The "Huh? What'd You Say? Can You Repeat That?" Story

It was an ordinary day. I had walked outside and heard this funny noise. Different! Then I heard it again. I looked up in the trees and heard it again. It was a small bird chirping!! For most of you that is no big thing, but for me, I hadn't heard a bird chirp since 1972. When I coached the rifle team at Manheim Township High School from 1967-1972 nobody wore ear protection. Not on any team! No one thought it would matter. It wasn't important! Well, it mattered and definitely was important. After 5 years of coaching I had lost my hearing in the upper octaves. I could still hear bass notes and male voices, but it was extremely hard to hear the high notes and female voices. Ask my wife! She thought I was ignoring her, but finalized realized the problem I had. About 10 years later I got Workman's Compensation to cover the cost of hearing aides. They weren't very advanced and didn't work very well and I gave up on them. Still couldn't hear any better, but I was starting to compensate. I just said, Huh? or What'd you say, or Can you repeat that? Bugged the crap out of my wife when she had to say everything twice or maybe three times. Sometimes even more!! Then on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 I saw this full page color ad in the newspaper. "WANTED", 25 People who have difficulty hearing and understanding in background noise. THAT WAS ME!! I continued reading the ad and saw myself. "YOU MUST CALL TODAY" it said. So I did. Made an appointment with Miracle Ear to try a pair of advanced digital hearing instruments. The ad said I was going to get 30 days to try them and if they didn't work, I could return them. Good deal! Carol and I both went to the appointment and met Patrick Leedy, the President of Leedy Hearing Aid Centers, who was going to try to help me hear again. He first inspected my ear canals then had me sit in a sound-proof booth and gave me a hearing test. I thought I did good until I came out of the booth and he told me I had a severe hearing impairment. He then had me sit facing away from Carol and had her read words from a Frequency Weighted Word List. Words such as itch, this, she, ace, ice, is, chase, say, shy, seize, etc. These are words that need good hearing in the higher frequencies in order to hear and understand them. I got only 4 out of 20 correct. Then he had me face her and she read the same list again. I had almost all of them correct. He asked Carol if she could explain why I did better while looking at her. "HE CAN READ LIPS!!," she said. Wow! First time I ever realized that was how I compensated for my hearing loss. I always laughed at the episode on Seinfeld when Jerry was dating someone who was deaf. He and George wanted her to go to a restaurant and tell them what someone at a different table was saying. I probably could do that also, if necessary. As long as I can see the person talking to me and can SEE them speaking, I can understand most of what they are saying. Patrick told me he could help me. He then made ear castings of my ears and made an appointment for me to come back to get my hearing aides. About two weeks passed and I returned to get my them. Patrick explained what I was about to go through. A change in my life! I hadn't heard most higher frequency sounds for over 35 years, and now I was going to hear again. Hearing my own voice would sound different when I spoke. Hearing myself chew would freak me out. Hearing the crinkling of paper or the toilet flushing would be a new experience for me. And boy, was he right! My own voice was no big deal, but other sounds were all new again. The chewing was really loud. He told me I would never fully get all sounds back again because of the severity of my loss and therefore gave me 45 days to try them, since I had so much to cope with now. The aides irritated my ears for quite some time and itched constantly. He eventually had new molds made with a new type of material for people who have an allergic reaction to the regular material. And almost instantly, they felt better. I could adjust the volume, turn off the rear directional mic, and even lower the volume on just the left one so I could talk on the phone. I'm in my 9th month now and still have some discomfort when I wear them, but can tell such a big difference in what I hear. At times I don't wear them. Days I run the printing press, I keep them in the case. Don't want to chance getting ink on them and damaging them. At times I have to take them out. We went to an outdoor concert and it got so loud I was glad to remove them. Didn't want to keep them in my ears and just turn them off, because that really eliminates most noise. Like having ear plugs in your ears. Another time we were visiting with our daughter for a birthday party for our granddaughter Courtney and I had to remove them because the little girl's voices were so ear piercing it drove me nuts. When we went on vacation and I knew we would be in the water and on the beach almost all of the time, so I kept them in the safe at the villa. I'm learning more all the time about them. Patrick or his specialist Maureen can plug them into their computer and make adjustments digitally. Unbelievable. Right on the screen it says ..... reduce noise when chewing, or ..... adjust for female voices. They also can be adjusted differently for each ear. I now can hear a conversation occurring behind me in the car as I drive. Before I just shook my head when someone was talking. I can hear conversations behind me in restaurants or if that gets too loud, I can push a button on the left aide and turn off the sound from the rear. Many, many years of not hearing what was said are starting to go away. Many, many years of teaching and having a student ask me a question and having me reply with an answer that made no sense made me a popular teacher, since they thought I was doing that on purpose and they loved my sense of humor. If only they had known, but then they might not have selected my class. Several things they haven't helped is understanding most of the words on my Jimmy Buffett CDs and the constant ringing I have in my ears. Tinnitus is one problem I probably will always live with. But, I have had it for so long, I don't hear it unless I think about it. Patrick and Maureen have been the biggest help to me in understanding how my hearing aides work and how they can program them to fit my needs. Hey, just be careful when you say something about me behind my back, because now I can turn up the volume and hear everything you are saying! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - photos from top are Ad in newspaper that caught my eye, Patrick Leedy and Maureen Gavin from Miracle Ear, computer monitor that my hearing aides are plugged into so they can be adjusted digitally, and Maureen making adjustments so I will hear my wife better. Allegedly!