I am sorry I hurt you, Callie.

I received an email today that reminded me to write about my hearing problem and tell Callie how sorry I am.

Put both your hands straight out in front of you. Now try touching the tip of your right index finger with the tip of your left index finger. That is easy, isn't it? Now try doing it again with one of your eyes closed. How are you doing? It is a little more difficult to judge the distance between the two fingers to touch, right?

This principal applies too for someone who has hearing disability in one ear. It would be difficult for him or her to sense the direction a sound is coming from. I know because I have a hearing problem in my left ear.

When I am listening to a phone call with my right ear, I tend to speak louder than I need to because my right ear is covered. I only realised that when people complained to me that I am too loud whenever I am talking on my phone.

Since young, my left ear is easily infected (otitis media) and as the pus builds up inside the middle ear, it irritated the skin and I had to clear it with a cotton bud to relieve the itch.

It was many years later that a company doctor ran a test on me that I realised that I have a hearing disability. He confirmed that it is due to a perforated eardrum in my left ear. The tear is too large to be sewn and the only alternative would be to remove the ear drum to stop further ear infections. That would mean being totally deaf in one ear. I decided to tolerate my ear infections.

I guess I must have perforated it when I tried to clear the pus each time my ear became infected. The bacteria responsible for my problem is likely Streptococcus pneumoniae as it is easily transmittable. I recall that my younger sister and female cousins living together with us have had ear infections when they were younger too. One of them loss her hearing.

So, if your children complain of ear ache or if you see them digging their ears, take them for a check up to see if they have been infected by this bacteria because it can infect the upper respiratory tracts and lead to pneumococcal pneumonia, which can be fatal.

Here are some symptoms to look out for:

1) The children are usually fussy and irritable.
2) They may also have trouble sleeping, feeding, or hearing.
3) They often complain about ear pain.
4) A feeling of fullness or pressure in the ear.
5) Hearing loss.
6) May also have a fever.

Symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection:

1) Cold
2) Stuffy or runny nose
3) Mild cough
4) Breathlessness

In fact, some of the symptoms I noted here were what Callie tend to show just before she was hospitalised in ICU for lung infection. I almost lost her.

When she first became breathless, it was during the night. She sounded like she was sobbing and I mistook it for misbehavior because she refused to go to sleep. I told her to stop and she shouted back, "It's like that!" I thought she was being insolent and I canned her. I insisted that she stopped sobbing or I would cane her again. She was only 5. I do not how she managed it but she stopped her "sobbing" and went back to bed.

I am sorry, Callie.

Parents, make sure that you do not make the mistake I made.

Tell your children my story to prevent them from hurting their eardrums. Tell them that it still hurts me when family members become frustrated when they often have to repeat everything they said to me. Sometimes I have to remind them of my hearing problem.

I cannot explain to strangers who scolded or shouted at me for talking too loud on my mobile phone. All I could say is that I am sorry.