Hearing Loss: Come introduce yourself and connect with others

One is the San Francisco Chapter of HLAA. The other one is at the "Hearing and Speech Center of Northern California.

75 years old starting my third year wearing hearing aids (Rexton Trax 42) I can only wear over the ear hearing aids. Still notice the voice quality differences between using my wonderful amplified telephone without the aids and the voice quality I experience when I wear the aids, especially the quality of women's voices which are noticeably different. One of the the sounds I miss the most -- being able to hear and enjoy my cats' purring. Do not know of any local support groups in my region which are known as the "Eastside" cities across Lake Washington from Seattle.

@colleenyoung, thank you! I am a moderator/admin/everything on a few sites plus a few Facebook page, so I'll catch on soon. I guess there will more HLAA members & friends coming around soon. We shall see.

@colleenyoung Hi. I'm a 45-year-old man with congenital bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, with profound loss at high frequencies (3,000-8,000Hz). I didn't get my first hearing aid until my Senior year in college, although I first failed a hearing test in kindergarten. I'm now on my third set of digital aids (Widex) and have a streamer for my cell phone. Even with the aids, group conversations are impossible for me. My hearing loss has caused significant social isolation. I recently started attending local HLAA meetings.

@cjspizz That's great that you are going to an HLAA chapter. Beside having a cochlear implant I founded a chapter in my city, and have immense satisfaction in helping others like you and me. What a joy to be in a group and understand everyone because of CART (captioning) and everyone being in the same boat, so to speak. I do much better now with the CI in group situations, but not always. For instance, at church coffee hour, it's almost impossible sometimes to hear and understand conversation. Sometimes, if it's important, I ask the people to join me out in the hall where it's more quiet. We will never hear perfectly (and you'd be surprised how many do not hear well since one out of five has some degree of loss), but the best way is to try to come up with a solution so we can. Most important, don't try to hide your loss. Your puzzled looks or incorrect responses will always give you away. Just curious how you ended up in this forum.

@cjspizz I agree with you, it can cause social isolation.
We went out to dinner with friends last night and that presented two problems. First, it is so difficult to eat out and keep sodium low, which I need to do, and second that it's so hard to hear. Thankfully the restaurant was not busy so it wasn't as bad as usual, and my friend wore my "Connect Clip" -- a little microphone that directs a person's voice right into my hearing aids. As I said to my husband on the way to dinner though, I enjoy being social but these two problems are making it much less enjoyable.
I know my dinner had too much sodium, so I only ate half of it. Portions are always too big anyway.
JK

@judymartin I ended up in this forum because of HLAA. The HLAA Hearing Life e-News email from a few days ago explaining that "HLAA has teamed up with the Ida Institute and Mayo Clinic to offer a Hearing Loss group on Mayo Connect" with a link to join. So, here I am!

@contentandwell Part of my problem is I don't usually enjoy being social, so there's that too.

Hi! I’m Buffy! I just got an email to join this and I wish it existed years ago. I have always felt that I’m the only person in the world going through this because everyone around me can hear. My mom can still hear a pin drop...at 75 years old! Recently...through my cochlear journey...I have heard the stories of others that are identical to my experiences. So I’m glad to be here 🙂

@cjspizz Why don’t you get a cochlear? You’re too young to be isolated!