Better Hearing Consumer

Note from editor Gael Hannan: Mary Dyer, my guest writer this week, lost her hearing – and then realized how people like her were being sidelined in congregations of faith. She set out to do something about it. This blog is adapted with permission from her article in ‘Sojourners’, “Please Hear Those of Us Who Can’t”.    by Mary Dyer  

The man had a gift—I’ll give him that. The customer service rep at the driver’s licence office had the astounding ability to talk with scarcely a hint of lip movement. Seriously, he had an ironclad orbicularis oris, the large, complex muscle system that controls the lips. In conversations, his lips didn’t respond to any standard emotional orders from his brain

  Technology can be life-changing – and weird.  Guest writer David Drake, who last year wrote about upholding the family hearing aid tradition, shares his experiences with a new hearing aid/cellphone combination.   by David Drake   This past year, I started hearing some new voices in my head when I’m on the phone. My new set of hearing aids

If you have hearing loss, do you wish that your partner did, as well?  Communication would still have its challenges, but at least the frustration wouldn’t include “you don’t understand what I’m going through”. It would be more like, “if you can’t hear me through walls, what makes you think I can?”   I’m in a mixed marriage myself; my husband is

Jerry Russell is an online friend in the community of people with hearing loss who share their common challenges, frustrations, and words of encouragement.  Jerry tells his story of when hearing loss is a family affair.   I’m rehearsing in my head what I’m about to say to my dad as I approach him. He’s sitting in his favorite chair

“…keep going.” I came across this delicious bit of inspiration on a particularly bad day: tinnitus and hyperacusis were battling for supremacy inside my cranium.  It was hard not to focus on the hellish noise, but these words caught my attention. They even made me smile, because they reflected exactly how I felt at that moment—hellish. And ka-ching! Suddenly my

I’m taking a short break this week.  But before I go: last week, I re-posted the first blog in a two-parter about navigating the health system.  Last week’s was about waiting to see the doctor.  This week’s follow up, first published November 1, 2011, is what happens when your name is finally called.    Having escaped from the waiting room

This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving. I plowed through the delights of turkey, stuffing, veggies and pie, just two days after a visit to the dentist. His advice to “enjoy your feast, but chew very carefully”, made me nervous eating anything thicker than gravy.  And since it was a holiday, I decided to repost an article, slightly updated, but which still  resonates today: navigating

Note: I first posted this article five years ago to the day. I’ve made only a few minor changes, but the info is the same and even more important today because, presumably, there are now a lot more people with hearing loss. That means there are a lot more people who need to know how to talk with ‘us’: family members, friends, law enforcement

In the hearing loss world that I live in, there are HoHs and there are Pros: HoH: Refers to a person who has hearing loss and who may also identify as hard of hearing, hearing-impaired, or hearing aid/cochlear implant user. (This term does not refer to all those affected by a person’s hearing loss, such as the moms and dads, life