Better Hearing Consumer

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Mar. 30, 2015

I’m a Hearing Care Professional with Hearing Loss

Gael Hannan
My guest writer this week is the dynamic Alison Graham, whom I met many years ago through the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association.  She lives on Vancouver Island with her husband and young daughter.  By Alison Graham, Hearing Instrument Practitioner   It is not uncommon these days to encounter hearing health care professionals who use hearing aids or cochlear implants. 
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Mar. 24, 2015

Hearing the Cocktail Talk

Gael Hannan
Last night the Hearing Husband and I went to a cocktail party.   Hosted by our best friends from Toronto who are here in St. Augustine, Florida, escaping the brutal Canada winter, the party was not as fancy as the name suggests. These days, ‘cocktails at five’ may mean something farther down the sophistication scale, such as “drinks and appies”
Mar. 17, 2015

Can You Hear Your Favorite Sounds?

Gael Hannan
NOTE: This week’s blog has no deeper purpose than to muse on favorite sounds. Anyone looking for words of wisdom, a shoulder to cry on, or helpful technical information should read something else and come back next week.  The rest of you, read on. On TV the other day, an announcer said how much she just lo-o-oved a particular sound—probably
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Mar. 10, 2015

A HoH’s Credo

Gael Hannan
When I was young and went to church more regularly than I do now, I thought the Credo was a nice poem that we recited to express what we were supposed to believe as Canadian Presbyterians.  This Credo was especially helpful, because if you weren’t sure of what you believed, or forgot a detail, you could look it up at
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Mar. 02, 2015

Hearing Loss – A Load of Laughs

Gael Hannan
Hearing loss isn’t funny.  Not to the person who has it, anyway. Some hearing loss moments can spark a smile or a giggle or even a laugh–although most of us will laugh later—like two months or so.  That’s when you’ll tell the story of being in a group conversation and someone says “I just hate bugs” and you put down
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Feb. 23, 2015

A Story of Hearing Loss

Gael Hannan
My name is Shari Eberts and I have a hearing loss. This is a simple statement, but one that is 20 years in the making. It has taken me some time to accept my hearing loss, and to stop hiding it. I have now come full circle and consider myself a hearing health advocate! I even write a blog to
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Feb. 16, 2015

An Idiot’s Guide to the Pinna (Outer Ear)

Gael Hannan
Have you ever stared at something so familiar—a sight you’ve seen a thousand times a day, every day of your life—for so long and so hard that all of a sudden it looks different? It’s as if you’re seeing it for the first time, and it looks bizarre! This is the pinna, the flap on the side of the head that comes in pairs,
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Feb. 09, 2015

Having a Bad Hearing Day?

Gael Hannan
Ever had one of those days?   A day that is pocked, from sunrise to moonrise, with hearing faux pas and embarrassing moments?  A day when, no matter what the situation or conversation, communication brings more pain than pleasure?  A day that tempts you to hide from all human interaction—forever?  You know you’re having a bad hearing day when: You’re missing
Feb. 02, 2015

Upholding the Family (Hearing Aid) Tradition

Gael Hannan
My guest writer this week is David Drake, the founder and headmaster of the White Oak School in Westfield, Massachusetts, a school serving bright students with dyslexia and related learning disabilities. He lives with his family in Northampton. Pharmacie-Marseille.com by David Drake   I’m pretty sure I come from a line of serial hearing-aid abusers.   My grandfather’s hearing aids were
Jan. 26, 2015

What a HoH Needs to Know (to Explain Hearing Loss)

Gael Hannan
Note:  Person with hearing loss = hard of hearing person = HoH   She did it again—she started talking to me from another room.  His baseball cap shades his eyes, and I always have to ask him to take it off.   People with hearing loss complain that other people don’t accommodate us, or make an effort to meet our