Embracing a World of Better Hearing
Having to treat your hearing loss and use technology to activate the brain (even though its invisible!) is not something that most of us think about or plan for as we age—but now that you are here—lets embrace it and celebrate it!
From the moment you accept your hearing loss for what it is and get the treatment you need, and deserve, you are committing to yourself and your family to live your best possible life, remain confident and fiercely independent.
Does treating hearing loss mean things in your life have to change? Yes—FOR THE BETTER!!
One of the first things we say to our patients when we begin treatment is ‘Welcome Back’. Welcome back to the world of hearing and the world where you do not have to work so hard to be a part of the conversation. We have spent countless hours with patients talking about how their treatment has positively impacted their lives and the lives of their family members.
As we go through the treatment process, we often ask patients to reflect on what it was like living with untreated hearing loss and how it made them feel. Over the years we have made notes of what our patients say when referring to what it used to be like when they had hearing loss. Here are the most common feelings that patients have shared with us about their experience living with untreated or undertreated hearing loss.
My hearing loss made me feel . . .
- embarrassed
- insecure
- lonely
- crazy
- inadequate
- old
- foolish
- afraid
- forgotten
- diminished
- frustrated
- demented
- forgetful
- out of balance
- like I had crickets in my ear
- like an argumentative spouse
- like my life was over
- like my life was not worth living.
When you begin treating your hearing loss and tinnitus and embrace a holistic approach to active aging you are embarking on a journey. By treating your hearing loss, you are agreeing to invest in the process and to be patient. Treating hearing loss is an adaptive process that takes time. While most patients go from hearing good to great in under 30 days, some can take longer. In fact, for our patients with the most pressing tinnitus that interferes with daily life—the brain can take up to 18 months to adapt and suppress the neural-driven experience of tinnitus.
You will have to learn some new things, simple things, like charging your technology at night, remembering to clean the technology regularly and learning how to answer your cell phone so you can hear it more clearly through your new technology. Fortunately, we can report that after decades and decades of being audiologists, we’ve yet to meet a patient that was too old to learn something new (just in case you were thinking about backing out at this point!).
We promise, in fact we guarantee that the time, financial investment and sacrifices you make to treat your hearing loss will pay off in exponential dividends. We have often said to colleagues, the medical treatment of hearing loss and tinnitus is probably the best bang for the buck any patient could ever get. There are so many ways you and your family can celebrate your new hearing. We often tell patients that perhaps the best way is to sit down over a nice meal and simply have a conversation—experience what it feels like to be part of the conversation, what it feels like to listen with minimal effort and what it feels like to know you have given yourself a chance at having the best possible life.
