Hello there!
I thought I'd have some fun and share some interesting tidbits about me and my hearing loss experiences with you guys, my wonderful flluskë community.
Let's get into it!
A little about me:
If you don't know already, I’m Courtney - the owner of flluskë, earring designer, hearing loss advocate and public speaker.
I love my business! Not only do I get to play with beautiful colours and make earrings every day, but it also connects me with amazing people - like yourself!
It gives me the opportunity to educate others about deafness in the hopes to create more awareness & improve the way people communicate with those who have hearing loss.
Ultimately, when I share my experiences and important info about my life and the things we go through, I hope you guys will share these stories with those in your circle, becoming Hearing Loss Advocates for those of us who are unable to speak up for ourselves.
By doing this, you help create change and awareness, making our world a little more accessible every day.
Is anyone else in my family deaf?
Nope! I'm the only one. I was born with my hearing loss and like 90% of deaf children in Australia, I was born to hearing parents.
My mother had her suspicions there was something not quite right when I was about 18 months old. After putting me on the phone to talk to my Grandma and having some difficulty hearing her taking, especially one side when I repeatedly said "Granny's not there!", she took me to the doctors.
After some tests at the hospital, it was discovered I was completely deaf in my left ear and had lost about 40% in my right.
What type of hearing loss do I have?
I have what is called a Sensorineural Hearing Loss.
Sensorineural hearing loss is nerve deafness and is located in the Cochlear inside the ear.
Everything in my ear works fine until the sound reaches the cochlear, where it is then unable to be processed.
Basically, inside the cochlear are millions of tiny little hairs which act like piano keys – they play all the sounds and noises that travel into your ear for your brain to process.
In my case, instead of these little hairs standing up playing the notes, they are unable to do anything because of the nerve damage. I have no hearing at all in my left ear, and can only hear about 40% in my right.
What do you use to help cope with your day to day life?
I wear a hearing aid - I only need one because there’s no point having one in my left ear as it’s completely deaf anyway.
Unlike when I was growing up, hearing aids are so much more advanced now.
The hearing aid I have also has Bluetooth functions, so I can stream my phone calls directly into my hearing aid, stream music, watch YouTube and it also has the ability to allow the TV to stream directly into my aid as well.
This has huge benefits to me as without these added functions, I would find it almost impossible to hear on the phone. Without it, watching & hearing videos on YouTube can be incredibly difficult too.
Wearing an aid that allows me to access these things, on top of improving my hearing for every day interactions with the people around me, definitely helps me to feel happier and more connected to the world around me.
Thanks for being here with me..!
I hope you learned something from the things I shared and found it interesting.
If you're not already, be sure to follow me over on Instagram and Facebook so you can see what I'm up to over there too.
As always, if you have any questions or would like to share something with me, leave a comment below or send me an email at hello@flluske.com.
I'd love to hear from you.
Have a great day!
