Monday, September 18, 2017

I'M ALL EARS



I found that I had a need for hearing aids in 2011.  It proved to be a good move as it improved my life as well as my wife’s.  She didn’t have to listen to me say, “What?!” every time she spoke to me.

Six years later the hearing aids and the hearer have been showing the wear and tear of daily listening.  At a recent family gathering my wife said something to me to which I replied, “Pardon?”  I had learned not to say, “What?!”  My wife then asked me, “Do you have your hearing aids in?”  I did.  I didn’t hear what she had said initially.  Nor was I hearing what the other women in the gathering were saying.  It was time for another hearing test.

My hearing hasn’t changed that much but the hearing aids are definitely not working as well as they used to.  I had the testing done and left the audiologist’s office with a new pair of hearing aids to try for a week.  They are really nice.  Hi-tech to the point of being compatible with my iPhone.  I can listen to the person on a phone call without putting the phone up to my ear.  And there are numerous ways I can make the task of listening an enjoyable experience and not an exhausting chore, especially in a public setting such as a restaurant.

As the trial week came to an end I was debating whether to get the new hearing aids or keep the old ones.  The darned things are expensive.  During a phone call with my wife and her voice coming through the hearing aids I was telling her that I thought I should just keep the old hearing aids.  She told me in her sternest voice, “No, get the new ones.  It’s a matter of quality of life.”  

 “But I have you.” I replied softly, thinking she would appreciate the sentiment.

“Not your quality of life, my quality of life!”  That was in her sternest voice!

So I have new hearing aids and the quality of life is better.  My wife told our daughter that I was a new man with my new ears.  My wife’s a new woman with my new ears.  Her quality of life, and mine, is much better.