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Letter: Denial common with hearing loss

Last Oct. 20 we had a workshop on, “Keep us in the Loop.”
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Dan MacQuarrie, who does not want hearing loss to isolate people, puts his finger to the button that connects his hearing aid to his cell phone. - Image credit: Martha Wickett/Salmon Arm Observer.

Last Oct. 20 we had a workshop on, “Keep us in the Loop.”

We were sounding the alarm, that loss of hearing is an unwelcome visitor who comes unannounced. Statistically it seems that it takes seven years before we admit we need hearing aids. Denial is the name of the game.

One man has gone so far as to wear his deceased wife’s hearing aids to prove he doesn’t need them. Many others are unaware that they have to get their audiologist to turn on their T-coil, to be able to hear in rooms that are already equipped with the Auris Loop. What is preventing so many people from admitting the obvious?

What if we were to look at our situation realistically? Who likes to ask another person to speak up? Who wants to talk with someone who claims to be able to hear, and then says, “What did you say?” It doesn’t take long before you have fewer and fewer friends.

What if each of us were to take responsibility for ourselves? Make an appointment with an audiologist and discover whether we need a hearing aid, or not? The latest technology is almost a miracle. There is a, “Roger EasyPen,” available as an accessory to a hearing aid. It can pick up the whisper of a person three meters away and deposit it right into your audio canal. Imagine, you can visit someone in the hospital who is seriously ill, who can barely utter a whisper, but can still carry on a normal conversation. We could also return to our regular coffee gatherings, and be just like old times again.

This Christmas, get a gift for yourself, and you will please your family, your friends, and, yes, the whole community.

Dan MacQuarrie