NEWSLETTERNo. 5, Spring–Summer 2010

continued on page 9

HLA-NC Gives Back!by Julie Bishop

The first North Carolina Walk4Hearing,

held on October 3rd, 2009, was a

success in many ways.

First and foremost, we surpassed our

goal of raising $25,000 by nearly $10,000, to

$34,240.00. That means we exceeded our goal

by 137%. This is especially notable since this

was our first walk, and rarely do “first timers”

exceed their goal by such a large amount.

Secondly, some of our largest teams were

composed of parent/children groups. In total,

these teams raised over $8400.00. Parent/

Child-focused teams including “Triangle Area

Hitch-up,” “Beginnings,” “Team Turtles,” and

“Brier Creek Friends” all came together to help

raise awareness of hearing loss. There were also

“affiliate” teams that, because of their nonprofit

status and involvement with hearing loss,

received 40% back from what they raised.

In an effort to recognize the success of

the children-focused teams, the Hearing

Loss Association of North Carolina (HLA-NC)

donated $2000.00 to Beginnings For Parents of

Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, Inc.

This nonprofit organization is well known and

respected in the Raleigh and Charlotte areas.

Beginnings’ staff provides technical information,

emotional support, resources, and referrals to

parents of children with hearing loss and to

hearing-loss professionals. Services are free to

parents in the state of North Carolina.

The unique thing about the Walk4Hearing

fundraising effort is that 50% of what was raised

stays in North Carolina and the other 50% goes

to the national Hearing Loss Association of

America (HLAA) to cover walk-related costs

and also help fund their advocacy programs.

Together with the affiliate program, the

Walk4Hearing event can help bridge nonprofit

funding gaps and also bring together many

diverse hearing-loss groups and professionals

in North Carolina.

In addition to the donation to Beginnings,

HLA-NC is offering two scholarships/stipends

to attend the Annual Convention of the Hearing

Loss Association of America that takes place

June 17–20 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This

year the Convention is offering a one-day

“Workshop for Parents” on the first day of

the conference. There are other workshops

of interest to all people with hearing loss. The

exhibit hall is also wonderful opportunity to

check out latest cutting-edge technology and

services for people with hearing loss. Please

visit our website, www.nchearingloss.org, for

information on the scholarships.

Once again, thanks to everyone who made

the NC Walk4Hearing a success!

JULIE BISHOP is the vice president

of HLA-NC and was co-chair, with Joyce

Adler, of the North Carolina Walk4Hearing.

Joni Alberg (second from left), executive director of Beginnings, receives a $2000 donation check from HLA-NC, presented by Julie Bishop (far left), Joyce Adler, and Deborah Stroud.

Help Make Hearing Loss “Invisible No More”HLA-NC Outreach Program To Go National

The Hearing Loss Association of North

Carolina (of HLA-NC) is implementing a

new outreach program called “Invisible

No More.”

“The invisible condition”—that’s how Rocky

Stone, founder of the Hearing Loss Association

of America (originally Self Help for Hard of

Hearing People)—very famously described

hearing loss.

The goal of “Invisible No More” is to help

erase the stigmas attached to this “invisible

condition” through three components devised

to enlighten different groups about living with

hearing loss:

1. Stepping Out

“Invisible No More” helps people with hearing

loss—from HLAA leaders to the average man

or woman living with the condition—gain

confidence in sharing information about hearing

loss to both hearing people and people with

hearing loss.

2. Speaking Out

“Invisible No More” encourages people with

hearing loss to make public presentations to

� Hearing Loss Association of North Carolina Newsletter

From My Lips to Your EarsEditorial by Michael Eury

The Hearing Loss Association of

North Carolina (HLA-NC) is a State

Association of the Hearing Loss

Association of America (HLAA). Actually,

HLA-NC was the first State Association

sanctioned by HLAA, established in

the early 1990s by forward-thinking

volunteers in North Carolina to provide

a voice for HLAA at the state level! HLA-

NC strives to represent the interests

of hard of hearing people in NC, while

supporting HLAA’s overall goals and

encouraging local chapters in NC.

Visit our website at www.

nchearingloss.org.

HLA-NC BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Michael Eury, President

Julie Bishop, Vice President

Joyce Adler, Secretary

Deborah Stroud, Treasurer

Dianna Attaway (Hendersonville)

Steve Barber (Wake)

Wayne Benson (Durham)

Charlie Biscoe (Greensboro)

Joan Black (At Large)

John Black (At Large)

Bill Crowley (Winston-Salem)

Beverly Elwell (Charlotte)

Wayne Giese (Blue Ridge)

Cynthia Harmon (At Large)

Janet McGettrick (Wake)

Ruth Miller (Chapel Hill)

Lorene Roberson (At Large)

Bill Shugart (Winston-Salem)

Myra White (Charlotte)

Hearing Loss of North Carolina

Newsletter, No. 5, Spring–Summer

2010. Published by the Hearing Loss

Association of North Carolina. Michael

Eury, editor. Michael Kronenberg,

designer. Submissions are encouraged!

Send queries to editor at euryman@

gmail.com.

Back in the 1990s, when I was choking on the stenches of depression and anger over my progressive

hearing loss, I remarked to my wife that while her sweet voice would be forever “heard” in my mind,

“when I go deaf, the thing I’ll miss most is music.”

Music has always been one of the most important things in my life. I was hardwired toward music

appreciation: When I was in the womb, my mother “took” me to a Chuck Berry concert, and during my

infancy, she nursed me while playing records and watching TV (where the

themes from Perry Mason and Peter Gunn were imprinted into my psyche).

Neither my mother nor father were musicians, but they loved all types of

music. Television continued to expose me to musical genres: swinging

themes like Bewitched and Jonny Quest opened my ears to jazz; The Andy

Griffith Show’s various music guests and Charlotte’s Arthur Smith and the

Crackerjacks taught me to love bluegrass; I sang along with Mitch (Miller),

The Beatles, The Ed Sullivan Show, Shindig, and The Monkees; and Bugs

Bunny cartoons introduced me to classical music and opera (Elmer Fudd’s

Wagnerian “Kill the wabbit,” anyone?). On Saturday nights I’d curl up in

front of the set with Mom and Dad to watch The Lawrence Welk Show,

where I became fascinated with the trombone.

Few people who know me as an adult are aware of my “past life” as a

musician, but with Beginning Band in the 7th grade I became a trombone

player. Band taught me to work with others and gave me an identity. As

my high-school photo (circa 1974) on this page shows, my trombone was

virtually an appendage. I majored in Music Education at East Carolina

University, where I played in every instrumental ensemble the school offered

and was a member of a male chorus with Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity—and on weekends, I gigged

with the 13-piece jazz group The Swing Kings, or in churches in brass ensembles. After graduating I briefly

taught band, and in evenings I could be found playing in pit orchestras with community musicals. No week

would pass without at least one trip to the local record store.

A career change in the 1980s pointed me down a different path, and my trombone began to collect dust.

By the ’90s, the tune I was playing was self-pity—my sensorineural hearing loss, partially induced by years of

exposure to loud noise (band music), coupled with my conductive loss (otosclerosis), no longer allowed me

to trust my ears as a musician or to fully appreciate listening to music. I sold my trombones as well as most

of CDs.

It wasn’t until the mid-2000s—when I discovered the Hearing Loss Association of America (then Self

Help for Hard of Hearing People)—that my attitude about my hearing loss changed. Despite my newfound

confidence as a person with hearing loss, I still had resigned myself to forever be a “former musician”…

…until January of this year, when I joined the choir at my church, Forest Hill United Methodist in Concord.

I’d been invited and resisted, but once my wife decided to join the choir (I joke that she did so to avoid nursery

duty and diaper changing), so did I. And I’m one of three men in the choir who wears hearing aids!

My musicianship is rusty, I’m re-learning sight-singing (boy, it’s tough reading notes and words at the

same time!), and I have to listen very intently. But hey, if I hit a clunker, the Lord is forgiving! (Hopefully the

choir director will share His attitude.) While the trombone is permanently a part of my past (at musical levels of

85–114 dB, I wish to avoid its potentially damaging volume), I’ve found a musical outlet.

The moral of my story is, don’t let your hearing loss strip you of your love of music. Friends with cochlear

implants have described to me the distortion they perceive in listening to music, but hang in there! Allow your

brain the time to adapt, and seek out the technology to help you appreciate as much of the musical spectrum

as possible. If you’re a closet diva and the church choir isn’t quite for you, then belt out show tunes in the

shower. Because as guitarist Charles Mokotoff said in the January–February 2010 issue of Hearing Loss

Magazine, “If you have the talent for music, it’s yours—no one can take it away. A hearing loss, even as severe

as mine, won’t stop you.”

MICHAEL EURY is the president of HLA-NC and editor of this newsletter. He has a severe hearing

loss and wears binaural hearing aids.

Hearing Loss Association of North Carolina Newsletter �

Legislative Study on the Impact of Hearing Loss on Older Adults Presented to the Study Commission on AgingBy Jeff Mobley, NC DSDHH Hard of Hearing

Services Manager

February 4, 2010 was an historical

morning as Director of the Division

of Services for the Deaf and the

Hard of Hearing (DSDHH), Jan

Withers, presented the results of

the first-ever mandated Legislative Study on the

“Impact of Hearing Loss on Older Adults in NC”

to the Study Commission on Aging. As the first

presentation on the agenda, Jan had been allotted

a total of 30 minutes for both presentation of findings

and for questions and answers from Commission

members. The report was so well received that

with the interest shown by the panelists coupled

with the continual flow of questions raised, the

opportunity to discuss hearing loss issues faced

by many North Carolinians lasted approximately

one hour as an audience consisting of not only the

legislators and public members of the Commission

but many professionals within the aging service

provision area listened on.

The presentation was the culmination of a

lengthy study done by the Division which had

been mandated by the General Assembly as part

of the Study Bill of 2008. Four key areas of study

were examined and the data and information was

compiled into a 33-page report submitted to the

General Assembly via the Study Commission on

Aging last November 2009 (to read the full report

please refer to the DSDHH website: www.

ncdhhs.gov/dsdhh and click on the link at the

“What’s New” section).

DSDHH made three recommendations to the

Study Commission as the initial start of taking

action for people with hearing loss. Briefly stated,

the three recommendations are as follows:

1) Establish a task force to assess the

feasibility of developing and implementing a formal

system that optimizes consumer capacity to

evaluate quality of hearing aid services prior to and

during the process of purchasing hearing aids.

2) Mandate a minimum 30-day trial period

for hearing aids and instruction on the function

and use of the Telecoil. Also included in the

recommendation is to require dispensers provide

to the buyer written notice of the trial period,

any fees in the event of return and money-back

guarantee.

3) Hearing aid health insurance coverage

be required for all ages from any private or public

insurance agency providing health insurance to

North Carolinians.

The Study Commission on Aging is currently

meeting prior to the session of the General

Assembly that opens May 12th. During this interim

time, they are determining what recommendations

to make to the General Assembly in the form of

legislative bills. Likewise, the Department of Health

and Human Services is in review of possible

legislation for this session. One important thing

that must be remembered is that this is a short

session and because of that only certain types of

legislation can be handled—primarily that which

affects the budget. There are strict guidelines

established to judge the criterion of legislation for

the short session.

As of this writing, it is unclear if any of the

three recommendations will go forward into this

session. If not, it will be during the long session of

the General Assembly that begins in January 2011

when these and perhaps other recommendations

will be addressed. In the meantime, DSDHH will

continue to work to bring the message of the

hearing-loss communities to those who need to

know. But we cannot do it alone. Every person with

hearing loss in our state has an important part to

play in helping to gain ground toward the passage

of needed legislation to assist the hearing-loss

communities.

Once there is a more clearly defined pathway,

DSDHH will certainly spread the word. As an

organization, we encourage you to be thinking

about the many different ways in which you will be

able to assist.

JEFF MOBLEY has been with the NC

Division of Services for the Deaf and Hard of

Hearing since January 2004. Prior to that, Jeff

was the Hard of Hearing Services Specialist

at the Wilson Regional Resource Center for

the DSDHH for about two years, serving 24

northeastern counties in NC.

� Hearing Loss Association of North Carolina Newsletter

Living with Hearing Lossby Myra White

[Editor’s note: The following article was

written in 1989. While much of the technology

it references has since changed or been

upgraded, the emotional journey down the path

of hearing loss remains timeless.]

I was born and raised outside Gadsden,

Alabama. My life began at 7:30 PM,

December 25, 1944. My daddy used to

tell the story about his having such a hard

time finding a doctor to bring me into

this world, it being Christmas night. Mother and

Daddy used to call me their little ugly duckling.

(My mother couldn’t do a thing with my hair.) I

was such a tomboy that I don’t remember ever

having an Easter dress that I did not tear before

the day was over. This happened all the way up

to age 13. If there as a softball game going on,

I was in the middle of it, or climbing trees and

hanging by my knees.

When I was about five years old, my daddy

was drawing gas out of the car with a hose for

the tractor. He left the can and hose there when

he went back to the tractor. Me, being a little

tyke, thought I would help my daddy. I sucked

on that hose just like I had seen my daddy do

and swallowed a good bit of gasoline.

To this day I can still shut my eyes and

remember that scene before I blacked

out. Mother and Daddy thought they

were going to lose me that time. Another

time, I fell off the front porch and cut the

frenulum that holds your top lip down

and almost bled to death before they

could get me to the doctor. There were

times when I was becoming deaf that

I wished I had died. Being deaf was

awful.

Most of my school teachers through

the 8th grade would have said I talked

too much. I usually made passing

grades, but didn’t really want to excel

until I reached the 10th grade. I decided

I wanted to be in the Honor Society

(Beta Club), so I studied hard and was

tapped for the Beta Club in 10th grade.

My older sister and I were showoffs.

She was the leader and I was the

follower. We were always singing

and dancing and putting on shows

for the family and friends. My sister

sang soprano and I sung an off-key alto that

sort of blended together. We use to serenade

everyone each night when I washed and she

dried dishes. We sang in church, riding in the

car, and at home. (I stopped singing hymns in

church when I could no longer hear myself sing,

or tell what they were singing, sometime in the

early 1970s. About the only time I would sing

was when no one could hear my terrible voice

but me.)

I will never forget one time in gym class, we

were playing records. My friend and her brother

were dancing, and Kenneth and I were dancing

in the athletic house. The whole place was full

of people (some even hanging from the rafters)

watching us dance. I loved to dance and would

try any dance that came out. I wasn’t exactly

shy in my early teens. I started becoming shy

as my hearing began to deteriorate. Each year

would bring a little more shyness. Dancing

would become a big nothing with no music

filling my ears in the years to come. I was in

the high school band for a couple of years, but

after my girlfriend became sick and died, I didn’t

enjoy it anymore and I quit. I later realized it was

more that I couldn’t hear the band director to

understand instructions.

I had this next-door neighbor named Leroy

whom I had a crush on. He used to stop by my

house in his car, and I would stand out in the

yard and talk to him. Questions began to enter

my mind: Why, after it became dark, did I have

to lean into his car window in order to hear him

and his other friend? Why, when I started dating,

did I have a hard time hearing in the dark?

I first began noticing, at about the age of 15,

that in some situations I could not hear well—

like in the dark, or at a distance. I had a lot of

ear noise (tinnitus) which sounded like a “choo,

choo, choo” in my ears, ringing in my ears, or

sounded like sirens. This made understanding

speech difficult. By the time I was a senior in

high school, I was really having a hard time

hearing in class. So many times I was scolded

in class for not paying attention. With the term

“dumb” being associated with hearing loss, I

hid my hearing loss from as many people as

I could for as long as I could. I did not want

people making fun of me. Mother took me to a

doctor in the 11th grade. My hearing loss at that

time was right below the level where you have

difficulties in hearing speech. In my senior year

it became worse.

The year after graduating from high school, I

moved to Charlotte. Charlotte seemed the best

place to move since I had a brother and sister

living in this area. My goal was to find a

job and to see an ear specialist to find out

what was wrong with my hearing. When

filling out applications for jobs I always

answered “No” to the question, “Are you

physically handicapped?” I did not think

of myself as physically handicapped.

In June 1964, I began dating James

Roach. He used to joke that when we

went to a movie that I watched the movie

and he listened to the movie telling me

what he heard and I’d tell him what I saw

since he was so busy telling me what

the dialogue was. We had times that my

hearing loss was a problem, but James

didn’t seem to mind repeating himself a

lot.

The first doctor I saw was Dr.

Dorenbush at Charlotte Eye, Ear, Nose

& Throat Associates. He diagnosed me

as having otosclerosis. He referred me

to Dr. B. W. Armstrong. Dr. Armstrong

also diagnosed me with otosclerosis

and some nerve damage. Otosclerosis

is a freezing of the bones in the middle

Hearing Loss Association of North Carolina Newsletter �

ear; this condition causes the bones not

to vibrate to send sound to the hearing

nerve. At that time my hearing had

deteriorated to a 55 dB loss in the left ear,

and a 45 dB loss in the right ear. Surgery,

a stapedectomy, was scheduled for

March 1965. Worst ear was done first.

I was so happy with the results of

the surgery. I could hear the birds sing

again, the cars passing on the highway,

airplanes flying over—things I had not

heard in a long time. Since I also had

some nerve damage, I did not regain all

my hearing. I had a 25 dB loss in the left

ear after surgery. The doctor told me I

had to wait two years before having the

stapes surgery on the right ear. I could

hardly wait. The second surgery was

scheduled for November 1966. Again, I

regained my hearing back up to only a 25

dB loss. I was so happy that I could hear

reasonably well again.

Based on his medical knowledge, Dr.

Armstrong told me I would probably never

need to wear a hearing aid. However, he

didn’t know what was going to happen

inside my ears. For some reason, my hearing

continued to deteriorate. I started wearing a

hearing aid in the left ear at age 24. The hearing

in my right ear went down so fast that I became

totally deaf in that ear in 1970.

No one told me how to wear a hearing aid.

The first day I wore it all day long. By the time I

got home from work, my eyes felt like they were

going to pop out of my head. I didn’t know you

are supposed to start out gradually and work

up to wearing a hearing aid to a full day, [to give

your brain time to adjust to “new” sounds].

I will never forget that first day at work. My

boss had a chair that squeaked. I could pick

up that squeaking chair over anything else.

Hearing aids back then amplfied everything to

the same volume. That means you’d hear noise

the same level as a voice. For me, my hearing

aid amplified noise over all else—at least that

was the way it seemed at times. The noise level

through my hearing aid made it hard for me

to pull out voices. Up until I started wearing a

hearing aid, I loved noisy places—people had

to talk louder and I could hear them better.

After I began wearing a hearing aid, I liked quiet

places.

Although I was not an outgoing person, I got

along all right when I was just hard of hearing.

I had short spells of depression which I usually

popped out of pretty fast. When you have a

hearing loss as bad as mine, certain jobs are

closed to you. I felt cheated that I was not like

other people, and would never have the same

opportunities hearing people have.

I had balance problems, but in 1973 I

developed Meniere’s disease—a disease of

the balance nerve. This causes dizziness,

headaches, and nausea, like when you take

a ride at the fairgrounds and your equilibrium

is upset. Only this disease is worse. There

were times when the disease was worse than

my hearing loss. Each time I had an inner-ear

attack, I lost more of my hearing.

In 1976 and 1977, I entered the profoundly

deaf stage. This began the worst years of my

life. Everything I enjoyed was being taken away

from me. I lost the ability to hear on the phone,

hear a TV or radio, hear in church, hear music,

and hear in almost any situation. At first, I tried

going and doing as I had always done, but

each time I’d go somewhere and people would

treat me differently, I would get depressed. As

my hearing became worse, I could not carry

on a decent conversation with people. The

depression became worse. There is no way I

can describe how bad the depression was. It

was like being in a deep, dark, black pit. I would

climb and climb, but could not pull out of it. The

only way I could cope was to withdraw from

people. The withdrawal was gradual at

first, but it became almost total over a

period of time. The withdrawal became

so bad that when I had to be around

people, I would get nauseated.

I filled my life with work, anything to

keep my mind occupied. There were

times my mind wanted to scream, “Let

me hear anything, just anything.” I read

so many books I almost went blind.

When I would start feeling sorry for

myself, I would try to think of the book

I was reading: what the characters said,

or if a mystery, I would try to figure out

“who did it.” I worked at my regular job,

did my husband’s bookkeeping, did all

the yard work, took care of personal

bookkeeping, raised a garden, canned

and froze food.

Next, I took a sign-language course.

Even at best, I couldn’t get enough of

what an interpreter signed to understand.

I have read that most people like me who

lose their hearing as an adult do not do

well with sign language. At least that

made me feel a little better. Although my

husband and son knew a little sign language,

they did not like to use it. Sign language was

not much help in the places I spent most of my

time. No one at work signed, and no one in my

family or my husband’s family signed. It wasn’t

any help at the grocery store, doctors’ offices,

dentists’ offices, service stations, etc. I was

not born and raised with the Deaf culture and I

could not understand their language any more

than I could the spoken word. I felt as though I

rode a fence—I did not belong anywhere. I had

a hearing mind with deaf ears. I felt I was not

good for anything and I wanted to die.

Losing your hearing is comparable to a

death. You go through the same stages of grief

as when you lose someone you love. It has

been recognized that a person losing his or her

hearing experiences steps of grief. I lost a part

of me that I loved, a part of me that I needed

to get along in this world. If there is anything a

person goes through when losing their hearing,

I went through it. Now I know that what I went

through was a natural part of the grief process.

I wish I had known that years ago, because

there were times when I thought I was losing my

mind. I wish I had had someone to say, “That’s

okay; what you are going through is okay.”

Captioned television came in around 1982–

1983. It was great to “know” something again.

� Hearing Loss Association of North Carolina Newsletter

I could again enjoy, laugh, or cry along

with a program. It was nice to be able

to watch a news program to find out

what happened today, instead of having

to wait 24 hours to read the newspaper

to find out what happened yesterday.

Captioned TV helped me to cope with

my hearing loss much better, especially

after they had the capability to caption

live programs like 20/20.

I first read about the cochlear implant

(CI) in the early 1970s, and I wrote to

Dr. House at the House Ear Institute in

California for the information. At that time,

I had too much hearing to be considered

for the implant (you had to have a 100 dB

loss to be eligible for a CI).

In 1981, my husband’s cousin was

waiting in Dr. Michael Glasscock’s office

in Nashville, Tennessee. She met a lady

with a CI in Dr. Glasscock’s waiting room

and found out that Dr. Glasscock was

now performing this type of surgery (he

was the first doctor in the Southeast to

do so). I wrote for all the information he

had, and made an appointment to see

him in June 1982. Dr. Glasscock told me

my hearing loss was profound enough

to have the testing for the implant. Tests

were scheduled for August 1982.

Tests included the following: Promontory

test—the doctor inserts a wire into the cochlea

to find out if you have a hearing nerve. If you

pass that test, they continue the remainder of the

tests. Next was the psychological examination.

This was not hard, just time-consuming,

answering about 285 questions. Next was the

ENG test—an electronic test of the balance

nerve system, a physical, extensive X-ray of the

ear, a conference with an audiologist testing

with every kind of hearing aid, peer counseling

with a cochlear implant patient, and meeting

with the doctor. (Testing for the CI has changed

a lot from that time to now.)

After passing the tests, I went through great

mental anguish trying to decide to have the

implant surgery. The instructions said they did

not know the effect of electrical stimulation on

the brain over a long period of time. Several

things could happen during surgery, such

as facial paralysis or internal bleeding. I was

scared. I put a lot of obstacles in my path; they

came down one by one. The last obstacle was

the last little bit of hearing I had left. I became

totally deaf in June 1984. After that, I was more

afraid of losing my voice than of having the

implant surgery.

I scheduled the surgery for August 14, 1984.

The surgery was extremely painful for me. The

pain shots did not make the pain go away.

That was the least fun I’d had in a long time. I

wouldn’t want to go through that again anytime

soon. After the pain lessened, the surgical

staples that held the incision together were the

reason for my discomfort.

Hookup was in two months to give the

incision time to heal. The cochlear implant

consists of two parts: the internal induction

coil and two wires, and the external parts—the

mic and stimulator unit, and external-induction

coil. The mic picks up sound, the stimulator

turns sound into electrical current and is sent

to the external coil, and causes current to flow

through the internal coil. The electrical current

stimulates the hearing nerve.

Rehabilitation consisted of hooking me up to

an electronic device to test my hearing and using

these results to set the stimulator unit. After the

unit was set, we started basic guidance: words,

sentences, and stress patterns to help me

understand how to hear.

On first wearing the implant, it sounded like

Morse Code—beep, beep, beep. I was

so disappointed with I first got hooked

up. Dr. Glasscock poked his head into

the room where I was waiting and asked

me how I liked it. I replied, “It’s horrible.”

He quipped back, “You mean after all

that work I did you think it’s horrible?” It

did not take me long to decide it was not

horrible anymore.

By the weekend, I began to realize I

was hearing. I became so excited. I went

through the house turning on everything

and banging on everything to see how

it sounded. Everything sounded the

same to begin with. The first thing I liked

through the implant was the sound of me

laughing. It sounded like a laughing box;

so funny. I would get to laughing and get

the silly giggles. Piano keys all sounded

the same, but after wearing the implant

a while, each key had a different tone. It

sounded like a piano that is very much

out of tune.

After wearing the implant for a few

weeks, words began to get longer. You

can hear the syllables, breaks in the words,

and sentences. The best way to describe

the sound is that it sounds mechanical

and voices sounded like a radio tuned

off-station. You can hear the words, but can’t

understand the words. I can have a one-to-one

conversation now with a lot of people and do

just fine. Again, I may meet someone and can’t

understand a word they say. I cannot keep up

with a group conversation, nor understand from

a distance. Sound is not as I remember it with

natural hearing, nor through a hearing aid. But

there have been some things that are close,

such as a dial tone. Over a long period of time,

I am finding that sounds are getting better and

better and closer to what I remember them

sounding like.

I hear sound that is of a normal tone. On the

hearing chart it is at 40 decibels. I can hear my

adding machine, computer, printer, appliances,

dial tone, phone ring, voices on TV, but don’t

understand what is being said. There are some

things I did not expect to hear, such as a light

switch as I turn on a light or the rustle of paper.

Shortly after getting the implant, I was

walking to the mailbox. I heard something. I

looked everywhere and did not see anything. I

looked up and was hearing a jet plane fly over.

I had not heard a plane in many years! When

I first found out I could hear my shoes click, I

Hearing Loss Association of North Carolina Newsletter �

would get out in the gazebo and do my version

of the tap dance just to hear my shoes click.

Then when I found out I could hear gravel

crunch, I would scoot my feet up and down

the driveway just to hear it. When I found out

I could hear leaves crunch, I would go round

and round a tree just to hear them go crunch,

crunch, crunch. It’s odd. I never thought of

hearing these sounds while I could hear them. If

my neighbors saw me, they probably thought I

was losing my marbles.

I didn’t get much from music to begin with.

Some songs I heard had a good beat. If a song

was captioned on TV, it sounded pretty good.

But if there were no captions. I didn’t get very

much of it. On the phone, I had picked up a

few words such as, “Is Phillip home?” or, “Can I

speak to Phillip?”

My family and people I worked with were

enthusiastic for me and hoped the implant

would help. My family helped me by making

noises where I could not see them, to see if I

could hear them. They had a lot of fun for awhile.

The people at work had been so used to writing

me notes, it took a while to get them to talk to

me first, and only to use note-writing if I could

not understand. Note-writing was cut quite a

bit. They comment that I am more pleasant and

smile more than I used to. My boss says I am

not as grumpy as before.

I wear the 3M single-channel implant.

There are several other implants that became

available after I had my first surgery: Nucleus,

and Symbion (now Med El). There are now CI

programs in Charlotte, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and

other places here in NC.

The articles I read when I was trying to

decided to have the implant said it would give

me sound, help me lip-read, and monitor my

voice. The CI does all those things. My body

feels alive again.

The best thing I like about the implant is:

I can monitor my voice in most situations. I

thought I would feel vibrations from the electrical

stimulation, but I don’t feel anything. It was

about like putting on a hearing aid—you just

hear. At least it does not squeal like my hearing

aid did when air got under the ear mold and

caused feedback. I hear the same all the time,

not like when I wore a hearing aid. When I wore

a hearing aid, if my ears stopped up, if I had a

cold or allergies, my hearing diminished. How

I feel each day determines how well I do with

the implant.

The thing I like least about the implant is how

it handles in noise. I cannot do well in noise.

I can’t pick out sounds and voices when it is

really noisy. When a lot of people are talking,

it sounds like a bunch of radios off-station

coming from every direction. The wires get in

the way in physical activities, and my magnetic

plug comes off too easily at times. But I would

not take anything for my Cochlear Implant, and

I do not go anywhere without it.

In closing I would like to say: People with a

hearing problem are just like everyone else. We

have the same wants and desires to succeed,

to be accepted. We are people who just happen

to have a hearing problem.

[Author’s note: The above was written

and originally published in the April 25, 1989

Charlotte SHIP/SHHH newsletter. That is the

first part of my story. A lot has changed since

that time in technology. I’ve had cochlear implant

surgery twice since then. My first CI began to

go out in my head and I knew I was not hearing

much. After it was removed, it was determined

that the inner device had body fluids in it (like

all the first implant patients). In the second

surgery, because of my ossified cochlea, all

of the old CI could not be removed, and the

entire new CI electrode array could not be put

into the cochlea. I heard practically nothing with

it, and had head trauma for that whole year as

they clipped the ground wire and left me with

a live electrode in my head. I would NOT want

to relive that year in my life. I was back into the

silent world for a year until Dr. McElveen said

he would tackle my case get the old implant

electrode out, and re-implant me.]

MYRA WHITE is the chapter leader of

the Hearing Loss Association of Charlotte.

Editor’s note: “Living with Hearing Loss” is a

new feature in this newsletter. Each installment

will share a story from one of our North Carolina

neighbors. All readers are encouraged to share

their 500–1000 word stories. Please email them

to euryman@gmail.com.

� Hearing Loss Association of North Carolina Newsletter

On May 13, 2010, Hearing

Loss Association of America

Director of Public Policy Lise

Hamlin joined a panel of

disability advocates at the FCC

workshop on “Expanding Disability Access with

Wireless Technologies.” The workshop looked

to better understand the challenges

and opportunities offered by wireless

technologies and how the FCC can

help ensure that new technologies are

as inclusive as possible.

The first panel of disability

advocates focused on mobile-

communications access issues

facing people with disabilities.

They discussed barriers to current

technology and what new technologies

might overcome these barriers. They

also looked at current regulatory

barriers that might negatively affect

emerging technology.

A second panel of technical

experts explored technology trends.

During that session the panel looked

at how the FCC can encourage

the development of technologically

advanced accessible products,

how they can stay informed about emerging

technologies, how to share best practices,

and what solutions might address the

development expense of assistive and adaptive

technologies.

There were also several technology

demonstrations at the workshop. For more

information visit http://reboot.fcc.gov/

blog?entryId=432551. FCC workshops and

open meetings are typically broadcast live with

captions and archived for future viewing. Visit

http://reboot.fcc.gov/video-archives and

look for “Workshop on Expanding Disability

Access with Wireless Technologies.”

HLA-NC Annual Meeting August 7

The Annual Meeting of the Board

of Trustees of the Hearing Loss

Association of North Carolina

will be held on Saturday, August

7, from 12 noon to 3 PM at the

home of HLA-NC President Michael Eury in

Concord, NC (see sidebar for directions).

The main activity of this event with be a

cook-out social, with a brief meeting being held

inside the cool embrace of the air-conditioned

Eury home. (Accessibility measures are being

addressed for the indoor meeting.) Dress is

summer casual.

A variety of grillables and fixings will be

provided, as will ice, cups, plates, and utensils.

Members are asked to bring a beverage of their

choice and a side dish or dessert.

All HLAA members in NC are encouraged to

attend—come reconnect with old friends, meet

new friends, and enjoy some scrumptuous eats

and some backyard fun in the sun.

Directions to HLA-nc AnnuAL Meetingsaturday, August 7, 2010, 12 noon to 3 PMLocation: Home of Michael and Rose Eury118 Edgewood Ave. NE, Concord, NC 28025 704-720-7320

Directions from I-85• Take exit 58 to merge onto Concord Parkway North—N/US-29 South/US-601 South• Pass Carolina Mall and Carolinas Medical Center NorthEast (hospital) on left• Take left fork to continue onto Church St. North/Hwy. 73 (Fifth Third Bank will be on your right)• Turn left at stoplight onto Edgewood Ave. NE (just past old National Guard Armory on left)• 118 Edgewood Ave. NE is 14th house on right; white two-story

Directions from US-64/NC-49• US-64 to NC-49 South• Follow NC-49 South to Mt. Pleasant• Take NC-73 West exit toward Concord• Turn right at NC-73 West, follow into Concord• NC-73 becomes Cabarrus Ave. in Concord• Turn right onto Church Street as you enter downtown Concord (Melvin’s Exxon is at right)• Pass Fire Dept. on left• Turn right at stoplight on Edgewood Ave. NE• 118 Edgewood Ave. NE is 14th house on right; white two-story

HLAA joins FCC Panel on Wireless CommunicationPress release issued by HLAA on May 1�, �010

Zahra Baker, age 10, of Hudson, NC, gets fitted for a hearing aid given to her by Speedway Children’s Charities at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord on Monday, May 10, 2010. The charity organization, along with the National Rifle Association and Starkey Hearing Foundation, handed out hearing aids to more than 75 children and adults with hearing loss during the May 10th event. Photo by James Nix; courtesy of The Independent Tribune.

Hearing Loss Association of North Carolina Newsletter 9

Building a Livable and Senior Friendly North CarolinaMake Your Voice Heard to Governor Beverly Perdue

You are invited to provide input into

“Building a Livable and Senior Friendly

North Carolina” by attending the

University of North Carolina’s Institute on

Aging’s Policy Roundtables, or by providing your

thoughts in a web-based survey.

The issues and ideas identified at each of

the roundtables and submitted online will be

compiled and summarized to lay the groundwork

for a Governor’s Conference on Aging planned

during the North Carolina Conference on Aging,

October 13–15, 2010. The conference will allow

participants to develop policy recommendations

and continue the work of developing public/

private partnerships to

meet the challenges of

an aging society. The

work of the policy

roundtables and

Governor’s Confer-

ence will also inform

and be reflected in

the 2011–2015 State

Aging Plan.

How to Participate

a. Register to attend one or more of the

Roundtables. Attendance is free, however pre-

registration is required.

b. If you are not able to attend a particular

event but still want your thoughts considered

in the identification of issues to be addressed,

please complete the web survey on the area(s)

of concern to you.

Please do not complete the online

survey if you plan on attending the same

Roundtable event.

Registration and discussion topics can

be found at www.aging.unc.edu/nccoa/

2010roundtables/index.html.

Roundtables have been held in Greenville on

April 22 and in Greensboro on April 28, on the

topics of “Health and Aging” and “Economics

of Aging,” respectively.

As of this writing, forthcoming Roundtables are:

Access and Choice in Services and Supports

May 10, 2010

1 PM–4 PM

Land-of-Sky Regional Council, 339 New

Leicester Highway, Suite 140,Asheville

Lifelong Engagement and Contributions

May 19, 2010

10 AM–1 PM

Grandfather Meeting Room, LaQuinta Inn &

Suites, 165 Highway 105,Boone

Homes and Neighborhoods

May 25, 2010

9 AM–12 PM

Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, 3400

Beatties Ford Road, Charlotte

Safe Communities

June 2, 2010

9:30 AM–12:30 PM

New Hanover Department on Aging, 2222

South College Road, Wilmington

people with normal hearing at civic-organization

meetings, to help educate them about hearing

loss and to help correct misconceptions

attached to the condition.

3. Reaching Out

“Invisible No More” places representatives

from HLAA chapters and state organizations

at booths or tables at health and wellness fairs

and other community exhibitions, ready to lend

a helping hand to those entering the journey

into hearing loss.

“Invisible No More” originated during a

motivational speech presented by Michael

Eury, president of HLA-NC, at the August 2009

Kick-Off Event for HLA-NC’s Walk4Hearing.

Last winter, when discussing how to use funds

raised by the Walk, the HLA-NC Board of

Trustees elected to begin a campaign of public

outreach, the end result becoming the “Invisible

No More” campaign. Eury will be presenting

information about “Invisible No More” during

the HLAA national convention in Milwaukee,

Wisconsin, on June 19, with the goal of this

program spreading across the country. Joining

him will be Julie Bishop, vice president of HLA-

NC, and Joyce Adler, secretary of HLA-NC.

HLA-NC will soon be unveiling a “People with

Hearing Loss—Invisible No More” presentation

banner which will be displayed at seminars and

health fairs across the state featuring HLA-

NC representatives. An “Invisible No More”

information packet is also being prepared and

will soon be available for downloading from our

website, www.nchearingloss.org.

HLA-NC is compiling a list of health and

wellness fairs and hearing loss-related seminars

in North Carolina. If you have information about

such events, please send details to euryman@

gmail.com.

You don’t have to be a seasoned public

speaker to participate in the “Invisible No More”

program. What’s important is that you speak

from the heart, and with conviction.

If you’d like to participate in “Invisible No

More,” either by making presentations to civic

organizations (Rotary Club, Lions Club, etc.)

in your community or by joining us at HLA-

NC tables at seminars and health fairs, please

contact Eury at euryman@gmail.com.

Join us! Only by stepping out, speaking out,

and reaching out will we make hearing loss

invisible no more.

Invisible No Morecontinued from page 1

10 Hearing Loss Association of North Carolina Newsletter

Hearing Loss Association of North Carolina Newsletter 11

Our HLA-NC Members Speak

HLA-NC members, we value your

personal stories about hearing loss

issues. Send contributions of 300

words maximum to the editor at

euryman@gmail.com.

From HLAA member Bob Pullease (bobpullease@skybest.com)

Got some news for you members. At the

convention last year I saw a new telephone the

CapTel 800i and ordered one. It is a captioned

phone with a BIG difference. The old caption’s

system, you had to call the service to get

captions. This worked good if you were making

the call but you got captions on incoming calls

ONLY if the caller did this. With this phone,

both outgoing and incoming calls automatically

connect to the caption system through the

high-speed computer modem most of us use

for the Internet.

I have a router hooked up and moved

the phone to another room using the house

electrical wiring and an adapter. If anyone is

interested in my system I can give them all the

part numbers and who to order from.

This phone has made life sooo much easier.

Best to all and hope to see you in Milwaukee

this summer.

“Invisible No More” at May 1st Event

HLA-NC Trustees Wayne Benson, Lorene

Roberson, and Deborah Stroud represented

HLA-NC on Saturday, May 1 at the Second

Annual Senior Resource Connections Fair in

Chapel Hill. The event was sponsored by the

Orange County Department of Aging. Thank

you, Wayne, Lorene, and Deborah, for stepping

up and reaching out.

Hearing Loss Presentation in Concord on May 12

HLA-NC president Michael Eury offered

the free program “Hearing Loss: The Invisible

Condition” on Wednesday, May 12, from 5:30–

6:30 PM at the Concord Public Library, 27 Union

St. North, in downtown Concord, NC 28025.

This program provided valuable information for

the person just coming to grips with his or her

hearing loss, and for the general public, who

often knows very little about the condition.

Wake County Better Hearing Expo on May 22

HLA of Wake County sponsored a Better

Hearing Expo on Saturday, May 22, from

1:30–4 PM at the Fellowship Hall at Trinity

Baptist Church, 4815 Six Forks Road, Raleigh,

NC 27609. On display was info about hearing

aids, cochlear implants, assistive technology,

communication strategies, and more. Thanks

to Deborah Stroud and the Wake Chapter for

coordinating this expo.

Possible HLA-Salisbury Chapter

Exciting news: A new HLAA chapter may

be forming in Salisbury! Organizer Beth Gobble

recently held a well-attended exploratory session

and wishes to connect with Salisbury/Rowan

County/Cabarrus County HLAA members and

people with hearing loss interested in attending

meetings in Salisbury. Contact her at elizabeth_

gobble@bellsouth.net.

HLA-Charlotte First Wednesday “Lunch Bunch” Meetings

Several of HLA-Charlotte’s newest members

have expressed an interest in more frequent

group gatherings, so on May 5th the chapter

started “Lunch Bunch” gatherings on the first

Wednesday of each month, to be held through

the summer months. Charlotte-area members

are encouraged to pack a lunch or grab some

take-out for HLA-Charlotte Lunch Bunch

dates on these Wednesdays:June 2ndand

July 7th, from12:00–1:00PM, at5501

Executive Center Dr.,Suite 109, Charlotte, NC

28212.For more information:Jenni Campagna

(jgc@carolina.rr.com) or Myra White (myra@

carolina.rr.com).

Community-Wide Summer Picnic for HLAA

and ALDA in Cornelius on June 12

Members of the Hearing Loss Association

of America and ALDA (Association of Late

Deafened Adults) are co-sponsoring a “Pot

Luck” picnic at Jetton State Park on Lake

Norman in Cornelius, NC, on Saturday, June

12, from 10:30 AM–2:30 PM. Drinks, ice, and

paper products will be provided. Bring your

lawn chair. Park fee is $4.

Directions from Charlotte: I-77 to Cornelius,

Exit #28. Turn left at exit ramp onto W. Catawba

Avenue. Come to the intersection of Jetton

Peninsula—Wachovia Bank on corner, and

CVS/Rite Aid. Right turn. Go down approx .5

miles, and the State Park entry is on the left side

of divided median.

The gathering will be at the lakefront, just

before the sheltered area. A sign will highlight

the event.

Jetton State Park is a beautiful state park

that fronts with Lake Norman. There are bicycle

trails, walking trails, a small beach if you want to

swim, and tennis courts. Spouses, significant

others, children, friends, friends of folks with

hearing loss, and family members are all

welcome.

1� Hearing Loss Association of North Carolina Newsletter

While the Internet provides a wealth of information for people with hearing loss, nothing can compare to the camaraderie of group meetings! HLA-NC hopes to grow into all regions of the Tarheel State where there is demand. If you’re interested in a chapter developing in your community, or if you wish to be involved, contact Toni Barrient, HLAA Chapter Coordinator, at tbarrient@hearingloss.org.

All chapters welcome newcomers. Please note that meeting times and locations are subject to change; first-timers and non-regulars should contact their local chapter to verify this info.

Blue Ridge ChapteR Serving: Morganton, and Burke, Catawba, Caldwell, Alexander, Cleveland, Lincoln, and McDowell CountiesMeets: 2nd Monday of every other month (Feb., Apr., June, Aug., Oct., Dec.), 10:00 to 11:00 AM Location: Phifer Wellness Center, Morganton, NC Contact: Wayne Giese at waynesterg@msn.com

Cape FeaR ChapteR Serving: Wilmington, Southport, Hampstead, Carolina Beach, and Wrightsville Beach Meets: 2nd Wednesday of each month, 11:00 AMLocation: New Hanover County Senior Center, 2222 S. College Rd., Wilmington, NCContact: Alice Worthington at 919-799-0753 (voice); or Barbara Shaver at 919-452-0906 (TTY)

ChaRlotte ChapteR Serving: Mecklenburg County, but also has members from Gaston, Cabarrus, Union, and Stanly CountiesMeets: 3rd Tuesday of every other month (see www.nchearingloss.org for scheduled meetings), social 6:30–7:00 PM, meeting 7:00–8:30 PM Location: Conference room of the Charlotte Regional Resource Center for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing, 5501 Executive Center Dr., Charlotte, NC

Contact: Myra White at myra@carolina.rr.com; or call Ivy Williams, Hard of Hearing Specialist with the Charlotte Regional Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, at 704-568-8558 (voice) or 704-568-8505 (TTY)

duRham ChapteR Serving: Durham, but also Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Raleigh, and Roxboro Meets: 4th Saturday of each month, 10:30 AMLocation: St. Paul United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, 2700 North Roxboro Road, Durham, NC

Contact: Wayne Benson at awbenson32@gmail.com

gReeNSBoRo ChapteRServing: Greensboro, Guilford County, and Central North CarolinaMeets: 2nd Monday of each month, 7:00 PMLocation: Earth Fare, 2965 Battleground Ave., Greensboro, NCContact: Susan Wilson at 336-681-2056 or susan.wilson@ncdhhs.gov/dsdhh

WaKe ChapteR Serving: Raleigh, but also Apex, Cary, Knightdale, Wake Forest, Garner, and other outlying areas of Wake County Meets: 3rd Thursday of each month, 7:00 PMLocation: Duke Raleigh Hospital, 3400 Wake Forest Road, Raleigh, NCContact: Janet McGettrick at 919-469-0924 (voice); or Steve Barber at steve.barber@earthlink.net

WiNStoN-Salem ChapteR Serving: Winston-Salem and Central North Carolina Meets: 2nd Thursday of each month, 6:45 PMLocation: The Enrichment Center, 1006 South Marshall St., Winston-Salem, NC

Contact: Bill Crowley at wmcrowley748@bellsouth.net; or Bill Shugart at 336-768-1177

local hla Chapters in NC