Mack & Sons Broad Spectrum CBD Oil
Mack & Sons Broad Spectrum CBD Oil I first realised I was losing my hearing about 10, maybe 14 years ago. It started on a course where I discovered that I couldn't hear the tutor at the front of the room. Okay I was at least 15 feet from her, but even so, a couple of years before it hadn't been an issue.
As time progressed I noticed that any situation in which I was in a hall or auditorium was somewhere between difficult and lost on me, but not all situations. There were some television programmes I couldn't hear, some people I had to ask to keep repeating, but it didn't significantly affect my life. It wasn't until I started answering the wrong questions, and met with the frustration and eye rolling, that it really hit me how much I was struggling.
The fact is that you don't realise how bad your hearing is getting for several very good reasons, one being that there's a significant difference in hearing between when you're relaxed and stressed or tense. I did an event and couldn't hear anyone from the stage who was trying to ask me questions, yet in bed that night my partner turned away and lowered their voice, and said that I answered everything they said. It was confusing, did I have a hearing problem or not? When you're faced with a spend of thousands of pounds that's a question you really need the right answer to.
My first hearing test did not deliver the right answer. I was told that I had up to 25% of my hearing missing in both ears, and to go away for 3 years and see how I got on. Which was all well and good but I was still struggling, and people were struggling with me!
I eventually went for 3 more tests with different people. The first of those delivered a completely different result, the second mainly agreed, and by now it was nearly Christmas so I hung on for the January sales. I had to have yet another hearing test, but that was broadly similar, so I felt comfortable moving forward.
Facing Ageing
For a long time it really hurt me that I was getting old, my hearing issue is age related, and I couldn't face the idea of admitting it by getting hearing support, but as things got worse I realised that my failure to deal with it was making me look stupid, and also resulting in isolation - I preferred not to go out and see people. I also thought I was getting memory loss, just to put the tin lid on it!
When I made the decision to get support I asked around, and one thing I was told very firmly by other people was - don't waste your money going cheap. Exactly as my mother said, and my grandmother before her, if you spend very little money you will land up hearing everything, all at once! You won't be able to hear the person next to you, but you will hear plates crashing in a restaurant kitchen, snatches of conversation from everywhere, sniffing, coughing, knives scraping plates. It's apparently overwhelming.
Also, match your hearing aids to your lifestyle. I'm a professional public speaker so I need to be able to hear across an auditorium, therefore spending £3000 (for two hearing aids) was worth it for me. I can have a microphone pinned to my blouse, and hand a small mic around a room, if the person speaks into that mic it transmits to mine, then up to my hearing aids, so I hear in my ears not across the room. Apparently university lecturers use them.
The hearing centre set them up for me, and now I'm popping back once a fortnight to refine the sound until it's perfect for me. I can turn them up or down, focus on one person or the entire room. They bluetooth into my phone, my computer, my car, and have a TV adapter that they can link into, and apparently you land up being able to hear the television better than anyone else in the room as they balance the sound properly and the sound effects don't outweigh the voice!
They have a microphone, so as long as I'm within range one tap behind my ear answers it, and a 2 second hold cuts the call off. No more yelling pointlessly at my phone "hang on, I'm just trying to get my phone out of my bag", one tap and apparently I'm walking round a shopping centre talking to myself. It's rather wonderful.