Effects of Hearing Loss on Career and Personal Life
Did you get a hearing aid? Did it help?
My first hearing aids didn’t help very much. They were cheap ones, they amplified the sounds coming into my ears. I could hear sounds that I had not heard in a long time, but for the most part, it was irritating to hear those sounds. I had already gotten in the habit of avoiding people. My social time was at the diner for breakfast, where the town’s people would gather. I found I could hear the clatter of the silverware and plates, but I couldn’t understand what someone was saying any better then before.
Later I got better technology in my hearing aids. I went to an audiologist rather than a hearing aid salesperson. I was able to get the "state of the art" newest aids. They helped my understanding much more then the cheap ones ever did.
Just this month I got my latest set of aids. Vocational Rehabilitation has paid for them. They have two microphones on each aid. They can discriminate between what is coming from in front of me and what is background noise. They have a T coil, as all of the better aids do today, but they have a new switching system on them. This set has a four-way switch. (1) I hear enhanced sound, with voice recognition and directional amplification. (2)Then I have T coil. (3) Then I have T coil plus Enhanced sound. (4) Then there is a setting called music where the sound is not enhanced and the directional quality is removed. If I know I am going to have to hear people speaking behind me, this feature is useful. When I switch gears there is a beep that tells me what gear I am in. The also have a beep that says it is time to put in new batteries.
These aids are great when I am facing some one and talking to them, even in a noisy restaurant, I can hear. If some one behind me calls me, I will not hear them. The voice enhancement has come a long way in the ten years I have worn hearing aids.
Did you learn any new skills, like lip reading?
In the lipreading class, what they told me was look at people when they speak. If you get in the habit of doing this, you will soon learn to figure out what they are saying.
Recently I have gone to seminars on speech reading. I have learned a few tricks to help me understand what people are saying. Some say that lip reading will only give you about thirty percent of what is said, but using that and context and guesswork, my lip reading is improving as my hearing continues to decline.
I guess this is not a skill so much as a coping strategy. I have learned to use the computer to do all my writing. This has kept me in contact with family and far away friends. The friends I had who do not email, I have lost track of them. I do not use the phone, not with TTY or relay or voice over. I know the technology is there, But I have just not had the need or energy to use it.
As hearing became worse, what became difficult for you?
As my hearing became worse, the thing that was more difficult for me, was understanding. At first, it was in groups, more recently it is even when I meet some one face-to-face. I used to travel a great deal. I was able to understand people who spoke English with an accent. I did well in Scotland, Ireland, Australia, South East Asia, Japan, all over Europe. If they could speak some English, I was able to converse with them. Now if they speak with an accent, I find it very hard to speechread them. I rely heavily on my being able to hear what they are saying.
Another difficulty is socializing. I belong to a inline skating club. We skate around the city streets of Washington, DC. After the skating events, the members always get together for beer and pizza. I have given up drinking beer, partly because I can’t hear in places where beer is drunk. I stopped going to the pizza parties after the skates. I find I cannot hear well enough to join in a conversation.
Did you join any HOH organizations like SHHH?
I was a member of SHHH for the first time when I was still in New Hampshire. I then got together with the folks out in Boulder Colorado. Now I am a member in good standing in the SHHH group here at the headquarters in Bethesda. I love going to the meetings. They are the only meeting where I am usually able to hear everything that is going on. They have assistive listening devises and they make sure that everyone speaks into a mike. It brings back some of the feeling of going to town meeting and meetings of the Fire Dept.
How did you know you had gone from HOH to deaf?
I am not yet able to meet all the criteria for being completely deaf. With my aids in place, I am able to hear speech. (If I am close up and facing the person and there isn’t any other sounds around)
