Since I do not see a 'Welcome' forum, I'll just introduce myself here.

My name is Mandy, I'm from North Carolina, and I'm currently 30 years old. I've been married nearly 12 years, and I have three daughters. I have a bilateral moderate/severe sensorineural hearing loss. I was born with it, and found out many years later that it was hereditary.

I wore hearing aids when I was growing up, though I always hated them. I was very self-conscious about my hearing aids, even though most of my peers knew about my hearing loss and I was never teased about it. It's kind of funny how I spent so many years trying to hide my hearing aids, yet now as an adult, I've discovered how much I need them and my hearing aids are old and worn out.

I am a patient in a clinical trial that is currently testing a fully implantable middle ear implant in order to gain full FDA approval, and I will soon be having my surgery. I will be posting about this in the proper forum.

I look forward to meeting others with hearing loss, or those who have hearing impaired family members. Thank you, Senthil, for your invitation to join this community!

Hi Mandy, you are the first person to join my community! I'm so happy to have a new friend here

I hope everything goes well with your surgery, and I wish you all the best. I think it would be cool to have a hearing aid device implanted in the middle ear, and nobody will see it.

I will also keep an eye on your blog. I have created my own blog http://www.outerchat.com, and added a link to yours.

Senthil

I figured I would continue on with the introduction: My name is Chris, I was actually born deaf, they (parents and doctors) only found out that I was deaf at the age of three. After being tested, I qualified for an eardrum, which I have been told is very rare. So by the age of five, I was able to hear and understand the english language and began talking and the long years of speech therapy. Now I currently attend The Citadel, a military college, with plans to enter the Marines afterwards.

Hi Chris,

Thank you for sharing your hearing loss story. Nice to meet you!

My parents also found out about my hearing problem at the age of three. I can understand how challenging the experience has been for you. What kind of hearing impairment do you have? So far, I haven't heard anyone talk about being qualified for an eardrum. I am interested to know more about this.

I look forward to talking with you more. Have a great weekend.

Hi Im Lucy with mixed moderate-severe bi-lateral hearing loss. I've had problems from a young age with cronic ear infections, my ears never seem to drain. I've had 6 sets of tubes, and numerous other surgeries including a partial mastoidectomy on my left and complete eardrum grafted, with no success. I wish I could find someone with this same condition, then maybe I could get some direction in which way to go. Everytime I go in for another surgery, I loose more hearing, I hate wearing my aids, but Im forced at work as normal conversation is somewhat impossible now without them. Im going in for another eardrum graft on the left again on the 20th of July, this time its going to be made of cartiledge, rather then skin which is supposed to be thicker and stronger. IDK at this point Im a bit negative about it, my doctor says I will loose more hearing as the drum will be thicker. I don't know because right now I have no eardrums so I would think I would hear better. I just wish I could get these stupid infections under control. Its great to come and have a place to chat with people that understand some of what ur going through. I will post more after my surgery.

Hi Lucy,

I'm sorry to hear what you're going through. I don't know anything about this condition and I'll have to do more research so I have better understanding. Please share your experiences after the surgery. I will keep you posted if I know anyone having similar issues.

Don't worry, everything will be okay. I'm always here to help if you need anything. Take care.

Senthil

I'd like to introduce myself as well. My name is Christopher and have been dealing with Otosclerosis since I was about 9. I am currently 32, and have gone through 4 stapedectomies (2 in each ear) and 2 tempanoplasties (1 in each ear).

My condition is hereditary, seems to hit every couple generations in my family, and I happened to develop it at a very early age. Through Jr. High, High School and College, I had my surgeries. Luckily, they brought back most of my hearing and for awhile I was able to hear remarkably well.

Unfortunately, my left ear suddenly loss hearing about a year after my 2nd full stapedectomy. Over night I went from about 10% loss to 95%. I've dealt with this ever since.

I am currently looking at the "next step". I haven't had my ears checked out in years because I have been able to manage well enough. However over the past year or so they are getting worse; to the point it is impacting my work and social skills. Having just moved and started a new job, I have to wait a couple more months for insurance to kick in before I schedule my visit with the Dr. I am very curious to find out what my options are, be it hearing aids or something else. More surgeries bring greater risks, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet.

Thank you Senthil for this community, I hope to see it grow!