I feel like there is a stigma around females with hearing loss. I’ve dealt with it for the past 15 years or so. There are women in my family history that had hearing loss and just lived with it. I tried that too for awhile. My Dad had profound hearing loss too.

I don’t know how much of Dad’s was hereditary and how much was from jobs he had over the years that didn’t provide ear protection.

I remember as a child my Great Grandmother had hearing loss and we’d go to her apartment and have to beat so hard on the door and it usually took quite some time before she would hear it and let us in. I actually remember one time that my little sister opened the neighbors door saying we can get there from here. Mom shut that door so fast, but that lady didn’t have hearing loss and came to the door, said that she thought it may have been her husband coming back in. She ended up talking to us while we waited for her to open the door.

I went to an ENT 14 years ago who just wanted to talk surgery. He said that at my age he just knew that it was calcification on the bones in the inner ear. That was not the option that I wanted to pursue, and he didn’t really want to talk to me about any other options. He kept saying that at my age I should just have the “surgery”. The “surgery” that he wanted to do no further testing about, the “surgery” that he felt was needed just because of the hearing loss that we had talked about. So, I threw up a red flag and walked away. Before I decide to undergo any type of surgery, I need you to do testing and cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s. He didn’t do this.

Fast forward to about two years ago and I finally decided that enough is enough. My first stop was one of those hearing aid stores. The lady there looked in my ears with a device that is hooked to like a TV so everyone in the room can see the inner parts of your ear, she did a hearing test and ultimately told me that I had such profound hearing loss in my right ear that she had to suggest I go to an ENT to get it checked out. She gave me the stats on hearing loss and told me that as you lose hearing that eventually it affects your brain and when it realizes that you don’t use that anymore then you brain will no longer send a signal to your ear and that I could become completely deaf in that ear. I think that was my hold on a second ear and made me realize even more that I needed to follow through with this.

So, I seek out a different ENT practice than the one I went to prior. These doctors were very thorough. I can’t tell you how many different hearing tests I’ve done. I also had a CT scan and we went over my results in the office and guess what…….”surgery” was not a SAFE option. He said that he did not see any visible signs or reasons for my hearing loss. He said that he could do exploratory surgery, but couldn’t tell me that he’d find anything that he could fix to restore my hearing and that I could actually end up losing all hearing in that ear. NOPE! With the results of the CT scan and following up those results with another hearing test he concluded “I am special!” But didn’t we already know that. LOL!! He also saw on the CT scan what he said might be spinal fluid that runs really close and possibly through my ear canal. He said that if we did surgery he might end up with what he calls a gusher of spinal fluid. No thanks!!!!

I told him that since he couldn’t tell me 100% without a doubt that he could see the issue and that surgery could fix it, then I wanted the next option which was a hearing aid. So that is what I pursued and WHAT A LIFE CHANGER!

I have missed out on so many conversations the last 15+ years, but there is one conversation that I definitely don’t want to miss and that is any with my sweet Grandbabies. I remember hearing him call me Mina or actually ME for the first time. I was filling up his swimming pool when he was about 18 months old. Had I not had my hearing aid I may have missed it, and you know that an 18 month old is not going to repeat himself if you say Huh? Now I can’t wait to hear her call me for something and I definitely don’t want to miss it either.

I wear one hearing aid in my right ear. It looks like these shown her. I have the Phonak brand. This is the one that the ENT and audiologist decided was best for me. I had decided that I was not going to be self-conscious about it, I had had enough and just wanted to be able to hear. So I wear my hair up majority of the time and I also wear it down. I tell anyone about it whether they want to hear about it or not.

Let me encourage you Ladies and Gentleman, go get those ears checked, pursue the testing and get the hearing aids if needed. Yes they are investment, an investment into not missing out on conversations, not missing those sweet moments in life!! An investment into making your life better.