hanaakari

 

 Introduction - ME

 

Born and raised in Hokkaido.

 

I spend each and every day being in love with my life.

I am a woman around thirty, who is extremely happy, and often shed tears because of sheer happiness.

 

Back when I was in kindergarten, people started to notice my delay in language abilities, which lead to my kindergarten teacher suggesting to my parents: "There's a chance that she cannot hear properly."

So they took me to the hospital, where I was diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss. 

 

Ever since that day, my parents had given me some intense Spartan education to teach me language, along with the help from a Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist.

That labour had been amply rewarded. My language abilities improved rapidly, from a two-year-old level to a first-grader's in just a year and a half.

Steamrolling the opinions from around that told us I should go to deaf school, my family chose to put me in a normal school.

 

My school days from elementary to high school included some occasional attacks of vertigo, and I had to change from hospital to hospital.

The diagnosis I received when I was in junior-high was called: "Progressive Enlarged Aqueduct Syndrome".

 

My vertigo attacks did not vanish completely, which lead me to give up on university-level education. So I turned to find part time jobs, at the same time being cautious not to exert myself to my body's limit.

Fighting against my attacks, I gained precious experiences of working at a convenience store, a shop that repaired used cameras, and also at a drug store warehouse.

 

Then I started to realize that I was gaining stamina. I proceeded to work in the nursing industry, and at age 25, was accepted to a full time and night duty nursing position. This was truly a dream come true to me, as I could work full time like a normal person.

 

At age 27, I felt something strange around my thyroid gland. It was a thyroid nodule.

Then my symptoms declined, and I was also diagnosed with Pendred Syndrome.

It's a very rare genetic disorder in Japan, of which symptoms are hearing loss and an enlargement of the thyroid gland.　(Wiki: Pendred Syndrome)

My doctor ordered that I leave my nursing work at once.

 

Summer of age 28. Suddenly, my hearing drops. Complete loss of all sounds. Attacked by severe vertigo and ear ringings. They told me to rest for a while.

Eventually, my hearing did get better in about two months.

But I still have to take care of my physical conditions every day and rest when necessary.

 

Come what may, 

I enjoy and savor the thousands of happiness of what it's like to be able to work,

to be in good health,

to have sounds in my life… spending everyday in lots of laughter. LOL!

 

Fall, 2014 - My first ever exhibition. Title: "To be in love with life"