Coolchic006

I am hearing impaired. I have profound hearing loss and I do wear hearing aids of the latest technology. Tests show that I have about 92 percent comprehension. I have never met a teacher who is hearing impaired so I really have no way of knowing what my chances are in succeeding in this field. My dream is to teach elementary or intermediate school. I'm very self conscious about my hearing impairment and possible speech issues. I've always been told that if my hearing aids weren't visible then no one would notice I was hearing impaired. I was raised along with normal hearing kids so I never had training in sign language. I am at no more of an advantage of teaching special needs kids than any normal hearing teacher. Besides, I would have to travel about 4 hours in order to teach at the nearest school for the hearing-impaired.

I am just curious about what my chances are at being an effective teacher. Does anybody know a teacher who has successfully taught? It doesn't matter to me whether the school is public or private. There's not many private schools near my area so I'm sure my best shot would be in public school.

I currently teach kindergartners at my church but it is a small group of about 5 - 10 children. I do very well with these kids, but it is a small very manageable group and it's only about 1 and 1/2 hours once a week. Parents do not seem to mind that I am hearing impaired...but I know it's likely to be a different case if I were teaching their children all day every day.

I do not want to spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in obtaining the degree just to be unsuccessful in the end. I would just LOVE to have someone to talk to who is hearing impaired and has tried teaching as a profession.

9 days ago I was working on something outside and while I was squatted down, I turned slightly to the right to reach for something. I felt a little sore when I stood up but it wasn't bad. I proceeded to get a shower and got ready to go to work, but the more I moved the worse the pain got. Getting in and out of my car hurt so bad that I had to skip work. I tried to take it easy the rest of the day and used ice packs and I ibuprofen to help. I finally got so bad I had to lie down. In the middle of the night I tried to get up to go to the bathroom but the pain was so bad I could barely pick my feet up to take steps. Bending and twisting was not an option.

From Friday night until monday morning I couldn't move or sleep. It even hurt lying still. I pulled muscles in the past in my lower back and I usually rested for a day or two and then I was able to do light activity until it healed. That's not the case this time. Monday I was finally pain free enough to sleep...but I still couldnt stand up, much less walk. I started alternating ice and heat at this point. Tuesday was the same. Wednesday I was able to stand with the help of crutches because I cannot bear my weight on my lower spine. Distributing most of my weight on those crutches enabled me to walk a few minutes at a time. It no longer hurt to do things like lifting my feet to take steps. The only thing that hurts is bearing weight on it. The more I push myself the worse it gets. Thursday and Friday I continued trying to walk with crutches with the same results. It's Like I'm making the injury worse for the sake of keeping my muscles from getting too weak. All my research says not to spend more than 2 or 3 days in bed so I was really worried about this injury taking so long to heal. I do not have insurance or money to pay a doctor. I do not have pain or numbness anywhere. It's all in the lower part of my spine. I do notice the left side is weaker but pain is distributed all across my lower back.

What is going on?