Better Hearing Consumer

One of the joys of getting brand new hearing aids or getting a cochlear implant (CI) is the new sounds that come on your radar. As a hearing aid user, I loved how sounds popped up out of nowhere, shooting new information to my brain. Sounds were louder and crisper and the hiss of the ‘s’ sounds almost drowned out

(Note: HoH = Hard Of Hearing = Slang acronym for a person with hearing loss.)   You have hearing loss and you’re finally admitting you might need a bit of help – who you gonna call? Maybe you mumble to your doctor something about your ears, perhaps it’s wax, or…. Maybe you take your neighbor’s advice and go directly to a

I don’t do sports, or what most people consider to be sports. It’s not that I don’t like sports, it’s more that they don’t like me. When swinging a baseball bat, the ball consistently flies half a foot above or below the bat. So annoying.  Golf was a possibility but if by some divine fluke I hit a ball into

In the vocabulary of people with hearing loss (PWHL), a person who doesn’t require amplification, implants, captioning, or clear speech from everyone is referred to as ‘hearing’. As in, I have hearing loss and my husband is hearing. I refer to him in my work as the Hearing Husband, but should you meet him, he also responds to Doug, because

“Mo goo! Mo goo, Gigi, mo goo!” Ava, my 16-month-old granddaughter, clearly wanted “mo goo” from Gigi (Grandma Gael = GG = Gigi) ). There was no parental translation help nearby so I kept taking stabs at what Mo Goo might mean. My usual assumption was that I couldn’t understand her because of my hearing loss, but it seemed that

We finally watched Bird Box, the new Netflix mega hit, because our son talked us into it, and Sandra Bullock has never disappointed us. It gave me the willies. Not a Spoiler Alert! Anyone who has even heard of this movie, or seen photographs and trailers filling up social media, knows that Sandra Bullock’s standout article of clothing is a

I’m taking a bit of a writing break during the holidays, but I want to share with you the most-read, most widely-distributed article ever on the Better Hearing Consumer. Lauren Sherwood has since  graduated and pursuing a career in communications but her words still ring true and still hit hard since its in initial publication over four years ago.  Enjoy!  

“When I get home at night, the first thing I do is whip off my hearing aid and relax.” I was a little shocked at my friend’s comment. Another friend also takes off her cochlear implant sound processor at times during the day just to get the same noise-free peace. I fought hard for the sounds that I now hear

Dear Santa, OK, Claus, this is IT! Year after year I write you, asking nicely for stuff, mostly hearing loss-related. And it’s like I’m writing to someone who’s not real! Have you been taking my gifts to someone else by mistake? I mean, how many people with profound hearing loss named Gael Hannan ARE there in this world? Is this

When I tell someone that I have severe tinnitus, a frequent response I get is clearly intended to commiserate, to make me feel better. “Oh yeah, I have that too. A little dinging bell that never stops dinging – it drives me crazy.” A little dinging bell? I would love to have just a little dinging bell, but I don’t