About me

Hi, my name is Dawne, and this is my first time blogging so bear with me! I'm 39 years old and live in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. I have 2 kids, Jeff, 17 and Kimmy, 12. Danny, the father of my daughter and my long-time companion, was tragically killed in a robbery in 2005 and I have remained single.

In 1987, when I was 17 years old, I began noticing some hearing loss. By age 20 my hearing loss was severe and I received my first hearing aid. It got worse thru the years and in 2003 I finally found out that I have Otosclerosis.
I never knew what the problem was before this.
I have an excellent ENT surgeon, Dr. Peter Weber, who works thru The Cleveland Clinic. He performed a Stapectomy on both of my ears in 2004. It worked extremely well for about a year.
In 2005 I came down with a bad case of the flu and I suddenly had no hearing in my right ear and my left ear was again severe - profound loss. At that point my speech recognition was not bad enough for a CI. My hearing has gotten worse since then and on August 21, 2008, I went to see Dr. Weber again and after an Audiology exam he told me that I'm now a candidate for a CI.

I'm very excited at the prospect of hearing the world again. I have major communication problems with everyone, including my poor kids! Especially my daughter! She's very excited about this, too. Unfortunately, I've never learned ASL or lip reading, so I feel pretty isolated most of the time.

My next appointment is on Monday, September 8, for a CT Scan and MRI, and a follow-up consultation with a CI audiologist. Hopefully I'll find out for sure if I'm eligible for surgery.
Thanx for reading and wish me luck!! :-)