I’m a Swell Guy

Slight pain near a tooth on Thursday turned into agony on Friday night – luckily I have Co-codamol on prescription which helped. Saturday morning I was told I had two large abscesses that had nothing to do with a tooth problem and given antibiotics.

The left side of my face was the size of an orange (not a Satsuma, the big ones) and I’d developed one saggy jowl like a Bloodhound, all of which made lipreading very difficult for Sue. My new drooling habit wasn’t helping, or pleasant, either and as for Tea drinking – move back and grab a towel.

I’ve always been aware of the importance of forming my words to enable Sue to read my lips, but when one half of my face – the half which faces Sue in the car – wasn’t responding to instructions we had lots of repeat performances. Yet again a sense of humour helped, when communications broke down I was able to make Sue laugh by shaking my jowl and wobbly chin. I will not resort to writing as I feel that to be a complete abandonment of the non-hearing person, so finger spelling became more used. Speaking in the car though, well that was just amusing for both of us.

Not trying to be negative, but it did remind me just how much deaf people are required to adapt to the rest of the world. Obviously, the need for deaf communication skills doesn’t even enter most folk’s minds until hearing is lost, for the same reason I can’t type in Braille. Yet, in our experience, most students at British Sign language classes don’t have hearing loss or family/friends who do!

I must put more effort into learning and using BSL and not get comfortable with us managing because Sue can lipread.