Better Hearing Consumer

This week, I’m scheduled for a hearing checkup and I am not particularly looking forward to it. Lekharna-Prague.com Odd, isn’t it, that a person with lifelong hearing loss and who’s had upward of 60 annual checkups can still feel uneasy at the thought of it? It’s not that I don’t like the audiologists who conduct the tests. Far from it,

Do you suspect you might have hearing loss? Has hearing loss recently been positively, absolutely confirmed? Have you lived with it for some time? Whatever stage of the hearing loss journey you’re at, chances are you’ve hurled these questions at the universe: Why me? What happened? Why now?  These questions are easy to ask, but the answers aren’t always easy

Sometimes, when my wandering gaze passes over my right forearm, I give a start. “Oh right,” says I. “I have a cochlea tattoo.” I take a few seconds to admire and reflect on the small symbol and then move on. The inky rendering on my arm is actually that of a koru, a Māori symbol for “life, growth, strength and

One of the greatest challenges for people with hearing loss is being able to participate effectively in a group conversation (also known as a ‘convo’). We usually know what’s being talked about, but there are several challenges that exclude us. Catching what each person says – and when. Because most of us read lips to some degree, by the time

Sometimes we, the people with hearing loss, are our own worst enemy. Not all bad hearing moments are the fault of them – you know, the people who can hear.  We have to take at least some responsibility for less-than-perfect communication, because we have some bad habits which trip us up time after time. What Was I thinking? We ask

The Hearing Husband and I just returned from a two-week trip to Scandinavia, namely Denmark, Sweden and Finland, and we’re suffering from a bit of jet lag. I had been invited to speak about living with hearing loss by several groups of consumers, as well as a hearing aid manufacturer, GN Hearing in Copenhagen. Since talking about hearing loss is

I am traveling in Scandinavia this week, doing hearing loss presentations in Copenhagen, Stockholm and Vaasa.  Meeting other people with hearing loss is always fun and rewarding, because it always makes me better at something I do – living with hearing loss. New friends teach me learn new tips, make me realize I have some lingering bad habits, and discover

For those of you who are new to hearing loss – welcome! Not that we’re happy you have hearing problems, but you’ve joined an unofficial and very large club of like-minded, or should I say like-hearing, people. One thing that you have may have found to be a challenge with your hearing loss, is the kitchen and cooking. I’ve pulled together

I’m a bit terrified of technology. Maybe that’s not quite true. My feelings about technology – especially assistive hearing technology – are complex. I love what technology does for me, I just don’t understand how it works. So it fills me with a huge sense of awe, of need, and of gratitude. I also feel terror when some important piece of

I’m not in Kansas anymore. I can say that because a couple of weeks ago, I was in Kansas for the first time. So, now I belong to the club of We’re-Not-in-Kansas-Anymore-People. (I don’t have a Toto, so I use the royal ‘we’.) But while I was there, magic happened. The Lied Center, the performing arts venue at the gorgeous