September Meeting Recap and Upcoming Events

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Minda Nelson

Thanks to Christine Reed-Schall, RN, BSN and Courtney Jeffery, RN, MSN, ARNP-C, CHFN for joining us at our September meeting to discuss hearing loss in the medical profession. Christine and Courtney are two talented ladies that are passionate about what they do and they had a lot of experiences and examples to share with us. The presentation and transcript (courtesy of 20/20 Captioning and Reporting) are located in our white-papers section of the blog.

If you are looking for something to do tomorrow, the 3^rd annual Sounds In Kansas City 5K run and walk is this Saturday at Shawnee Mission Park at 8 a.m. The proceeds raised will benefit Midwest Ear Institute’s “Ears That Hear” Fund which provides hearing aids to patients who cannot afford them or whose insurance plan does not provide coverage. The online registration is closed, but you can still register in person at the Pavilion at Theatre in the Park before the event. More details about the event are located here: Sounds of KC 5K

Please keep checking our calendar for event updates, we have a few good ones planned the next couple months!

Hometown Hearing & Audiology

Posted on September 29, 2011 by HLAA-KC

I just saw in a newspaper mailing of “Star Savings” that Hometown Hearing & Audiology is looking for people with hearing loss to try out the latest hearing technology available. They’re advertising to get “43 people with hearing loss” to come in and get free hearing screening, demonstrations, check insurance, etc.

If you’re reading this, the selection for the trial runs from September 27th to October 5th, 2011, and call 816-479-4928 to see if you can participate. Their website was hard to see on the print ad, but it appears to be http://www.hometown-hearing.com.

September Social Event

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Kelly Rogel

Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather!

When we scheduled this month’s social event we did not realize it was during KSD’s (Kansas School for the Deaf) Homecoming Weekend. We are cancelling our September social event so that people can go and enjoy all the activities going on this weekend for KSD’s 150th Anniversary. For more information go to http://www.ksdeaf.org/Alumni/150/index.php

We apologize for any confusion we may have caused but this should be a fun weekend with many great opportunities to meet new people!

Cochlear Seminar in Overland Park

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Kelly Rogel

Cochlear is having a free seminar at Overland Park’s Marriott (10800 Metcalf Avenue, Overland Park, Kansas 66210) on October 15th from 8 am until 12:30pm.

You will have the opportunity to meet cochlear implant users, doctors and audiologists. Also learn how cochlear implants can be covered by most insurance plans.

There will be a few hearing loss education sessions:

–When Hearing Aids are No Longer Enough

–Hearing and Living with Cochlear Implants

–Getting a Cochlear Implant (panel)

PROMISING RESEARCH – Cord Blood Stem cell treatments for hearing loss

Posted on September 16, 2011 by getdennis

This was in a recent HLAA e-newsletter sent out to all members:

Promising research has led to the first clinical trial to evaluate the safety of cord blood stem cell treatments for hearing loss. According to a study published in Cell Transplantation, animal subjects treated with cord blood stem cells showed significant healing to the damaged sensory hair cells and neurons in the inner ear. Dr. James Baumgartner, pediatric neurosurgeon, and colleagues at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston will launch the first FDA-regulated clinical trial evaluating the use of cord blood stem cell treatments for children with hearing loss.

The year-long study will follow 10 children, aged six weeks to 18 months, with acquired or congenital (but not genetic) hearing loss. The trial will be selecting only patients who have stored their cord blood with CBR for this trial, to ensure consistency in the stem cell processing, storage and release for infusion.

Watch the video on this research. YouTube has it captioned but you have to activate the caption button. CBR is having the video captioned with the exact transcript; however, until then, the YouTube captions will be in place.

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In my opinion, this is good news – more research into avenues of restoring hearing and correcting hearing loss will benefit many. Even if cord-blood stem cell treatments themselves are not the final solution, lessons learned about our genes and biological makeup will make it easier to find solutions that may not need cord-blood to begin treatment. To understand what cord-blood means, check out this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cord_blood

CBR is “Cord Blood Registry,” a business that stores the umbilical cord blood (and optionally the umbilical cord tissue) in freezing banks for potential future use. This requires a processing fee and an annual storage fee. As of today, to store your child’s cord blood until they are 18, it could cost you between $4,000 to $7,000.

Peace Corps

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Kelly Rogel

I am stepping down from HLAAKC’s Steering Committee at the end of this month. I have enjoyed my time on the committee and have enjoyed getting to know all of you!

I have been offered the opportunity to serve in the Peace Corps. I am leaving for Kenya in October where I will have training for 3 months before staring my 24 month service. I will be a Deaf Educator and a Behavior Communicator.

I will be a teacher at a school for the deaf in Kenya. I will also be working with the deaf/hard-of-hearing community to increase AIDS/HIV awareness and prevention. I will also be given the opportunity to develop a project of my own. As a genetic counselor I am hoping to develop a project that ties in with genetics.

You can be sure I will continue to follow this blog, I am excited for HLAAKC’s future!

Hope to see you all at our next meeting this Saturday and at our September social event at the National Archives on September 24th.

September 24th Social Event

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Kelly Rogel

Come and join us September 24th at 10 am in the lobby of the National Archives!

ADDRESS
400 West Pershing Road
Kansas City, Missouri 64108

EXHIBITS
Lee and Grant
Picture this! One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives

More details about the exhibits can be found at http://www.archives.gov/central-plains/kansas-city/public/exhibits/

ADMISSION
Admission is free

PARKING
This is from their website:

Visitors to the National Archives should park in front of the building, parking is free. Additional parking is available in the Union Station parking garage just east of the Archives, parking is free for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes a fee of $2 per hour is implemented.

LUNCH
Afterwards, we will head to Panera near Crown Center for lunch and more socializing (parking is available at Crown Center). This will be a great time to discuss the exhibits! Here’s the address if you’re unable to make it to the National Archives, but would like to meet up with us for lunch!

2405 Grand Blvd, Suite 100
Kansas City, MO 64108

Am looking forward to seeing all of you there!

LiveStrong Stadium improves its captioning board

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Sarah Meiers

It’s been a great summer of Sporting Kansas City games. I’ve enjoyed it immensely. The new stadium is absolutely gorgeous. And, as of Saturday, SKC is first in the Eastern Conference MLS rankings! Playoffs, here we come!

Now, what I really wanted to show you was an incredible improvement that the LiveStrong stadium has made. Remember this post?

Well, LiveStrong Stadium has made a big change! The captions are now two lines tall, and very easy to read even from the farthest corner of the stadium. I’m thrilled!!

Here’s a view of the screen at 100%, no zooming, from where I was sitting at Saturday’s game. (Click on the photo to get a full view)

And here’s a zoomed shot of the screen.

See how big it is now? It’s so much better than before. Great improvement. Kudos, LiveStrong!

September meeting

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Sarah Meiers

Hello everyone! I hope you have been enjoying this lovely weather we’re having, and hope to have you join us for our September HLAA-KC meeting. This month, we will have two speakers focusing on hearing loss in the medical profession. The speakers are:

Christine Reed-Schall, RN, BSN, will be talking about “Nursing Against the Odds: My life as an RN with a hearing loss.”

Courtney Jeffery, RN, MSN, ARNP-C, CHFN, will be talking about “The Sky’s the Limit, Part Two” (Courtney was interviewed for a newspaper article titled “The Sky’s the Limit.” Her talk with us will be based off that interview.)

Our meeting will be held at 10:30am, Saturday, September 17th, at the Plaza Library Large Meeting Room. Hope to see you there!

Deaf Awareness Day at the Pumpkin Patch

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Sarah Meiers

Carolyn’s Country Cousin’s Pumpkin Patch and Able Hands Interpreting are hosting a Deaf Awareness Day on Sunday, September 18, 2011. Interpreters will be available at various place in the family area.

Where:
Carolyn’s Country Cousins Pumpkin Patch
17607 NE 52nd Street
Liberty, Missouri 64068

When:
Sunday, September 18, 2011
10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Price:
Single: $5
Family: $20

More information is available here.

HLAA National has a new website

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Sarah Meiers

The Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) is pleased to announce the launch of its new website, www.hearingloss.org.

HLAA’s website serves as the primary source of objective information for 36 million Americans with hearing loss. The website underwent a major redesign to make it more intuitive, provide better navigation and to make it easier to find specific content in the vast collection of hearing loss resources available to all site visitors.