I was tested for a CI in the ear that hasn't heard anything useful for nearly 40 years last winter. The threshold is that if you can't understand 50% of what is said in the sound booth (without background conversation/noise), you qualify. The percentage is the total that you hear (or don't) with both ears. At that time, I couldn't tell if the car's engine was running without looking at the gauges, had to feel the side of the dishwasher or washer to see if they were running, relied on the light in the microwave to see if it was still "cooking." Fortunately, I regained the crummy level of hearing I have in my "good" ear once I got on a good program of hormone replacement. I had lost useful hearing in that ear in an instant a year earlier when Meniere's Disease went bilateral (affected both ears instead of the one it had affected for nearly 40 years). Although I didn't hear well before the monster struck a second time, I was thrilled to hear again. The first time I heard birds was soooo exciting! Now, with my aid in my "good" ear, I can hear well enough to get by, even with the new complication of masks that keep me from "reading" what people are saying. Even without captions, Zoom is a big improvement over a simple phone call, as you can see what the other person is saying. Some voices, over the phone, are virtually hopeless for me. If the call is important, like scheduling a medical appt., I make my husband pick up another phone and listen in to confirm what's being said. Some voices are much less difficult; I think it depends upon overtones. My daughter, who had normal hearing, does Zoom meetings all day every day and reports that they are far more stressful than the back-to-back in person meetings she did every day prior to Covid. I think that electronics (phones, computer audio, even TV) strip out or alter some of the overtones--but that's just one idea!

I also volunteer, for a local food program. Last week, after the other two ladies had held a conversation for a couple of minutes behind my back while I didn't even know they were talking, I realized that I do miss lots of things. Most of the people I know (including those two) are usually good about facing me when they speak. In this instance, one of them said, "We were behind Joyce, and she didn't even know we were speaking." There are only four of us who run the program these days due to Covid, and two of them have higher voices with fewer overtones, making them much harder to understand, even face to face.

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