Meredith - January 30th, 2009

I’m going to the RID conference! An amazing person offered me the difference between the regular and student rates, so I was able to go. I don’t even know the person, they just offered me the difference and asked for my PayPal account. I am so touched, I hope I get to meet them in person! I’m going to drive up there and do some CouchSurfing or maybe stay with friends if possible…I know a few people up there. I’m so excited!

I need to get another audiogram done. Right now I have the TV cranked above 30, and I had the radio cranked up in the car this morning, too. I haven’t been able to hear any of my professors this week; several of them speak along with their signing, usually just above a whisper, but after Tuesday I couldn’t hear any of it. I used my hearing aids today and I could tell things weren’t as loud as they should have been. So I need to get another audiogram done and have my hearing aids adjusted, because this just isn’t right. A friend of mine said “it’s okay to be deaf!” Well, yes, that’s not what I have a problem with. If it were not correctable, I would grieve, and I would adjust. But this is correctable, I just need to get my hearing aids adjusted. Those suckers cost $5700 (out of pocket) for a reason…they are suitable for a wide variety of hearing losses. And to be perfectly frank, I don’t especially want to be deaf right now, because interpreting is the perfect job for me right now. Pays a lot, flexible with my school schedule, etc. - I don’t want to have to stop interpreting. I was already thinking that I should stick to VRS before Tuesday happened, but now if I don’t get this corrected I will have trouble even with VRS. I need to see the audiologists at school ASAP I think.