In case of emergency

I ran across this blog a short time ago and especially liked the author's most recent post about not being able to hear at night. I have had similar experiences... it's unnerving!

I lived in a house with three other girls a couple of years ago. One roommate and I moved in during the summer and the other two would follow in the fall. Well that was kind of a hard summer. The other lone roommate would be gone a lot, especially weekends, so I spent many nights alone. Even though my bedroom was in the partially-finished basement and I felt pretty safe because, really, I doubted robbers went in the basement much, it was still hard to fall asleep. I worried about not being able to hear anyone break in or awaking to find some stranger in my room. I grappled with being afraid of death and eventually made peace with knowing that no matter what happened to my body, my soul was safe with God.

I'm still a little fearful at night, though. Even though I live in a relatively safe area and have plenty of locks, I still sleep with my phone on and even in the bed with me (I charge it when I get home from work). I keep my keys close at hand so I can hit the panic button in an emergency. And, like I commented on Michele's post, my parents trained me at a young age to call 911 if there was an emergency and, since I wouldn't be able to hear the person on the other line, to just keep repeating my information (why I was in trouble and where I was) until help arrived. Luckily, I've never had to do that but that's my personal plan.

Vulnerability is the hardest thing, I think, about living with hearing loss.