I had HIB bacterial meningitis at 24 months of age in November 1987. This disease resulted in my being deaf. I hadn't gotten the HIB vaccination in time. My mom did take me to the doctor's office to get the vaccine, but they were too busy the day mom took me in and told us to come back another day. Unfortunately, I somehow ended up getting sick (mom thinks I might have picked it up from daycare). I was in the hospital for 2 weeks. When I was well enough to leave the hospital, I wasn't walking or hearing. I wasn't speaking either.
Christmas Day of 1987 was when I started walking again, with the help of a toy doll carriage that I had gotten as a Christmas gift. I held onto the carriage and tried to keep myself steady as I took some steps. Shortly after this, mom came into her bedroom one day to find myself and my sister jumping on her bed. Of course, normally, she wouldn't allow the jumping on the bed to happen, but that day she didn't care. I was jumping again!
As for treating my hearing loss, that was an adventure. My parents took me to different audiologists, trying to find one that could test me properly (in the late 80's, audiologists didn't always have the right equipment available to do hearing tests on such young children). Finally found an audiologist at the University of Wyoming who was able to test me and get the results. Severe-profound loss in the right ear, profound in the left. Shortly after that, I was fitted with hearing aids and started doing speech therapy.
I have come a long way since the illness. I went to the Wyoming School for the Deaf and the adjoining elementary school for the elementary school years, went on to middle/junior high and high schools, graduating from high school. I have tried going to college a few times and not succeeding then.
Now-a-days, I still wear a hearing aid in the right ear, and a cochlear implant for the left ear. I'm living on my own in my own apartment with my dog, working at the newspaper, back in college hoping to get a degree in Radiography, and just living life.
Now-a-days, I still wear a hearing aid in the right ear, and a cochlear implant for the left ear. I'm living on my own in my own apartment with my dog, working at the newspaper, back in college hoping to get a degree in Radiography, and just living life.