Don't like what you're hearing here on the band forum?

Jean, i totally understand everything that you said in your post. I have 5 children, and 2 of them are hearing impaired. It took 5 years to identify my son and 2 for my daughter and it is very amazing to me to see (or rather hear) what they do and do not hear when i am in their testing booth and hearing what is being said to them vs what they are saying back. I have been practicing with them, the rest of my family and friends and then people who come around who dont know and get them to understand that not only do you have to speak very clearly and slowly, it helps when they can see your face and better yet, be close enough to lip read. It is very frustrating to see them struggle to get things and I can not imagine how things will be for them in situations like this (a forum/ or even texting) since they already struggle to accept intonation in what people say. Even in elemetary school they teach you that intonation means a lot, and body language speaks more than words but in cyber world it is all left up to the person recieving as to how they take it. I cant really offer anything to fix the angst that people feel over some posts that are not as positive as we would like them to be but I wanted to say that i appreciate your putting the hearing impaired portion of misunderstanding in here. (Ps... $3000?? What kind of hearing aids do you have? Our childrens "ears" are $6000 for the aids and then another $2500 for an assistive listening device... and we have 2 kids that need them!... very expensive jewelry on their very young ears)

Identifying and getting treatment for my hearing impairment has been an eye (and ear) opening experience, for sure!

My hearing aids are Phonak BTE's, purchased from a non-profit speech & hearing center. I would guess that your kids need something better & more expensive because of the nature of their hearing impairment.

Jean

What a nice post.
 
The way that the ears were filtering your messages, the place I'm at in my weight loss journey has acted as a filter for me here.

Right after I got my band and hadn't had issues, I did not want to hear the negatives, as if it could make it a reality for me. I needed those negative whiners to go complain else where, and wanted to hang out and compare notes with the other winners, that were doing what ever it took to make things work. 

Fast forward a few years, and learning that I can fail and have problems despite my best efforts, I now saw those same types of posts from new angrier, disillusioned eyes. And then I got to a new place that I was remorseful, and felt embarrassed for choices I felt I made in haste. I felt jealous of those who didn't have the same problems. I felt judged by one group as if I had done things wrong when it didn't work for me. I felt judged by another group that I'd made a bad choice to begin with. I felt judged, still, by most of society for still being fat. 

I think if we take of the rose colored (or yellow colored or anger colored) glasses, we can get a lot of great information and support here, and we can give better when we remember others have their own type of glasses possibly distorting their view.