Caroline Lusk is a big star on TikTok, and she is using her platform to share a personal story about her hearing loss at 23. Her hope is that by speaking about her devastating diagnosis, she may bring comfort to other young people who find themselves in similar situations.
Caroline Lusk Shares Story About Hearing Loss
The content creator first shared her experience in a tearful video posted on the platform in early February, informing her followers that she had noticed problems with her hearing that had been occurring for several years. She also heard a loud “ringing” noise. At the time, she said she had so much going on with her mental health that she chose to ignore the ringing or chalk it up to anxiety. However, in a follow-up TikTok post on February 23, she revealed that she had seen a hearing specialist.
She called the news “worse” than what she had expected, and went on to describe what the doctor told her after conducting a hearing test. “So it goes … normal, mild, moderate, moderately severe, severe, profound, and profound is like deaf,” she shared. “I have significant, severe, and, in some frequencies, profound hearing loss, which is bad.” She will also need a cochlear implant at a later stage.
Lusk spoke about how her left ear was worse than the right, and she would be getting an MRI scan to ensure that she does not have a tumor. “Sometimes, a specific side being worse can indicate a tumor in your head. It’s not super likely, and even if it did exist, it’s not necessarily a worry that it’d be cancerous,” she explained. “The worry would just be keeping an eye on the size of it and making sure that it’s not touching stuff in my brain that it’s not supposed to touch.”
She Hopes to Bring Comfort to Others
To receive news like this is devastating, but Lusk is bravely opening up about her condition in the hopes that if someone is watching and experiencing something similar, they may find solace knowing they are not alone.
“I wasn’t gonna talk about any of this,” she said. “Then the day I got the diagnosis, I came home from the doctor, and I spent probably six hours on TikTok and Instagram just looking up variations of young girls with hearing aids, girls in their early twenties with hearing aids … videos about hearing aids, videos about hearing loss, videos about deafness at a young age. I was just searching for relatability and searching for somebody that made me feel less alone in that.”
Although it has been several weeks since Lusk shared this update, her story is now getting the attention it deserves as the media picks it up. She has also received support in the comment section of her post. “Hearing loss diagnosis in your 20’s solidarity! I was 22. It gets better. My DMs are open if you ever need someone to talk to,” a follower shared.
“Thank you so much for sharing your journey,” another person wrote. “I’m an ASL interpreter, and work with a lot of deaf little girls who need a role model, and a lot of young deaf professionals who are so successful! It will take time to process, but I know you’ll grow through it and find new parts of yourself.”
