DO YOUR EARS HANG LOW?

Almost three months have passed since I got my hearing aids. Time flies when you’re having fun? Or maybe it flies because now I can hear.

The morning of the 19th of April I went to the audiologist for my new ears. The first 45 minutes were spent learning about the devices, proper maintenance and how to insert them. “Stick it in your ear!”, takes on a whole new meaning.

Once I had shown the audiologist that I could insert and remove the hearing aids without asking for help, he hooked me up to his computer.

He clipped a transmitter, with a blinking red light, around my neck. It links to the hearing aids and sends the signal to the computer. While the transmitter is operational, the audiologist has complete control over my hearing aids. So I am sitting in the chair with a transmitter hanging from my neck feeling like I was one of the androids in the Star Trek episode, “I, Mudd”. “Harcourt Fenton Mudd!”

Once the transmitter, hearing aids and computer were linked, the audiologist started pushing buttons on his computer and sound came into my ears. Magically. All sorts of beeps and blips and burps. When the audiologist was satisfied that I was hearing and that the sound was balanced I was free to take on the world of those who hear. He promised me that I would hate him for the next two weeks as I tried to get used to the hearing aids. (I made it until 4 that afternoon. I was back at the audiologist’s office to have him turn the volume down. It was too loud and he had set it at 80% of full volume. He turned it down to 75%.)

When I left the audiologist that morning I headed to my wife’s school to see her. I figured I owed her the first hearing. She saw me coming to the front door of the school and met me there. “What are you doing here? Oh! Your hearing aids!” She checked out my new ears and gave her approval. Then, just to make sure that the hearing aids were working in the real world, I had my wife say something to me at a close distance and again at about 15 feet away. I closed my eyes and she spoke in a quiet voice. I heard her!

I didn’t respond with, “What?” I answered her statement. She said, “It is sunny outside.” I said, “Yes, it is.” I should have repeated her statement to just prove that I heard her exact words. It turned out okay, though. I scored big points by going to see, and hear, her first.

My daughter, always a person of great insight, had this to say on her Facebook page, “My Dad is getting hearing aids today. Somehow I think this makes him terribly adorable. He'll hate hearing that.” Her cousin responded with, “At least he will be able to hear it.”

The two most important women in my life are pleased with my having hearing aids. My wife thinks I’m sweet and my daughter thinks I am terribly adorable. Life is good.

I have been back to the audiologist several times to get my ears tweaked. The hearing is better each time and I have graduated to Remote Control Operator: Level IV. I have the basic volume control and three new buttons for controlling range, direction and effects of the sounds coming at me. This means I get to listen to whomever and whatever I want!

Learning to hear again is an interesting experience. I had forgotten so many sounds. They are coming back to me now and they are wonderful. Birds really do sing pretty in the early morning hours!