Now nearly 86 years of age, I have spent most of my life trying to set a good example to my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
However, when I had a recent hearing test, my halo slipped a little.
About 20 years ago, I began to ask people to speak up and repeat what they said. This was wearing. Having mobility problems didn’t help when sometimes I had to turn round to clarify what was said or happening behind me.
Several people suggested that I had a hearing test, and after seeing my doctor, I was referred to a hearing clinic where I had my hearing tested.
However, the conclusion of my hearing test was that I was a “borderline case” and I did not need hearing aids.
Over the next seventeen years, people continued to have to repeat what they said to me, and I was often told I was talking loudly on the telephone and that I had the television volume too high. People were also not fond of the TV subtitles that I often found necessary.
So early in 20015, now with increased mobility problems, I asked for another hearing test.
I was determined to make sure that I got hearing aids this time, so I came up with a plan – to manipulate the test.
How would I do this? By not pressing the button when I heard the quieter hearing test sounds.
Sure enough, after the test, my audiogram indicated that my hearing had deteriorated markedly and I was now able to be supplied with hearing aids.
Just one problem.
When the hearing aids were fitted, because my audiogram had made me seem even more deaf than I am, the sound from both hearing aids was far too loud.
The audiologist agreed to adjust the right-sided hearing aid and soon, it sounded just right. However, as much as we tried, we couldn’t get the left-sided one right.
Eventually, I thought I’d better confess, and I told her what I’d done during the test. She didn’t seem impressed. After some more adjustments, she told me that she’d done all she could.
Because the left-sided hearing aid was too loud, for the next fourteen months I was a one-aid man.
Happily, I can now record that I have recently paid a further visit to the hearing clinic and have had another audiogram test.
You’ll be pleased to know that his time I responded properly, and funnily enough, the new audiogram suggested that in the fourteen months between the two tests, my hearing in both ears had miraculously improved.
Both hearing aids now sound good, although I have another appointment for fine tuning.
I don’t deserve such attention and genuinely thank the hearing clinic for their expertise, tolerance and care in helping such a S-o-S!!
Len Darlow is a pseudonym. Len is nearly 86 years old and lives in the East Midlands. He’s our oldest writer to date.
Terry Paget
June 28, 2016
I don’t comment on what the writer did. But I do admire that he wasn’t avoiding his hearing loss or wearing hearing aids. In the early days, it’s hard to “come out” and expose the fact that one is wearing hearing aids.
In my own experience of me attending for tests every two years for some years (it’s two years for eyes and it seemed sensible to me to request two-yearly tests for my hearing) I have come to a conclusion. This is subjective, of course, but it does seem to be backed up by my experiences. Simply, I ‘perform’ better if I have a test earlier in the day than later in the day.
I am presuming there is a neurological foundation to this. Basically, after my hearing (with hearing aids) has been assaulted with the usual day-time noises – people speaking, traffic noise, lorries’ alarms going off when they are reversing or the very loud “Phewwww” when air is released from their air brakes, sirens, bangs, clangs and screeches, supermarket gobbleygook and so on – either my hearing has become “tired”, or my hearing has accustomed itself to this disharmonious cacophony that it has ‘learned’ to discount/ignore a good deal of these noises so that I am no longer sure whether I heard something or not. Thus, to Len Darlow, a test in the afternoon does seem to produce a less responsive hearing ability.
(I was first diagnosed with a hearing loss and prescribed hearing aids in the early 1990s. My hearing has deteriorated over time – age! – and is now just about flat-lining in both ears at 70dB. I have long had tinnitus too. I always request a copy of the audiogram and am, therefore, able to see for myself how, over the years and even from one two-yearly test to another, the long ago hearing “ski-slope” ‘line’ has both migrated southwards down the chart and straightened out as it has fallen – it’s now a near-flat southerly nursery slope! It’s life!)
Andy
June 28, 2016
Grrrrrr what a waste of time, my local audiologist is often full of “older” patients pretending they can’t hear the receptionist!!!!! No wonder appointments are so difficult to get!!!
mjfahey
June 28, 2016
Whilst I understand your frustrations, Andy. Just cos you didn’t fit the regulations for being fitted with hearing aids does not mean you didn’t need them Len, you knew you were having problems, and what the hell… Sir… at 86 years old, and presumably paying your NI all your life… Enjoy your hearing aids! 🙂
Dee Davies
June 29, 2016
I’m surprised you fooled the audiologist as there are ways and means of finding out if a patient is a malingerer.
Ann Marie Farmer
July 9, 2016
Surely this is a very foolish idea. Having hearing aids calibrated to amplify sounds which the patient can hear could damage hearing at that frequency over time.