Better Hearing Consumer

By Pearl Feder, L.C.S.W.   As the sun goes down and the evening enters my bedroom, I whip my hearing aid off and breathe a sigh of relief. I begin to relax. I enjoy the sound of my tinnitus (yep, you read that correctly), without the words coming at me from all directions.  I haven’t always been deaf. I heard stereo music

“You have hearing loss? Really!? You speak so well!” (Because my mommy taught me.) “You don’t look like you have hearing loss.” (You were maybe expecting a permanent expression of “huh?”) Here’s some breaking news:  I WANT YOU TO KNOW I DON’T HEAR WELL. That way, you’ve got a head start on my needs. You and I just make minor

by Michele Nealon   (Note: HoH = hard of hearing, person with a hearing impairment) It was a precarious beginning. I came into this world with a range of medical issues and it’s presumed that the medications damaged my hearing. The unaided sounds I hear today are the sounds I have always heard – a brass orchestra, the breaking of

How do I feel about my hearing loss? I accept it, I live with it, but there are days, now and then, of struggles. How do others view hearing loss – in general, and mine in particular? Does it matter? Some years ago, I read the stunning poetry of Siegfried Sassoon, a World War 1 English poet.  In 1917, already a

In this week’s edition of What’s That Sound?, we’re talking about sounds we don’t understand, new ones that are weird, startling, and just plain incomprehensible – and that turn out to be common, everyday noises in our lives. There are about a million causes of hearing loss and hundreds of thousands of them can be helped with some form of amplification

I once was lost, but now I’m found…. The words of the old hymn, while written about faith, also talk of renewal, which describes the emotions of people who have been freed from fear or pain or frustration. Or from the isolation of hearing loss. Paying “hearing loss” forward doesn’t mean that you pass it on; you don’t touch someone

Dear Shannon, How are you doing?  It was great seeing you again at last year’s Hearing Loss Association of America convention!  I’ve never laughed so hard like when we shared all those hearing loss stories in the lounge – my stomach laugh-muscles were sure sore the next morning. Remember that guy who didn’t hear his morning wake-up call – but

By Carolyn Haas   When I got my first hearing aid, I was an immature 13-year-old high school freshman. I was meeting weekly with a special education teacher because I am blind. She noticed I was struggling with orientation and navigating the school hallways, and I wasn’t always responding appropriately to questions. A trip to the school nurse and a hearing

Recently, I had to give myself a slap in the face. The kind of “snap out of it” slap-a-thon that Cher gave to Nicolas Cage in “Moonstruck” when he was acting dopey-lovestruck – although not so hard.  I was feeling a bit sorry for myself, having tinnitus and hearing loss and all.  Poor me, why me, how did I pull

Last week, I did a presentation at a hearing health fair in Victoria, BC. The popular event by Broadmead Hearing has been running for nine years. Free of charge, people can talk to manufacturers of hearing aids and assistive technology, as well as organizations that offer other hearing-related services such as counseling, job support, speechreading, etc. Throughout the morning, there