Opening Up: My Own Personal Hearing Journey

Better hearing is not a destination, but a journey. The team at Jacobs Audiology and I dedicate ourselves to walking with our patients, ready to provide any and all necessary support along the way.

The hearing journey stories from our patients are one of our most valuable resources when it comes to helping those who are hesitant about seeking help for their hearing challenges.

In 2020, I became aware of my own hearing loss and started the same journey to better hearing that our patients are on. This blog is dedicated to sharing my personal hearing journey, the misconceptions about hearing aids, the impact they have had on my life, and my views about the future of hearing care.

The Point of Recognition

Every patient we see at Jacob’s Audiology talks about when and how they discovered that they were struggling with their hearing, and that includes me.

Like just about every other clinic, we closed our office initially when COVID hit. When we prepared to start seeing patients again, we got all of our protocols in place, including masks being mandatory

Suddenly, I realized that with our patients’ mouths covered, I couldn’t hear/understand a thing they were saying. Someone would be talking to me and I would be nodding my head and acting like I understood them, but I couldn’t hear a word they were saying. It was absolutely awful.

Just like the patients who come in for help, I went through a period of embarrassment, saying “what” way too frequently. That was my “AHA” moment that so many of our patients describe to us. I knew I needed help, and my journey began.

I got my hearing tested, put in a pair of hearing aids, and suddenly, the light clicked on, and I realized how bad my hearing had gradually become. The difference was a bit shocking. I went from not understanding anyone that was wearing a mask, to catching every word. It was wonderful.

Misconceptions About Hearing Aids

There are so many misconceptions about hearing aids. I think I’ve heard them all, such as; how bad they’ll look, that you’ll have trouble adjusting them, that you join the ranks of old people when you start wearing hearing aids.

I’ve been an Audiologist for 32 years and I have watched the technological progression of hearing aids and hearing care in general, so the stigmas and misconceptions were not a hurdle I had to cross.

To be totally honest, compared to what they were, hearing aids now are easy. If you get good technology that is programmed correctly, you should be able to just put them in in the morning and not even think about them again until you take them out at night and put them on the charger.

Another big misconception is that the journey is difficult once you get fitted, but usually isn’t. My life got easier when I was able to hear better, not harder.

When it comes to cosmetic misconceptions, most people visualize the big and clunky things we remember our parents and grandparents wearing. I know how ugly they were, as I used to dispense them. Today’s hearing aids are very small and discrete. They truly disappear. If a patient is concerned about how they look I say, “Can you see my hearing aids?” The typical response is, “What? You wear hearing aids?” Then I pull one out and show it to them and they say, “Oh my God, I couldn’t even see it.”

The Day-to-Day Impact of Hearing Aids on My Life

This part of my story is the most fun to talk about, because I am now able to experience firsthand the “life-changing” impact that my patients tell me about.

To start with, my husband doesn’t complain about the TV anymore. My hearing aids have made him quite happy! I also think there were issues in my family that I wasn’t even aware of until now. For example, if my husband is in the living room and I’m in the kitchen, and my hearing aids aren’t in while he is talking to me, I cannot hear him. Or if the oven timer is turned on and I’m not right there, without the hearing aids I can’t hear it. My husband and I are very social and we do enjoy going to restaurants with friends on the weekends. I no longer struggle to hear when there is background noise. My hearing aids do a wonderful job filtering the noise out, so I can hear the people I want to hear.

So that’s how they impact my personal day-to-day life. They make so many everyday things much easier in so many different ways.

Professionally speaking, there are people who are still wearing masks. I am able to interact with them just like I do with everyone else. I no longer struggle to understand them.

When somebody with hearing loss chooses to not treat it and walks out the door, I’m still very patient, but I think it hurts a little bit more because inside I’m thinking, “Oh my gosh, I can help you!”

I understand. I get it. I really do. I went through the embarrassment of hearing loss before I got my hearing aids. There was a time gap between realizing I couldn’t hear my patients and having the aids properly adjusted. It was absolutely horrible. If I don’t have them in now, I can’t stand it!

We work with many different manufacturers, and I am fortunate to be able to try all of the different hearing aids that we dispense. It is a lot of fun testing them out! If I recommend a device, it is because I have tried them and like them.

I test drive them in restaurants, at home with my family and friends and at work. I rejected hearing aids from the manufacturers because I think they’re not so great. As a hearing aid wearer, I’ve gained a new perspective. So, when I look at a patient and I say, “These are really good hearing aids and I think they’d be a great fit for you”, it is a genuine recommendation from personal experience.

The biggest professional change for me is how I counsel patients now. It’s night and day compared to what it was before. Now, I share my story with them, and I can talk to them about my aids and the differences between the various technologies from a personal perspective, not just a professional one.

I’ve literally had patients say that because I wear hearing aids I understand what they are experiencing, and they feel connected to us because of that.

The Future of Hearing Care

Where are hearing aids and hearing care headed in the future? I’m seeing a lot of promising things beginning to emerge in the mainstream.

Look at what Apple is doing. I see a lot of good in the technology they are introducing, because I think it’s raising awareness, normalizing hearing aids, and maybe it’s taking on that stigma of hearing loss.

One of our struggles has been trying to normalize hearing challenges and hearing aid use. The outdated stigma is almost comical, because people have these huge glasses and they’re afraid of little things on their ears. It’s all kind of part of life, if you will.

I think that people will start seeking hearing care younger and younger, which is another positive coming out of what Apple is doing. We will probably see people much younger getting hearing tests for sure.

Look at me—I probably should have gotten hearing aids sooner, but I think that as hearing aids becomes normalized, hearing care will change to accommodate younger people.

So, I think there is some positive stuff going on.