neck loop.”)  You turn on the neck loop, put your hearing aids on the tele-coil channel, and you can hear the music right in your ears at your decibel level.  I learned from experience that the sound quality diminishes with the battery life, so I own two sets of rechargables that are only for my neck loop, and I change them out when it starts sounding “static-y.” 

Cochlear implant wearer Rachel Chaikoff has done a blog entry on listening to music with cochlear implants. The only one she mentions that won’t work for hearing aids is using regular earbuds.  I don’t know how you’d get them to stay put if you wear hearing aids.  Rachel has tried more listening options than I have, so if you want to try something other than the neck loop, click here to read her take on it!

The One Time I Actually WANT Someone to think I'm 17

I'm one of those people who couldn't look their age if their life depended on it.  If I walked into a high school, I'd be mistaken for a student.  I have been hanging out on this planet for 25 years, a whole quarter of a century, and I don't look it.  I know this full well because people comment more on my youthful appearance than they do on my headcovering and hearing loss combined!  I thought my wedding ring would put a stop to that, but nope.  I started getting comments along the lines of "Aren't you a little young to be married?"  Ishkabibble!

I found out that my local library has this new program where you can "read down" your late fees.  Now THAT's my kind of program.  I could read my late fees into oblivion in no time.  Unfortunately, this program is only open to children ages 17 and under.  Irrational Kati began coming up with all kinds of reasons why I should be considered youthful enough to participate in this program:

Sometimes I look like I'm about 17.

I still have to wear a retainer at night.

Coloring is awesome.

I can act extremely childish (just about everyone who knows me can vouch for this one!)


I don't plan on trying to crash this program.  But I will allow myself a moment of frustration since I feel I have been unfairly discriminated against on acount of my age :P.

10 Most Common Misconceptions About Hearing Loss

 I haven’t written much about hearing loss on this blog for a number of reasons, but I’ve been feeling led to be more open about it.  I’m going to start by listing the most common misconceptions I encounter on a regular basis. 

1.)  Either you’re hearing or you’re deaf, and there’s no in-between.

There is actually quite a bit of in-between.  A person with normal hearing will hear any sound that’s 20 decibels or higher.  A profoundly deaf person will hear at 90 decibels or higher, if they can hear anything at all.  That leaves quite a bit of in-between. 

2.)  “You must have selective hearing, because you hear just fine in some situations.”

I hear much better when it’s dead quiet.  If I am on the phone with a woman and my hearing aid is working well and there’s no background noise, you wouldn’t know I’m hard of hearing.  If there’s background noise or I’m talking to a man on the phone, it’s much more difficult. 

3.)  Deaf and hard of hearing people can’t/shouldn’t drive or go on airplanes.

This one cracks me up.  “How can you drive?” is, hands down, the question I get asked the most.  For the life of me, I don’t know why hearing people have this idea that D/HH people cannot drive cars.  I didn’t get my license until after my hearing loss was detected, so when it comes to driving I don’t know any different.  I’ve had a few people point out that I glance in the rearview mirror quite frequently while I’m driving.  I suppose that’s my way of checking for lights and sirens.  I can’t hear sirens until they’re right next to me, with or without my hearing aids.  But again, I have no experience driving as a hearing person, so this just feels normal to me.

Flying doesn’t feel any different either.  I’ve had hearing people ask if my aids give me trouble going through security, and the answer is no.  I have flown twice by myself after developing hearing loss, and I’ve gone through security without any problems.  The only thing is you have to keep your hearing aids on an acoustic channel, because they’d probably buzz if you have them on t-coil while going through the machines.  I imagine the t-coil channel would also buzz while you’re on the airplane, so if you use your t-coil channel for a neck loop to listen to music, you’d have to look into a different option.  But these are all little things.  In the grand scheme of things, deaf and hard of hearing people fly the same way as everyone else.

4.)  “You can’t possibly be hard of hearing because you don’t ‘sound deaf’.”

Whether or not a hearing loss affects a person’s speech depends on a few factors.  It depends partly on the severity of their hearing loss. It also depends on the age of onset.  A person who is born deaf or hard of hearing is more likely to “sound deaf” because they have never heard their own voice clearly.  I didn’t start losing my hearing until I was a teenager.  By that point I had a strong background in spoken English.  A few people have asked me if the fact that I read a ton has anything to do with how well I can speak.  I honestly don’t know.  But speaking clearly doesn’t mean I always hear clearly.

5.)  “You can’t take care of kids as well as a hearing person.”

I sure as heck can!  I will definitely need a few extra tricks when/if I become a parent, such as a flashing or vibrating baby monitor.  But that’s not a big deal.  When I worked in toddler classrooms, if I wasn’t sure of what a toddler was saying, I would say clearly, “Can you show me?”  This usually prompted them to gesture or point at things, and then I could figure it out from there.  When/if I have my own kids, they will grow up using sign as a second language to make communication easier.

6.)  People with hearing loss can’t listen to or play music.

Tell that to Beethoven, haha!  Or tell that to Evelyn Glennie, a profoundly deaf percussionist!  Neither of them were born deaf, which I’m sure made music a lot easier for them.  But it’s just not true that deaf and hard of hearing people can’t enjoy or create music.  Nowadays there are numerous options for listening to music with hearing aids and cochlear implants.  I use a neck loop, which I’ll write more about in a future post.  I was very involved in music before I started losing my hearing, and I still am.  I play flute, piano, guitar, and mountain dulcimer.  It’s getting more difficult to tune by ear, so I have a tuning app on my Ipod.  I’ll readily admit that I may not hear music exactly the same way as a hearing person, but I still hear something that I can enjoy. 

7.)  All deaf people use sign language.

There are plenty of profoundly deaf people who use little to no sign.  Some deaf people grew up completely oral, and others chose to go that route as they got older. 

8.)  All deaf cochlear implant recipients use speech only.

Deaf people of all walks of life make the decision to get a cochlear implant.  While it’s a popular option amongst oral deaf people, there are some culturally Deaf people who choose it so they have the option of being in the hearing world as well as the Deaf world.  Even though they may choose to learn to speak, they typically don’t stop signing.  Some people subscribe to the viewpoint that ASL is a good “backup” in case the cochlear implant processor malfunctions, because CI users are completely deaf once they take off the processor.

9.)  Congenital deafness and old age are the only causes of hearing loss.

While those are probably the two most common causes of hearing loss, there are lots of other causes that have nothing to do with how young or old a person is.  My hearing loss was probably the result of recurring ear infections when I was a kid.  Other kinds of illness and injuries can also cause hearing loss. 

10.)    People with hearing loss can’t live “normal” lives.

Sure, we may need some accommodations, but when our needs our met, we can do anything!  Except hear normally ;)

Smack-Your-Forehead Moments

When I was a kid, I firmly believed that grown-ups never did anything stupid.  Where I got that idea, I don't know.  This post would be more aptly named, "Confessions of a stupid grown-up."  

I am downright AMAZED at some of the smack-your-forehead stupid things I've done during my adult years.  I've used the phrase "because I said so!" countless times when working in the church nursery, after I swore to myself I would never use the phrase "because I said so!"  I've made some other mistakes that weren't quite as comical as that one.

Sometimes I get so stubborn that the only thing distinguishing me from a three-year-old is my size.  A few weeks ago i was driving home and I felt a low coming on.  I have mastered the art of opening the outer pocket on my purse and getting the glucose tabs while driving, but that only goes so far when you've forgotten to fill up the tube and fill your purse with snacks.  (Smack-your-forehead moment #1: Leaving home without glucose tabs and LOADS of snacks when you know FULL WELL that you go low at the drop of a hat.)  There was any number of places I could have stopped to get food, but my stupid pride got in the way of considering that option.  (That would've been smack-your-forehead moment #2, since driving with low blood sugar is about as safe is driving drunk.)  I reasoned that I should be able to drive non-stop for 20 minutes as well as the next person.  I managed to get home, crawl across my apartment to the kitchen, and get the chocolate out of the fridge just in time to avoid passing out on the kitchen floor.  I recovered pretty quickly, but I felt like I'd run a marathon and I decided I would never be that stupid again.

Thankfully, I learned from the blood sugar blunder and I am much more cautious about preventing lows on the go.  Unfortunately, that hasn't made me immune to having other smack-your-forehead moments.

Today I was getting coffee with a friend.  My coffee was ring-of-fire hot.  I tried to cool it down by stirring it a bunch, but that didn't work. (Smack-your-forehead moment #3:  I decided to just take little sips.)  I was running on about five hours of sleep, so I wasn't quite all there upstairs.  If I was, I would have some up with some sort of ridiculously simple solution like, oh I don't know, getting a few ice cubes or putting a splash of ice water in the coffee.  But no, I had to keep sipping on this bonkers hot coffee.  I was too smack-your-forehead stupid to predict what was going to happen next.  And now the roof of my mouth is covered in blistering burns, and for the rest of the day, the only things i could put in my mouth without wanting to scream were ice water and yogurt.  

I'll never do that again, but by now I know better than to say I'll never do stupid things again.  I'm not a parent, and i'm definitely not a parenting expert, but I think we do kids a great disservice when we give them the impression of having it all together and never messing up.  

Book List for Grades 3-5

Here is my list for grades 3-5.  The carpal tunnel isn’t nearly as bad as when I wrote the first book list, so I was able to add descriptions for these books.

-Falcon’s Egg by Luli Gray

A fun fantasy story about a girl who finds an egg in the park.  My third grade teacher read this to my class and I fell in love with it.

-The Night Crossing by Karen Ackerman

I first came across this book when I was in fourth grade.  This is a great book for educating this age group on the Holocaust.  This book would probably be a bit frightening for younger elementary students, but for older elementary grades I’d say it strikes a good balance between expressing the danger of the situation and not being too graphic for children. 

-Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume

Another book that was introduced to me in fourth grade when our teacher read it to the class.  Peter Hatcher is a character that pre-teen age readers will identify with.  Told in first person, Peter gives his account of navigating through fourth grade while coping with his pesky younger brother.

-Superfudge by Judy Blume

The sequel to Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.  I remember I got it from the school library and read the whole thing in one day.  Peter takes on sixth grade and adolescence while adjusting moving and having a new baby in the house.  Fudge is now the middle child, and he’s still finding plenty of ways to get into trouble!

I know my first two book lists have been a bit on the sparse side, but I’m coming up with lots more for the older grades, so sit tight!

Redefining the concept of "diet"

 In one of my previous entries, I wrote about the importance of being connected to our food.  A huge part of eating disorder recovery was simply learning how to enjoy my food again.  When I was in the early stages of my recovery, it was simply a matter of increasing my food intake.  I had a meal plan that I was trying to stick to, but the important thing was just making sure I ate. 

Now that I’ve been in a healthy place for a few years, my food connection is deepening.  The more I get into homesteading, the more I’m learning about the miracle of food and how our bodies use it.  I’m getting to know my own body and my own nutritional needs.  I recently found out that my cholesterol is slightly elevated (it’s genetic.)  I also have a few other health conditions that I am trying to manage, at least in part, by eating healthier food.

I’m trying not to use the word “diet” in the traditional sense, because in our culture it’s so synonymous with the word “can’t.”  The general concept of a diet is a list of foods you can’t eat. If someone were to ask me if I’m “on a diet,” I suppose the technical answer would be yes.  There are some things that are either no longer a part of my diet, or are consumed in much smaller (and less frequent) amounts.  But I don’t think in terms of “can’t.”  I’m something of a go-getter when I want to be.  When I found out I have high cholesterol, my response wasn’t, “Oh great, I can’t eat this or this or this.”  I didn’t think of my diet as being restricted.  I didn’t think of it as a punishment.  I looked at it as an opportunity to find different foods that I’d enjoy eating (and maybe growing!), and that would be a bit healthier. 

I’m not saying we should never use the word “diet.”  It’s a useful word in the right context.  I just wish we could separate it from this idea of “can’t.” 

An Angry Owl Moment

 If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s getting worked up at the drop of a hat.  If I’m upset with someone, it takes every ounce of my willpower to not give them the business end of a hissyfit.  My loved ones know this all too well.

My husband and I have started referring to hissyfits as “angry owl moments,” both because we saw this video and because Esther’s ears go back like an owl if she freaks out over a loud noise. 

Side note #1: Esther is our cat, not a human child.  Just thought I would throw that in there to avoid giving new readers disturbing mental images, haha!

Side note #2: Although I am not diabetic, I do have hypoglycemic tendencies as a result of having struggled with an eating disorder, so I can identify with this video. I have no idea why the phrase “angry owl moment” works, but it does.

Okay, now that I have the side notes out of the way, I am going to share the angry owl moment I had earlier today.  I have been throwing fits over little things since I first figured out how to yell.  But now that I’m at the ripe old age of 25, my angry owl moments are much shorter and I’m laughing at myself a lot more than I used to.

Today I was really feeling the need for rest, so I’d resolved to do only the basic chores and then tuck in with a book.  Suddenly the intercom buzzed, causing Esther’s owl persona to emerge.  Now, there are a couple things you have to know about this intercom.  One, it’s so loud the deaf population of Tanzania can probably hear it.  Second of all, it’s broken in such a way that I can talk to the person at the door but all I get is static when they talk.  So if someone buzzes, I have to walk down there to find out what they want.  I didn’t see a UPS truck and I wasn’t expecting a package. So I chalked it up to young whippersnappers playing with the intercom buttons AGAIN, and decided it wasn’t worth wasting my precious energy to go outside and get barbecued.  

When Justin came home from work, he found a UPS notice on the front door.  I went into angry owl mode in a heartbeat.  Seriously?!  How can there be a UPS package without a UPS truck??  Who, besides kids, buzzes an intercom more than once?  What the heck is in this package, anyway?  I didn’t order a package!

Then we went online and found out that the package contains our new Red Cross emergency radio.  We’d ordered one ages ago and it was defective, so we asked for a replacement.  Now, after what feels like decades, apparently we’re finally getting one.  The angry owl moment continued:  Why are they only just replacing it now?  Why couldn’t they just send us one that worked in the first place and save both of us a lot of trouble??  Do they know how many storms we’ve had to go through without this thing??  Is everyone in the world completely incompetent??

At this point, Esther decided to bring me back to reality with a cold nose on my leg.  I started laughing at myself, and I couldn’t stop.  Being able to laugh at my angry owl moments is a huge milestone. 

If you struggle with angry owl moments, don’t despair.  They happen to the best of us.  The older you get, the easier it will get to laugh at yourself and move on :)

Oxygen Mask

I've been having a rough go of it these past few weeks, to put it mildly.  Between my grandmother's death in March, a nasty case of carpal tunnel, and a lot of other things I can't write about here, I'm completely burned out.  I've been promising my husband that I'll take a season of rest, and it's high time I stopped talking about it and actually did it.

Every part of my being is telling me not to do this.  It seems stupid and selfish to focus on myself with all the needs out there, especially when there are so many people who just won't step up even a little bit.  But I'm starting to realize it's a bit like the concept of oxygen masks on airplanes.  They always tell you to get your own mask in working order before helping other people with their masks.  I suppose anyone could say I don't deserve a season of rest.  I hate the word "deserve."  The word has gotten so misused and overused.  Who knows what anyone really deserves?  Maybe I don't deserve a season of rest.  But I sure as heck need one.  I've been breathing through a faulty oxygen mask for way too long.  I need to fix it before I suffocate.  

I'm not completely sure how long this season of rest is going to last, or what it's going to look like exactly.  There are a few things I'm sure about.  I need to take a "vacation" from the Etsy shop and treat the carpal tunnel.  It's gotten so bad I can hardly knit right now.  My tentative plan is to re-open the shop in August, but that might very well get pushed back a bit.  I'm definitely going to write and blog more, although the length of my blog entries might be a bit shorter until the CT is gone.  For me, writing is cathartic as opposed to stressful.  I also want to make more time to read for fun.  I really need to step back and do things I WANT to do, not just things I feel like I HAVE to do. 

(Side note: Please refrain from giving advice and suggestions for carpal tunnel treatment, however well-intentioned it may be.  I have a treatment plan lined up, with both natural and traditional methods, and I am going to stick with what I'm using.  A few people have asked me about the natural remedies I'm going to use.  I will write more about that once I've been using said remedies for awhile and can more accurately judge their effectiveness :) )

Book List for Grades 1-3

I absolutely LOVE children’s books, so I have no idea why I didn’t think of making and sharing book lists sooner.  I'm working on a few different pieces of lists for different age groups all the way up to high school.  I'll post the lists as I finish them.

Kati’s book list for Grades 1-3:

1.)  “Ramona the Pest” by Beverly Cleary

2.)  “Ramona the Brave” by Beverly Cleary

3.)  Anything by Beverly Cleary

4.)  Russel Sprouts by Joanna Hurwitz

5.)  Russel and Eliza by Joanna Hurwitz

I’m deliberately keeping this list short, partly because I could go on forever if you let me, and partly because I’m exhausted and I’m currently getting my butt handed to me by carpal tunnel syndrome.  If you have any favorites, feel free to leave them in the comments section!

Ask Kati: Headcovering and Hearing Aids

Q: Do you have any advice for fellow hearing aid wearers who want to cover?  Do the hearing aids ever cause problems?

A:  If you wear hearing aids, stay away from prayer caps.  I had a lot of issues when I wore them.  They wouldn't stay on unless I tied them.  I'd have to untie and re-tie them every time I needed to adjust my aids.  In the winter, when I wore two caps for warmth, this became an even bigger hassle.  I didn't have any problems when I switched to scarves.  I could wear two or even three and I'd still be able to pull back the fabric to adjust as necessary.  I don't wear my aids while I'm tying a scarf.  I put them on after.  If you choose to put them on, turn them off until you're done, because the scarf will sound loud! ;)

The main thing to keep in mind when wearing a scarf over hearing aids is the tightness of the fabric.  Don't wrap the scarf too tightly over your head, or it will be very difficult to pull back the fabric when you need to adjust your aids.  I've also been asked if I can comfortably have my ears out of the scarf.  It's perfectly comfortable, but on days I'm wearing glasses, it looks and feels kind of bulky, so I don't recommend having your ears out if you wear glasses. 

I imagine these tips would also work for cochlear implants.  I don't have one, so I can't say for sure, but I imagine it'd be best to put the processor on beforehand and wear the magnet under the scarf.

The Food Connection

 By now, my little balcony garden is thriving.  Everything looks, tastes, and smells terrific.  Every morning, before breakfast, coffee, or my work, I’m out there, watering and pruning.  I absolutely love being able to do this.  I love being physically strong enough to care for these beautiful plants.  I love knowing that I’ll be strong enough to raise my own livestock down the road.  There’s this indescribable sense of peace and wholeness.    The word “wholeness” doesn’t really go far enough.  “Connectedness” is a better word.  I’m living in color now, fully connected to these plants I’m raising and the food they produce.

I used to have extremely disordered, disconnected eating patterns.  I’m staying away from the phrase “eating disorder,” not because it offends me, but because I feel like it’s not an accurate description of what I went through, of what countless people are still going through.  The word “disconnected” is much more like it.  I was disconnected from all the positive aspects of food.  Eating had become this compartmentalized part of my existence that I resented. 

When I started outpatient rehab, I had a Body Mass Index of 16.  (The healthy range for women in my age group is 18-24).  My care team was concerned I was going to drop dead from a heart attack, because my heart was under so much stress.  My hair was coming out in such big clumps that I actually had a few bald spots.  I was so disconnected from everyone and everything. 

Gradually things began to improve.  The facility where I received treatment was phenomenal.  My heart got stronger.  My weight went up.  I started learning how to enjoy food again.  The one thing I wished this treatment center would’ve had was a huge vegetable garden for the patients. A few well-intentioned people have told me I will probably struggle with this for the rest of my life.  I used to believe that.  But now, after cultivating my garden, I respectfully disagree.  I’m not saying my experience didn’t leave scars.  I will always have to take precautions to prevent osteoporosis and other health problems that most people my age don’t have to worry about.  But anorexia doesn’t have a hold on me anymore.  It lost its power when I reconnected with food.