What?!
Have you ever noticed that I say “what” a lot during a conversation? It’s not that I wasn’t paying attention, I just didn’t hear what you said. I have hearing loss, it’s mild/moderate and in both ears. If I ever laughed when I shouldn’t have or nodded and pretended I heard what you said but I clearly didn’t, well now you know why. (P.S. Sorry about that.)
Today I took grandma to get her hearing aids. By grandma, I mean myself. Today, I Lexie, a 25-year-old, got hearing aids.
Rewind.
6/6/16 – The day I found out I had hearing loss. I had my annual physical that day and my dear mother told me to ask them if they could check my hearing. Apparently, I said “what” too much when mom was trying to talk to me. :P (I told her she just mumbled too much, I always heard dad just fine. Later I would come to find out that I can hear most men’s voices better than women’s due to the type of hearing loss I have.) So, I listened to my dear mother and sure enough…she was right, my hearing’s crap. The next step was to meet with an audiologist for a more in-depth hearing evaluation.
7-8-16 – I met with an audiologist for my in-depth hearing evaluation. At 22 years old I was told that one day (most likely soon) I would need hearing aids. I went home and bawled. I did not take it well at all and tried to act like it didn’t bother me, but it did. I was terrified. At 22 years old you are not prepared for being told you need hearing aids, I thought I had a good 50 years before that conversation would have to happen. Hearing loss with age is usually inevitable, but why the heck was my hearing failing me at 22, out of nowhere, was I going to go deaf, what was happening?! Overtime, I came to accept it, and embrace it. It was now just another part of who I was, and there was nothing I could do to change that. I have hearing loss, it is what it is.
4/1/2019 – I went in for a hearing check. My hearing hadn’t really changed, which is good news. In fact, the graphs they used, compared to the 2016 graphs, actually showed that my hearing “improved” a tad. However, I was told that I was the perfect candidate for hearing aids and if I was ready, now was the time to get them. In 2016 I was not prepared, mentally, or financially. Over the course of the past 3 years I was able to come to terms with my crappy hearing and the fact that I’d be a mid-20-year-old with hearing aids. Prior to 2019 I was still on my dad’s insurance, which covered 0% of hearing aids. Now my husband’s insurance (and the reason I tell him I married him, haha) covers 80% OF HEARING AIDS. HOLLER. Those little buggers are EXPENSIVE.
5/14/2019 – I got my hearing aids today. I now have supersonic hearing and I can hear EVERYTHING! It’s insane, and weird, and is going to take some major getting use to.
I have what they call “unexplainable” hearing loss. I was never exposed to “excessive noise”. I worked at a dog kennel for many years, and that’s about all I could think of that could possibly fit under that category, but I was told that that likely wouldn’t have caused it. I never had a problem with ear infections when I was younger. I was never seriously ill. I wasn’t constantly blasting music into my earbuds…etc... They (the audiologists) think it’s possible that I was just born with it or just developed it as I grew up for who knows why. Not knowing what caused my hearing loss is beyond frustrating and when I first found out it was hard to cope with. I was constantly questioning myself, thinking well maybe I did blast my music way too loud, maybe I should have done this, or that. What if, what if, what if… All the questioning and worrying and wondering didn’t bring my hearing back. So, I learned to accept the hearing I have and to be grateful that I can hear well enough without hearing aids that I didn’t even realize I had hearing loss in the first place. (Thanks for making me get my hearing checked, mom.)
Today is the start of a new hearing chapter in my life. So, here’s to hoping that these wonderful little devices inside my ear will greatly reduce the amount of times I say “what” in a day. Or the times I “miss hear” what was actually said. Some of those really needed to be written down or recorded, because they were real gems. Enjoy these memes that I found all too relatable.