For boring reasons I won’t go into, I was working from home and not wearing my hearing aids this morning.
Taking a short break, I decided to drag the kitchen trash to the garbage cans outside. I didn’t think about my hearing aids – my ears were nekkid and I didn’t even think of it.
It was a perfectly ordinary trip to the garbage cans: looking at the sidewalk, noticing the dirty brown snowless yard, trying to lift the lid of the garbage can without touching it very much because YUCK, trudging back inside and shutting the door. Period, the end. No jazz hands, no sparkle, just an ordinary chore, done.
Within the next few minutes I washed my hands and put on my hearing aids. Then I realized I had something else to tote out to the garbage cans and off I went, the exact same route, just minutes later. But what a difference!
Stepping off the doorstep onto the sidewalk, I immediately noticed a bunch of happy bird calls all around me. It made me smile. I sort of skipped, just a teeny bit, the rest of the way and thought about how much I miss, without even realizing it, without my hearing aids.
Without them, the color is insidiously leeched out of my days and I don’t even know it’s happening.
Jeepers.
The Subtle Absence of Color
Minnesota Hands & Voices
MN Hands & Voices is a private not-for-profit organization providing a variety of support services to families of children who have been recently identified as deaf or hard of hearing, as well as families further along in their journey.
If you know someone who might benefit from this wonderful organization, please send them to the website: http://www.mnhandsandvoices.org/
I contributed to the I Am Hands & Voices column of their September FOCUS Newsletter. I Am Hands & Voices – September 2011
Why Do So Few of Us Do Anything About Our Hearing?
There’s been a lot of news lately about the growing numbers of Americans with hearing loss and the younger ages at which we’re losing hearing.
From my own experience I know – we don’t typically do much of anything about our own hearing loss. It took me [a lot of] years before I was willing to do the research, invest the money and commit to adjusting to hearing aids. I waited until I could no longer live with the isolation and frustration.
But now that I’ve experienced what a difference the new hearing aid technologies can make in my life, I’ll never again ignore the impact of my hearing loss.
In a meeting yesterday both of my hearing aid batteries were taking their last gasps and I just couldn’t understand what people were saying any more. It was awful! I can’t believe I ever just accepted that as my fate.
I’m still adjusting to hearing aids: I’m learning. I never imagined I’d be so determined to do whatever it takes to hear and understand better. Now that I know what I’m missing I can’t stand it any more!
What follows is quoted from another blog. I am not affiliated with Audiotoniq and I don’t know anything about their hearing aids or services. I was just wanted to share what Courtney at audiotoniq.com said in her blog:
“We are all very busy. But I can guarantee you, the slow, almost imperceptible degeneration of quality of life due to hearing loss creates big problems. The kid who “isn’t paying attention,” would be on honor roll if he heard the teacher’s instructions properly. The adult who, “was just too ditzy to get the job done,” would have been promoted had he or she been wearing hearing aids. The parent who seems “out of touch from her kids,” would stop disappointing her spouse and family. The grandparent that is just a, “grumpy, difficult person,” would have the relationships he craves.
Sure, we are afraid it will make us look old. Sure, the person might be insulted when we initiate the suggestion that they consider hearing aids. But those difficulties are worth the risk.
Only 22% of individuals who could benefit from a hearing aid actually receive one.
To me, that is a lot of people missing out on a lot of life. If you, or someone you love probably needs hearing aids, take them or take yourself to get a hearing tested. Then, start looking into hearing aids. There are many, many on the market. It will take you several weeks, possibly a few months to decide on the right pair. By then, we hope Audiotoniq, Inc. will have an option for you.
But the most important thing is, there is technology to improve your hearing. Get it.”
Talking About Hearing Loss – Time To Make Noise
I grab opportunities to talk about my biggest life-changing experience yet – the hearing aids I got about 10 weeks ago. I’ve been told I’m like a kid in a candy store. It’s true! I can’t shut up about it.
Last week I got an opportunity to mention my new hearing aids to someone I’d been working with for a short time. She said, “I didn’t know! You hide it really well!”
I’ve heard this a lot, and I’ve always felt a sort of pride about the fact that I can cope well enough that, in some situations, people have no idea I have a hearing loss.
But I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the invisibility of hearing loss and how little we talk about it. Now that I know what I’ve been missing, now that I realize how much my hearing loss has isolated me from people, from life, I don’t think I want it to be invisible any more.
And with all the recent news about the growing numbers of Americans with hearing loss, and the young ages at which people are being affected, I’m starting to think it’s very important we talk about hearing loss.
By keeping my mouth shut, nodding and smiling and acting like I can hear just fine, I’m isolating myself from the world. I do it because it’s embarrassing and frustrating. I don’t think I’m going to accept that any more.
I want to be involved in life, connected with people. With the help of these hearing aids, that’s a lot easier now. But they don’t give me normal hearing. I’m still going to have some awkward interactions, embarrassment and frustration. I’m gonna have to talk about my hearing loss because I don’t think I can just fade back into the wallpaper again.
This recent Say What Club blog post had this to say about speaking up for what we need:
“…imagine if we all showed up at the White House lawn to make a statement? Time to speak up. This country has allowed the silence to take over. The more silent we are, the less power we have to make change. Help advocate for captioning. How? If you have a favorite show on t.v. thats not captioned, write the producers of the show. If your favorite show is captioned, write a letter thanking them. Join the battle by joining CCAC http://www.ccacaptioning.org/ and get informed.”
Check out the whole blog post here: ACTION, CAMERAS, CAPTIONS.
I think I’m ready to start making some noise!
Hearing Aids and Noise – Reality Check
I’ve had these hearing aids for a little over three months. Up to now pretty much everything I’ve written or said about my new hearing aids has been rosy, but they’re not perfect. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very glad I got ‘em! But it occurs to me I oughta qualify my glowing praise with some reality checks.
These hearing aids are amazing to me, and they may be reverse engineered from alien technology, but they don’t give me “normal” hearing, and they may not be right for everyone.
I’m not a hearing professional: I can’t write with authority on hearing loss or how well hearing aids might work for anybody else. As I understand it, hearing loss can be quite different from one person to the next. There are different types and degrees of hearing loss. The hearing aids that work so great for me might not be the right ones for you. But, just like there are different kinds of hearing loss, there are also different kinds of hearing aids. And the technology has apparently come a heckuva long way since the last time I tried hearing aids (in the mid 1990s).
NOISE
Right from the start I’ve been impressed with the quality of sound I get from these hearing aids. I think they’re exponentially better than the ones I tried in the 1990s. But if you’re thinking about getting hearing aids, you should be aware: they don’t give you “normal” hearing.
My guess is that, for people who started out with normal hearing, hearing aids seem to restore something they were once familiar with. I imagine it doesn’t seem quite so strange to them.
I can’t tell you the difference between the new sounds I hear and what they sound like to someone with normal hearing. I’ve never had normal hearing. But I can tell you that some things sound unusually loud to me now. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to all of those sounds. But after three months with my new hearing aids, I am starting to filter out some of the new noise and get comfortable with some of the new sounds.
For example: In the office I spend a lot of time on my computer keyboard. With hearing aids, the clicking of the keys has seemed unusually loud to me. At first it was unnerving. I couldn’t help but wonder if my typing was annoying to people working close by. Without hearing aids, the sound was quite muffled. I barely noticed it. Now I really notice it. But as the day wears on, I get used to it and it sort of fades from my attention.
Other sounds, like the click of my car doors locking or unlocking, seemed strangely loud at first, but now I barely notice. There are lots of sounds that we just naturally don’t pay attention to.
Some sounds that I don’t encounter very often, like the crumpling of paper, seem crazy loud to me every time. I don’t know how crumpling paper sounds with normal hearing, so I can’t say if what I’m hearing is unnaturally loud or not. With the hearing aids I tried years ago, that particular sound made me wince. With these hearing aids, it’s not as bad as that. But I don’t know if I’ll ever really get used to it. I’m glad we’re more paperless these days!
I’m more aware of the possibility that something I’m doing might be disturbing someone nearby. After getting my new hearing aids, the first couple of times I “brown bagged” my lunch I was alarmed at how loud the bag could be! I no longer crumple the bag at my desk to throw it away. I pick it up with two fingers and carry it to the trash can in the break room. I don’t know how loud or obnoxious that sound is to someone with “normal” hearing, but I’m not taking any chances!
My own voice sounded strange to me at first. I’m used to the tone of it now, but I notice my consonants much more than without hearing aids. I’m making a conscious effort to continue enunciating properly, even though to me it sounds a little over the top. I’m hearing other people’s consonants for the first time too, and I like it! I’ll get used to my own, eventually.
My singing career, however, is a subject for a future post. Let’s just say, now I understand why no one ever really wanted to listen to me sing!
Seriously, stop it.
These new hearing aids are better in every way than the hearing aids I’ve tried in past decades.
Overall, the world does not sound strange or unnatural to me. Except for a few renegade sounds that I’m still getting used to, the world actually sounds more pleasant with my hearing aids than without.
With a high-frequency hearing loss like mine, highs and lows in my environment are out of balance. Low sounds, like air conditioning or traffic, can completely overpower most of the sounds I’d rather hear. That’s one reason why, this summer, I like to wear my hearing aids even when I’m spending quiet time at home. I’m running two air conditioners and two ceiling fans most of the time, and without my hearing aids, that roar is virtually all I can hear. With my hearing aids I can hear the TV or the phone. Even if there’s nothing in particular I want to listen to, the hearing aids wrestle those low roaring sounds back into balance with the rest of my world. It’s just nicer that way.
How Comfortable Are Hearing Aids, Really?
I’ve had these hearing aids for a little over three months. Up to now pretty much everything I’ve written or said about my new hearing aids has been rosy, but they’re not perfect. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very glad I got ‘em! But it occurs to me I oughta qualify my glowing praise with some reality checks.
These hearing aids are amazing to me, and they may be reverse engineered from alien technology, but they don’t give me “normal” hearing, and they may not be right for everyone.
I’m not a hearing professional: I can’t write with authority on hearing loss or how well hearing aids might work for anybody else. As I understand it, hearing loss can be quite different from one person to the next. There are different types and degrees of hearing loss. The hearing aids that work so great for me might not be the right ones for you. But, just like there are different kinds of hearing loss, there are also different kinds of hearing aids. And the technology has apparently come a heckuva long way since the last time I tried hearing aids (in the mid 1990s).
COMFORT
In the past, I tried in-the-ear (ITE) hearing aids and I didn’t find them very comfortable. The technology required a certain amount of room, and I guess my ears are smaller than average. We had a hard time getting the hearing aids small enough to be comfortable for me. I actually ended up with sores – basically blisters I guess – and that just wasn’t acceptable.
My new hearing aids are a type called receiver-in-canal (RIC). The microphone and processing technology rests behind my ears and the sound travels through a tiny wire, protected by clear tubing, to a very small receiver sitting way down in the ear canal. The part in my ear is tiny!
Sometimes, like at the end of a long day, I may become aware of the sensation of something being in my ears. There’s no pain at all, it’s just a weird sensation that creeps up on me once in a while.
On very hot, humid days my ears get sweaty. I’ve never noticed it without hearing aids, but I really notice it with ‘em. It’s kind of a yucky feeling. Plus, it can cause feedback: it sounds like a bird is chirping or whistling in my ears. The feedback doesn’t hurt my ears, but it’s pretty distracting. When that starts happening, I take the hearing aids off and let them dry out.
With or without hearing aids, sometimes my ears get itchy. Dang allergies. That tiny receiver adds a whole ‘nother dimension to an itchy ear canal. If I’m wearing the hearing aids when my ears start to itch, I’ve gotta take ‘em off and get at the itch.
I wear glasses and, before I got these hearing aids, I wondered if the bows of my glasses would interfere with the behind-the-ear part of the hearing aids. It hasn’t been a problem for me, but I’m sure it could be, depending on the style of the glasses. It’s something I’ll keep in mind from now on when I buy new glasses.
I now wear my hearing aids pretty much all day, every day, even when I’m home alone with no plans to venture out among people. I’m happy with how comfortable they are.
Tomorrow’s subject: NOISE
This Is Just Plain Silly
I watch TV (and movies) with closed captions. Unfortunately, some things just aren’t captioned. Some things are captioned, but the captions are totally wacko – screwed up or poorly done. And sometimes, the captions are censored (even though the audio is not censored). WTFrilly heck? Oh my virgin eyes! That’s just plain silly.
I got a big kick out of this blog post at Eh? What? Huh?
Deciding to Try Hearing Aids
Deciding to try hearing aids again didn’t happen overnight.
I was at one of those crossroads where you’re examining what you’ve achieved and figuring out what’s next. I wasn’t content with my semi-reclusive life any more. I wanted to connect with people and have a social life.
I wasn’t sure why this was so hard for me. I’d worked hard to overcome depression: it had been a long road and I’d come a long way, but I still didn’t seem to be able to connect with people.
For a couple of years I’d been trying to change that: I made a real effort to get out among people and participate in conversations. I did things that were scary to me: I went to a holiday party, answered the phone when it rang, went for a walk or had coffee with a friend, found an interesting class to take.
I clearly was no longer too depressed to try, but my efforts were frustrating and unsatisfying. Each social interaction made it more and more obvious to me that my hearing loss was a real barrier. Before long I realized that if I wanted to get more out of life, I needed help with my hearing.
I did some research online. Had the hearing aid technology improved at all since the last time I’d tried them? How much money would it take? Would my insurance help with the cost? I got mixed results.
Open Fit Hearing Aids
I read about something called “open fit” hearing aids that were supposed to avoid
those “occlusion” problems I’d experienced before (the ridiculously loud sound of my own breathing, swallowing, sniffling, etc.). The part that goes in the ear was described as an open “basket” that doesn’t plug your ears the way my previous hearing aids did. That sounded hopeful.
I read that the digital programmable technology had advanced considerably, improving sound quality and providing the ability to more accurately target the specific frequencies of an individual’s hearing loss. That sounded hopeful too.
These latest advances weren’t cheap. That slowed me down quite a bit. I confirmed what I’d expected: my insurance doesn’t cover any portion of the cost of hearing aids. What I didn’t expect was that it doesn’t even pay for the audiology exam. Nada. Zip. That ticked me off.
I’m pretty sure my insurance covers Viagra. Can I just say how p.o’d it makes me that some old guy’s woody is considered more important than my ability to hear and understand speech? UGH. Seriously, it makes my stomach twist. But that’s for another post.
Disgruntled.
I had to decide just how important this was to me. So I thought about it. I kept trying to participate in life more, but I was obviously beating my head against a wall. 
I could no longer deny that my hearing loss was isolating me, and I could no longer accept isolation as my fate.
So I got serious about figuring out a way to afford hearing aids. Turns out it’s pretty likely you can finance them with affordable monthly payments. And there’s a lot of different kinds of hearing aids. Depending on your needs, it might cost anywhere from $1,000 to $3,500 (for each one).
I wasn’t very enthusiastic about the expense, but then I realized: I was willing to go into debt to have a computer, iPod or car, but not to give myself the ability to connect with people? My priorities have changed.
I talked to people about wanting to get hearing aids. Someone suggested using my health care spending account. I hadn’t thought of that!
I felt like I wanted hearing aids right this minute. I didn’t want to wait! But I’d waited this long. I could be patient, if I had to, I guess. I started planning.
Meanwhile, I was able to BORROW a couple of different types of personal amplifiers to help me hear better in meetings and some social situations. If you live in Minnesota, you can do that too! Check it out:
Minnesota has this awesome resource: Minnesota Deaf & Hard of Hearing Services (DHHS). They can loan you different types of personal amplifiers so you can see if one is helpful to you. They can provide you with a free amplified telephone for your home! And they can provide tons of information to help you with hearing loss related issues. Their services are free: it’s a state agency. For more information about their services click HERE.
Experimenting with a personal amplifier gave me a little taste of what it might be like to hear and understand better. It made me even more determined to try hearing aids again.