Posted by:
en passant
(
)
Date: October 29, 2014 04:02PM
In 1990 when I was in my late 40s, I took a manufacturing job for a brief period. I learned from the required periodic hearing tests that I had high-frequency hearing loss. I did not perceive actual disablity at the time, but the situation gave me a point of reference on things to come.
As my parents aged, their relationship grew more contentious. One obvious reason for the discontent was because they couldn't understand each other due to hearing loss. So, their yelling was not only cathartic, it was necessary to enable communication. Meanwhile, the rest of the extended family became increasingly alienated because of the constant tension. Sons, in-laws, grandchildren, and long-time friends all had to make an effort to sustain contact with them as their hearing worsened. Neither of them perceived any of this as a problem, nor did either one ever agree to get a hearing test.
Fast forward past the turn of the century. I found myself struggling at work to hear people, craning my neck and cupping my ears to hear in meeting rooms, repeatedly asking people to speak louder, with the word, "huh?" becoming a regular part of my vocabulary. My partner began badgering me about getting my hearing tested. At some point I realized I was relying on him to hear for me on certain occasions. I had a stunning revelation along the way that the reason I didn't know the words to any songs, was because I couldn't understand sung words. And, I remembered my parents (passed-on by then) fighting all the time.
About 2006 I resolved not to be like my parents, and I went to our local university hospital and had a complete workup. That turned out to be overkill because my type of hearing loss is pretty common and very treatable with hearing aids, and a seeing a regular audiologist would have been sufficient. But having a complete workup did make me feel better nonetheless.
I got good advice from the doctor. She talked me out of in-the-ear hearing aids, pointing out that they block out most of the ambient sound, and your brain forgets how to process it. She said it is important for you to continue to hear normally as much as possible, so that meant getting over-the-ear hearing aids with sound tubes. So, I ended up with a very expensive pair of $6K over-the-ear babies, computerized to the max, which are very comfortable to wear, which automatically adjust to ambient noise, and which I've come to depend on very much.
I live in Seattle, where you may know the Seattle Symphony built Benaroya Hall in 1999. The acoustics in Benaroya are legendary, but I just didn't get it, and I thought maybe it was something I was just not capable of understanding. But my first concert with $6K hearing aids made me weep.
Hearing aids are not a perfect solution--even the expensive ones, but I would no more go anywhere without them than I would go without my glasses. Please, if you are suffering from hearing loss, you are also suffering from the psychology of hearing loss, as are your family and friends. Get tested.