Welcome back to the All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host, Dr Lilach Saperstein and this is the show where we discuss topics on how audiology affects your life. Some guests come on and share their personal story and their relationship with their journey through hearing loss or being a parent to a child with hearing loss. Other times we have expert guests come and discuss and share their wisdom that they have from experience on a specific topic.

For example, the most recent episode with Dr. Melissa Karp was about sound sensitivities and we touched on auditory processing order. These are topics that people have so many questions about. And I love that when we have these conversations on the podcast, it’s really a way to get to know the topic and understand some of the most common questions, but in a really simple and conversational way so that you don’t really, necessarily realize that you are learning, but you are!

And I’ve also had listeners share with me that even if they don’t have a specific connection or interest in the topic of the episode, they still listen because they feel like so many of the things we discuss can apply to other areas of their life, to parenting, medical advocacy, to learning to stand up for yourself and use your voice.

Well, today’s guest is Courtenay Turner and she shares her story of resilience and what it is like to have hearing loss all throughout growing up that wasn’t necessarily known about or treated and how her life changed once she was able to get the care that she needed.

We’re also going to be having the next several episodes, which are more personal stories, people sharing their journeys which is just my favorite kind of interview to do because I love talking to fascinating and wonderful people around the world and sharing those conversations with you and hearing how they resonate with you. What stood out? What advice do you feel really applies to you? Sometimes you feel that you just really needed to hear that. And I love when that happens in our community.

So, absolutely, tell me how it sits with you. Come and leave your comments on the podcast at allaboutaudiology.com. Leave a review on iTunes and join our community on Facebook, on Instagram and share your story with audiology.

Dr. Lilach Saperstein: “So, welcome Courtenay and I hope you enjoy this episode.”

Courtenay Turner: “Thank you so much for having me.”

LS: “I’m so excited to hear your story. Let’s start from the beginning. Tell us about yourself and what was this right at the beginning of your life, this rubella?”

CT: “Yeah. So, my mother contracted German measles during her first trimester of pregnancy. So, I was born with congenital rubella. I was one of the very fortunate. Lots of rubella babies do not primarily do as well as I did. However, it rendered me with several medical complications not limited to but including bilateral hearing impairment. We actually did not find out that I was hearing impaired until I was about six years old. I got hearing aids at the age of six.