Hearing Loss

The squeaking noise made by sneakers rubbing against the floor. Referees blowing their whistles to stop play. The roar of the crowd.Most basketball players take these sounds for granted. But not Parkville senior Kerry Rogers.Rogers, a four-year member of the Knights girls basketball team, has been deaf since birth.Her hearing loss has not prevented her from playing a productive role on the team, however.A 5-foot-8 forward, Rogers is usually Parkville's first player off the bench. She is averaging 3.0 points and 5.5 rebounds, and she scored a season-high 15 against Lansdowne last month.

Peer Support Program seeking facilitators The SPRING Peer Support Program is recruiting peer facilitators for its group programs. SPRING (Senior Peer Resources, Individuals, Networks and Groups) groups provide a confidential, comfortable setting in which men and women share their concerns, insights and ideas. Programs are held at senior centers and other venues in the county. An eight-week series of weekly two-hour training sessions is to begin March 30. The volunteer facilitators will be placed in a group and must make a one-year commitment; they must also attend continuing training provided by SPRING.

When people see the device on Jim Haniacek's ear, they correctly assume that it's connected to his cell phone. What they don't know is that it's connected to his hearing aids too. "It does look like a Bluetooth," said the 26-year-old private investigator from Chicago. "No one believes I have hearing aids." That he now has to convince people that he has hereditary hearing loss comes as a relief. He was concerned about the stigma of wearing hearing aids after he was diagnosed about a year ago. "I kind of saw it as a disability.

Sorry, what was that you said? I couldn't hear you. The garbage truck was going by. An airplane flew overhead. My son is listening to the stereo. The dishwasher is running. The gardener is mowing the lawn. The TV is on. It's rush hour. The baby is crying. My neighbor is using his chain saw. My daughter is practicing on her conga drums. I had to run the garbage disposal for a minute. The people next door are having a party. We live pretty close to the freeway. My husband is vacuuming.Would you mind speaking up?

Oliver Ames Lothrop Jr., a retired Westinghouse manager who wrote of his four-month confinement in a German World War II camp, died Sept. 4 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage while vacationing on Nantucket. The Towson resident was 84. Born in Newton, Mass., he completed his freshman year at Williams College before enlisting in the Army. "I had no desire to become a commissioned officer. ... I wanted to survive without taking the responsibility for others," he wrote in 2004 in an account of his World War II experiences as an infantryman.

Why are they advertising the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra all over the Philadelphia airport? Carren Stika wondered as she traipsed toward baggage claim. She stopped at a pay phone and noticed the area code: 216. "That's when I realized -- oh, no! I'm in Ohio!" she says. Stika hadn't heard the garbled buzz of the in-flight announcement, so she hadn't known about the unscheduled touchdown in Cleveland. A fuzzy speech signal and the fuzzy ability of her ears to hear combined to confound her again.

Maybe your doctor has recommended cataract surgery. Perhaps your spouse has had a stroke or been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Whatever your situation, you may have considered doing research online to expand your knowledge to make more informed decisions. But while the Internet is filled with thousands of sites offering information on a wide range of age-related health issues, making your way through the amount of data can be overwhelming. Type "Alzheimer's disease" into an online search engine, and more than 1 million links come up. Try "arthritis treatment," and more than 2 million hits come up. "Hearing loss" returns more than 2 million possible sites.

Tomorrow's 55+ Expo isn't just for people 55 years and older. The second annual trade show is for anyone who will get old, say organizers and exhibitors.Eighty exhibitors are expected to display products and services at the BWI Marriott Hotel from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eighteen seminars also will be offered on topics ranging from eyesight to living trusts.The free event, sponsored by the Anne Arundel Trade Council and the Anne Arundel Department of Aging, drew 1,500 people last year, a strong indication that services for seniors are needed.

SAY WHAT? Losing what? Can't be! But I am.But I'm not ready for a hearing aid, they tell me. And I can still brag -- I have my own teeth, I can still find a needle in a clothes dryer, and I can still remember where I put the car keys.He says he's lost some too, hearing, that is. That seems fair! Now we can yell at one another to our hearts' content.He says his loss is from landing planes on an aircraft carrier deck during World War II.I say mine comes from when the kids were little and were screaming, crying or fighting while the washing machine churned, the dishwasher bubbled and the television clamored over their radios.

Visitors to the Hearing and Speech Agency's new building on the outskirts of Northwest Baltimore can't help but be struck by the swirl of curves on the floor of the lemon-colored atrium. This swirl - the shape of the human ear's cochlea - offers a larger-than-life glimpse into the work of the nonprofit agency dedicated to helping children and adults from the metropolitan area with speech, language and hearing needs. Today, the state-of-the art $7.3 million facility will officially open, and the agency hopes the 47,800-square-foot quarters will allow it to grow beyond the 3,000 clients now being served each year.