I have been reluctant to publish my post for a long time… Something really scares me off to get started with publishing my own post here in result of imagining too much about my readers’ negative opinions. Finally, I have overcome my fear. Seriously, I have to stop being afraid of showing my posts about living my silent life. So I stayed positive and went ahead to publish my post here…
The Beginning…
My parents found that I had a high fever of 104 degrees and saw my seizure when I was a 6 month old, they rushed me to the emergency room at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California.
After a few hours later, my doctor required me to stay overnight in Intensive Care Urgent (ICU) room at the hospital in order to supervise my fever and seizure. My parents were emotionally crying, they were upset and blamed each other for not watching me carefully.
While sleeping in my hospital bed, my mother and father talked with my doctor about my fever progress. My fever was successfully broke, and I was progressively getting better. Two days later, my parents took me home.
The Background…
In my grandparents’ apartment, my grandmother talked with me and found I could not hear anything she said behind my back. While I was playing with my favorite toys, my grandmother was trying to yell my name – “Joyce … JOYCE!” repeatedly. She was puzzled and called my mother about me.
My mother came to my grandparents’ apartment, my grandmother explained to her what happened. My mother could not believe what happened, she wanted to try screaming my name, “Joyce! Joyce! Joyce….” repeatedly. As an innocent infant, I could not turn my head to heed to my mother’s voice as she called my name. She suspected that I did not hear anything. My mother was confused, she called my father over the phone to ask what to do about me. He told her that he could not believe it, either.
My mother took me home, she was more concerned about my hearing. In the kitchen, my mother looked for two pans. She walked around behind my back, she banged loudly with the two pans at the same time.
Bang! Bang! BANG! BANG!
My mother was shocked that I could not hear anything. She cried a lot, she angrily blamed herself because she thought that God punished her for something she had done wrong. Indeed, I could not hear.
When my father arrived home from working, he found my mother sitting on the couch crying. He asked her what was going on, and she told him about my hearing problem. He was laughing; he could not believe what my mother said. He picked the two stove pans from the kitchen, tried to bang loudly and repeatedly behind my back.
My father gasped and he realized that I couldn’t hear the sounds. He was not so certain, he called the doctor and made an appointment.
The Medical Concerns…
My parents took me to my doctor’s office, we were sitting and waiting for the call. My father did not take off his eyes on me as a very cute fat-cheeky infant. My mother noticed that my father vented out his sweetest tears in his own brown eyes. While tearing down over his cheeks, I, as an infant, smiled and giggled. I did not understand nor know what happened. The nurse called us directly and lead us to the room.
My doctor came in the room, talked with my parents about my hearing problem. My doctor referred me to an audiologist for my hearing test. The nurse made an appointment for my hearing test…
The Result Revealed…
At the Kaiser Hospital, I was in the audiology office with my parents. While playing with my toys in the audiology office, my parents discussed their concerns with an audiologist. After the discussion ended, an audiologist took me to the sound room. As an infant, I did not know what was happening; an audiologist gave me some hearing tests in the sound room. That was in 1975.
After the tests finished, an audiologist told my parents what happened. The final result was revealed as my parents were nervous to hear…
An audiologist told my parents that I had lost my hearing and that I was completely deaf…
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