LAKE COUNTY, Fla. — For one woman seeking answers to what was wrong, a diagnosis brought relief and a surprise. It came courtesy of a caring doctor with more perspective than most, and it left her stunned.
“Blessed. I felt like I could hear again,” Sierra Smith said. “It’s allowed me to make more connections and be able to actually understand other people.”
What You Need To Know
- Sierra Smith was diagnosed with otosclerosis, a condition which led to hearing loss
- Smith said the diagnosis brought relief after years of confusion
- Hearing aid company Widex's community gifted Smith a pair of high-tech hearing aids
- Woman is now hoping to raise awareness of "hidden disabilities" such as hearing loss
Smith was the recipient of new, high-tech hearing aids, thanks to a Widex community giveback event. Until that time, the woman had been using hand-me-down hearing aids.
Hearing aid manufacturer Widex gifted the device to Citrus Hearing Clinic, and Dr. Teresa Parsons, who uses hearing aids herself, immediately thought of the patient.
“We knew that finances would be a barrier for her to invest in new technology, but she would really benefit from it,” she said.
For years, Smith knew something was amiss, but was unable to pinpoint what was wrong.
“The way I knew that something was wrong was that I was laying in bed, watching something and lying on one side, and I could hear it. The other side sounded muffled,” she explained.
Her quest for answers took the Orlando woman back to her hometown of Clermont and to the very clinic to which her mother goes.
It was there that Smith was diagnosed with otosclerosis, bone growth in her middle ear, which led to hearing loss. Her mother suffers from the same condition.
“Once I found out I had the hearing loss, it was a breath of fresh air, a relief almost, because I was like, ‘Okay, this makes sense now',” she said. “I almost accepted it right away because it was an answer to what was going wrong.”
While Smith said that her mother was more emotional about her daughter’s diagnosis — crying and worried — she was at peace in her newfound knowledge.
Now, as she meets each sound with new appreciation, she said she hopes to spread awareness of “hidden disabilities” like hers.
“When people think of the word 'disability,' they already knock you a peg,” she said. “I’m trying to prove that … you can do what everyone else can do.”