I Couldn't Hear - Why Sound is Important to Me

I had ear wax and fluids trapped in my middle ear area.  My family was concerned when I wasn't talking normally for my age.  I did make sounds, but it wasn't anything that anyone else could understand.

My mother figured out that I couldn't hear when she came up behind me and said something to me and I didn't respond.

She took me to an ear specialist and they determined that I had all of that junk that was preventing me from hearing things.  The doctor punctured my ear drums and drained what was preventing me from hearing and learning to speak.

This affected me in a number of ways:

• When I did gain the ability to hear correctly, I must have had more acute hearing.  I hated fireworks for a long period of time because the sound was too loud.  I have correctly identified songs that other people have played, even at very low volume.
• I developed a lisp where "s" became "th".  I spent years in speech therapy trying to stop saying "th" when I should be saying "s".  I continued in speech therapy through elementary school.
• I have an ability to block everything out and focus in on what I'm interested in.  My mother used to say that "Jonathan is in a world all his own."  I believe that today, when I am bored, my creative mind tends to run ahead of myself.
• I believe the lack of hearing helps to add to my recurring sense of isolation.
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Here is something interesting:  I recently took an ocean cruise with my wife.  A few hours after I disembarked from the boat, I started to feel these imaginary waves like I was still on the boat.  I had heard that some people that travelled on ocean voyages developed sea legs, but I hadn't counted on it happening to me.  It is now 2 1/2 months later and I still feel the waves.  I went into an ear specialist who checked my hearing and took measurements of my reactions to quick changes.  He told me that nothing else appears to be wrong with me and some people take up to 6 months to get over their ocean voyages.  It was only a one week trip at sea.  He also told me that I have excellent hearing, so my above average ability to hear things has not become undone by the years of my life.

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Initial version: August 13, 2006

Current version: September 1, 2006