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'I woke up and no longer listened': he spent five years in silence and thanks to an implant he was born again

2021-09-19T11:14:41.789Z


Julieta Llanos was diagnosed with hearing loss at 40. Photographer and documentary filmmaker, she tells how she kept going until surgery changed her life.


Penelope Canonico

09/19/2021 6:00 AM

  • Clarín.com

  • Society

Updated 09/19/2021 6:00 AM

“You have to show up for surgery.

This is your big day ”

.

The words slipped through Juliet's hands that February 12, 2021. The possible date of operation that had been predicted was no longer an uncertainty.

Then a sigh of relief.

He ran after his hope and, from then on, time turned into adventure.

“It was the happiest day of my life.

It was everything he wanted in the world.

During the five years that I was not listening, my grandchildren were born

(today they are four and one year old), and I could not hear any of their expressions or laughter.

It destroyed my soul ”, he confesses with a broken voice, in dialogue with

Clarín

.

TO

Julieta Llanos (45) was diagnosed with

congenital bilateral hearing loss

when she was already an adult.

His hearing loss began in childhood with badly healed earaches, colds and otitis.

"I noticed certain signs that something was wrong and with the passing of the years I felt that I was listening less and less, but

I did not want to acknowledge my condition,

" he laments.

“When I went to school, I would sit in the front row of the classroom to understand why I wasn't listening, but since I was a girl I didn't realize what was happening.

They even

recommended that I had to wear headphones

, but when you're young you end up letting it go because with this 'being a teenager and looking pretty'

 I didn't want to use them

”, she remembers aware of the mistake.

Julieta Llanos lives in Patagonia.

She was diagnosed with congenital bilateral hearing loss as an adult.

"Juli, you have a problem and you have to make yourself deal with it," her teacher told her when she began taking the teaching practices of the Art career.

The alert signal was that he was not listening to the incoming call from his cell phone.

The day he decided to see a specialist it was too late

.

One ear was more affected than the other.

Doctors warned him about possible cochlear implant surgery.

He interrupted his studies and started using hearing aids.

One morning I woke up and wasn't listening anymore

.

I was completely deaf.

I thought it was the headphone battery, but no.

They were no longer a solution for me ”, he recalls with the image stopped in time.

As happened to Julieta,

hearing loss can appear at any time in life

and for multiple causes, explains Micaela Costanzo, speech therapist and Team Leader of the MED-EL Clinical Department for the Southern Cone of Latin America.

It is defined as a decrease in the sense of hearing and "its

early detection

is essential so as not to compromise communicative and emotional development", he points out.

Juliet in the middle of nature.

Thanks to a cochlear implant, he was able to hear again.

"At the time of birth or during the first month of life

, an otoacoustic emission study

should be carried out

to determine hearing capacity

. It is also important to be attentive to possible symptoms and seek professional care, both in children and adults," insists the specialist.

According to data from the National Ministry of Health, 

auditory pathologies

constitute approximately

18% of the disabilities that exist in Argentina

: 86.6% correspond to hearing difficulties and 13.4% to deafness.

This Sunday is the

National Day of Deaf People

, which seeks to raise awareness about the respect and exercise of their rights. 

Resilience time

"And now what do I do?"

she wondered through a flood of tears when she assumed she had lost her hearing.

He withdrew from the groups of friends with whom he interacted.

"I don't listen, but I have to do something because I need to be an example for my daughters," she was convinced.

The universe of photography

connected to nature and the journeys he undertook, even in a pandemic, merged like his ground wire

during the five years that his deafness lasted.

He also exhibited his works in national and international museums, won awards and dedicated himself to meeting support groups of people who were going through the same situation.

Julieta touring the country.

Travel and photography were his grounding wire.

Julieta found it

difficult to learn sign language

.

“Not everyone knows him, even though there are people who are trained and who teach at the university.

Nobody wants to learn because it is difficult or because of lack of time ”, he comments and points out that he has a good lip reading.

He learned to communicate through an application

that translated text to speech with the push of a button on his cell phone.

“Because she could speak out loud, people didn't realize they were deaf when they went to a store.

But when I did not understand what they were saying, I would take out my cell phone and write in the app that I was not listening because I was deaf.

People couldn't believe it ”, he evokes.

“I tried to distract my head so as not to sadden me with negative thoughts.

It was difficult to be absent for so long, but I understood that

hearing loss can be solved with an implant

”, he testifies.

In photography he found a path of resilience.

Today he makes documentaries in Patagonia.

Break the barriers of silence

The operation was performed at the Río Gallegos Regional Hospital and was in charge of the otorhinolaryngologist Diego Gutierrez.

Julieta

was discharged the same day as the surgery 

and a month, a few days before her birthday, the cochlear implant was activated in her left ear.

Since I listened again I feel like 'I went back to the system' and everything is new to me

.

I regained the life I longed for and began to value my surroundings more strongly.

Thanks to the implant, I went back to studying virtually and I can do what I enjoy the most, which is documenting the natural life of my beautiful Patagonia ”, he expresses with pure emotion.

Julieta Llanos' life changed after the cochlear implant: she was able to hear her grandchildren for the first time.

Today, his joy is infinite.

He had to go through a process to adapt to the sounds and he can't always identify them.

I feel like I was born again

.

When I listen to the sound of the rain, the singing of a flamenco or the laughter of my grandchildren, my eyes water ”, he acknowledges.

She has yet to listen to the videos she recorded of the little ones in the times when she was deprived of hearing their first words.

You don't want to miss a thing

.

One before and one after

Juliet faced her own ghosts and moved on.

He wakes up wanting to explore the world and recognizes that the hours of the day are not enough for him to do everything he plans.

He lives "full" and made a hole in his tight schedule to talk with

Clarín

.

Today, she works as a flora and fauna documentary photographer and, as a conservation agent and official photographer for Ambiente Sur de Río Gallegos, and studies online to become a field naturalist guide.

In his Facebook account (https://www.facebook.com/Fotografias-Julieta-Vanesa-Llanos-770229296421053/) he shares the images of his walk the length and breadth of Patagonia.

Julieta in full adventure in her beloved Patagonia.

“I wake up thinking about what life will bring me and what else I can do and learn.

One of my next goals is to dive to document a new species underwater.

Now that I have returned to study, I hope to be a teacher as I have always dreamed of.

I am aware that I denied my situation for a long time, and that left me without listening for five years

”, assumes the new Julieta.

An epic of the will.

ACE

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Source: clarin

All life articles on 2021-09-19

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