Peppergirl27

Oh yes, he was brilliant. I did a few of my piano exams with my hearing aids out, putting my bare feet on the pedal part of the grand piano in the examination room to help me with dynamics.

I've heard that he supposedly memorised the sound of every key on the piano before going deaf in order to write music, but now I'm actually wondering if what he memorized were intervals and harmonies.

When I came upstairs the morning it happened, it was a Wednesday and the previous day had been totally normal. We had no warning. I had one of those iHome speaker clocks that charged your iPod and could play music or a radio station to wake you up. I had it set to max volume, on a hard rock station. It used to wake the whole house.

I only woke up 5 minutes past the time it was supposed to go off, but it had been going off the whole time and my mom knew something was up. The typical grouchy morning teen, I was pissed about sleeping in and started to bang things around as I made breakfast. I remember muttering to myself, blaming the alarm, even though I had reached over and felt it vibrating from the sheer volume of the rock music.

Mom came into the kitchen, asked me what was wrong. I told her I had slept through my alarm, then promptly burst into tears. She didn't cry, just pulled me into her arms, she told me later she knew something like that would eventually happen.

We spent the day at the hearing clinic. Having been tested twice a year since age 3, I could practically run the tests myself, and I could interpret audiograms as well. Normally, mom would just stay in the waiting room, my audiologist and I would interpret the results together, and I would tell mom what had changed.

They called Mom into the 'mothers room', which was where they had toys for the kids while the parents discussed their child's hearing loss or aids. I don't remember much of this part but I know she cried then.

Two days later, mom attempted suicide and spent the next 6 months in the hospital. I don't know if they were connected or not. I try not to think about that.

I don't remember how my dad reacted, unfortunately. My parents were going through a falling out and he wasn't living with us at the time. He moved back in while mom was in the hospital.

I have a few friends who are blind, we discuss that very thing all the time. Does your hypothetical situation include a cochlear implant? If yes, then deaf.

If not, I'd actually rather be totally blind. Being deaf is far more an invisible disability, whereas being blind you have the white cane or Guide Dog. My visually impaired friends are sometimes more independent than I am, it seems.

She's alright, yeah. It worked out in the end, funnily enough. She was in the hospital for 6 months, got released right after my implant surgery. Once I got activated, I absolutely flourished. Mom used to say it was like watching a flower blooming, it gave her hope and joy again to see those moments of things I'd never heard before.

Ooh, as a pianist? Deaf. I've done enough ear training and sight reading that I can 'hear' what a piece should sound like just by reading the music. I've actually been told I'm a more emotional musician when I have my processor off.