TALES FROM THE S
HIRE
I have been in the habit of telling my students to articulate and to speak boldly. Honestly some teenagers mumble and some do not articulate, but it seems I was not catching the teenage gossip, I mean classroom discussion, as clearly as I needed to. I was not hearing every word clearly at church. Ambient noise made it worse.
Like any teacher, I went for free advice and diagnosis - from the school nurse. I knew what she would say because a couple years ago she tested me after a plane trip left my ears clogged for a couple of weeks.
“You’ve got some hearing loss.” Once I decided to go to the otolaryngologist, I told her. She went on a mini-rant about her mother refusing to get hearing aids.
“She’s always saying ‘what?’ even when we are in the car! She isn’t hearing everything. She has needed them for about five years!”
“Oh,” I said. “How old is she?” She told me. I did the math with my age. It was time.
-- -- No stigma for me about getting hearing aids. No concerns about it being an “age thing”. I’ve had glasses since third grade to help me see, so why not have something to help me hear?
-- -- Good grief! It wasn’t so much an overall volume issue, but in the range of conversation -- imperative to my job -- I had more than half hearing loss in one ear! Adding the loss from the other side made it a done deal to get hearing aids. At least in this day and age, they are small and high tech. There’s an app that goes with them! If I wanted to, I could sync them to my phone or television! So much to learn!
-- -- The first day with them at school was interesting. Is opening my snack really that loud of a crinkle? Are those students turning the pages more viciously? Does this keyboard sound outrageous? Is my rustling in the supply drawers that distracting?
I actually apologized to Work Bestie. “I’m sorry for all the noise I’ve made that I didn’t know I was making!”
“Ha-ha!” she said. “I would sometimes giggle to myself because I knew you didn’t know it was that loud!”
-- -- Now if I could remember to put them in every morning! Three times in two weeks I have had to turn around and go back home for them!
-- -- Anyway, if you are saying “What?” or “Huh?” a lot, or you can't watch TV without captions, then get checked! You might enter a new ear-a of life!
