Last year the pandemic hit and we all went into lockdown. Eventually, things opened up partially and we had to get used to wearing masks while heading out. I wasn’t planning to get out much but my cat got sick which meant frequent vet visits. That’s when I discovered an interesting side effect of the pandemic – I was deaf. Well, if you’ve known me for some length of time, you probably know about a persistent ear infection through most of my childhood that left me hearing impaired. But now, I was more deaf than usual. How strange!
Not willing to accept the fact that my hearing was deteriorating at the tender age of 42, I began to question what could possibly be causing this additional loss of hearing. What was different about now? And no, I haven’t had COVID-19 for this to actually be a side effect of the infection. So what was it? The answer was staring me in the face. Rather, it was right there on my face. Masks!
No, no, I wasn’t wearing my mask in some odd way that covered my ears, it’s just that masks were covering everyone else’s mouths. This was doing two things; muffling the sound of their voice and preventing me from seeing their lips. You see, without me realising it, Somewhere down the line I developed a way to compensate for my poor hearing and that was to listen and lip read at the same time. I honestly had no idea that I was doing it but the brain is a marvelous thing and will do what it needs to do to help us get around.
Once the realisation dawned on me, suddenly a lot of things made sense, like why I could hear what someone said when they were standing in front of me (without a mask), and not when they were at the side of me or I was not looking directly at their face. Just FYI, I absolutely can’t hear anything that happens behind me so if you’ve tried to get my attention by calling my name behind my back, I’m not being rude or ignoring you, my ears are simply incapable to processing soundwaves from that angle.
So here we are, me, deafer than deaf me and people giving me strange looks ever so often. I’m sorry, but often if I can’t see your lips move, I don’t even know that you’re talking to me. Which probably leaves you wondering why I’m not replying and strange looks ensuing. Anyway, consider this blog post a PSA; if we do meet and are masked up like good kids, do be patient, don’t be shy to repeat yourself, and most importantly, BE LOUD!
Jacqueline Tellis 