He Can Hear Me Now!

The birds twitter a conversation from a tree two houses down.  Soft breezes brush nearby foliage with a swishing sound.   Simultaneously hundreds of raindrops begin to pelt the aluminum siding with a familiar tap, tap, tap.  These are sounds I take for granted.

Sidekick and husband, Ed, now hears these sounds too. I listen to him outside laughing in delight. For the first time in many years he hears the birds and long forgotten sounds.

Technology for hearing loss has come a long way since man first sought a way to amplify hearing.  Long before the hearing trumpet, medieval author Giovanni Battista Porta wrote about carved hearing aids shaped of the ears belonging to animals with superior hearing. Obviously, that fad didn’t last.

By the early 1700’s the hearing trumpet was carved from wood, animal horns, shells and later fashioned with metals.  Wide at the receiving end and narrow at the other to fit near the ear, the hearing device directly amplified the sound to the ear.   Ludwig Van Beethoven was said to have used such a device.

It was during this time that bone conduction; the act of transmitting sound waves through the skull to the brain was discovered. Fanlike devices were placed behind the ear to capture the sound waves and transmit them to the brain for processing.  

If you haven’t already guessed, I’ve spent a lot of time reading literature at the audiologist’s office while sidekick was tested.   I’ve learned a lot about hearing loss.  Ed is like many who experience a slow decline in hearing.  

At first he missed a few words of a conversation.  It was harder and harder for him to distinguish vowels and soft sounds.  Over time background noise made hearing an even bigger challenge.  It was this winter that I noticed that my gregarious, outgoing sidekick was hanging closer and closer to the boat.   He didn’t want to attend beach functions because he hard a hard time understanding conversation in groups of people.  One on one and face to face was manageable, but he still might ask one to repeat something. 

Several times I walked up behind him and watched him jump as I startled him.  All I said was, “You need to see the ear doctor when we get back to the States.”  After originally agreeing to do that four years ago, Ed was finally ready.

I didn’t have to remind him or even find a doctor.   He did that himself.   He was extremely disappointed with the discourteous fast food service approach of the first practice and refused to go back after the audiologist stopped several times to take personal cell phone calls during the testing procedure.

He made a formal complaint to the practice, the referring physician, and the insurance company before finding a second audiologist nearby.  From there it was easy, all the way.  Stacy the audiologist was patient.  She explained what was happening and why Ed couldn’t hear in specific situations. 

It was after she fitted what looked like a neck crook with a round box that rested under Ed’s beard and placed small hearing aids in his ears that he fell in love.  The joy on his face as he conversed with full hearing made me grin.

It was when he turned his head to the ping of a new email message on her computer that brought a tear to my eye.  Ed could now hear sounds that he had been missing.  He heard the creak of the chair as Stacy moved backward.   

Do I get to wear this all the time he asked in earnest?   He really thought he would get the neck crook medallion.   Laughing ,Stacy explained that he would not need a device that large.  “You will receive a small hearing aid in a week,” she said.

We are fortunate that our insurance company pays once every three years for one hearing aid.  That meant we would have to pay the balance for a second one.  The devices are expensive and fragile.  Ed decided that he would go with both.

The hearing aides come with a three-year warranty against loss or breakage.  You can lose or break each one once in a period of three years.   They also come with a year’s supply of batteries that last up to 10 days. 

Hearing aids do need adjusting from time to time and must be kept clean.  Ed’s new devices are barely visible.  You have to look hard under all that hair to find them.  They are small and fit behind the top of his ear with a small wire connected to an ear bud that fits snugly inside.

Today’s hearing aids are a marvel of technology. Ed’s aids can adapt o changing sounds as he moves through the day.  It accounts for the wind blowing while driving with the windows open. It adjusts to reduce noise levels and can even act as a Bluetooth device.

It is amazing that something so small can make such a huge difference.  Hearing that I took for granted I now share with my husband.  On Imagine, he will hear the rain on the cabin top and the waves splashing the hull. 

This summer in Delaware he still won’t hear the neighbors dogs that wake me, or the train that whistles through Newark in the wee hours of the morning.  That’s because he takes them out at night.

I’ve been warned to watch what I say when his back is turned, he can hear me now…  at least when he wants to.   The other day I was helping him with some information I thought he needed to know.   He didn’t agree.  Grinning, he clicked the little volume button behind his ear and said, “Look Sharron, I can turn you off.”  Thanks Ed!