Turn a deaf ear
Robyn was born with a severe to profound hearing loss. But her family didn't recognise it. Over the years she tried to hide her deafness until she no longer could.
This is her story.
Robyn Hynes June 2009
Download a copy of Robyn's story
I was born in 1951 and back then, if you had a disability, people turned a blind eye, or in my case, a deaf ear!
Without really knowing the reason, everything for me was a struggle - school, learning the piano or simply trying to talk clearly. It was not until I was 16 years old that I was informed, because of a difficult birth, I was born moderately to profoundly deaf.
By now I had completed school and had begun working as a junior typist. I had also mastered the art of lip reading. Self taught, this was my tool of communication with the rest of the world.
At 17, I was fitted with my first hearing aid in my left ear, but already embarrassed by my speech impediment, I refused to wear it. My embarrassment over my speech impediment followed me through to my adult years where I feared people around me would laugh.
After I was married and had three beautiful children, I was fitted with another two hearing aids. Again, I refused to wear them even though simple things, like hearing over the phone, were an effort and the hearing aids helped. I was just not ready to let go of my fantasy that nobody knew I was deaf. I worked around my disability by sitting in the front row of events so I could read people's lips.
I constantly struggled to hide my deafness
In 1987, when I returned to work as a cashier at a busy supermarket, the struggle to hide my deafness got the better of me. Finally I decided to wear my hearing aids. Even with my hearing aids, understanding customers, messages over the PA, or friends in the tearoom was literally exhausting. The hearing aids were something I so desperately needed to have worn over the years and soon they became my life saver. Eventually I progressed to digital hearing aids and this made hearing over the telephone easier. In 2004, however, my left ear went completely deaf and that was when my ear specialist gave me the news that I was a candidate for a cochlear implant.
I was referred to the Eye and Ear Hospital where I underwent numerous tests. It was a long process, but worth it in the end. 2006 was the year I had my left ear implanted with "Switch on" three weeks after the operation when my speech processor was fitted.
Sure - I was nervous, but at the same time confident it would all work - and it did. I could hear and understand sound as soon as my first mapping was complete. I'll always remember the drive home. Amazed at every noise, I kept asking my husband, "What is that noise?" and his response to one of my first questions was, "That is the rain on the windscreen".
Sometime in 2008 my right ear began to deteriorate. I also had a cochlear implant in that ear giving me bi-lateral hearing for the first time I can remember.
Lip reading will always be a part of my life, but having the implants has made me more confident. Now instead of hiding, my cochlear implants have improved my communication ability. I have embraced my disability by becoming involved in a support group with others who have hearing disabilities. I am also involved in many research activities with the Eye and Ear Hospital. I guess you could say that if this research is going to help them develop the cochlear implant, then this is my way of repaying the favour for them giving me the gift of hearing.