It couldn't have happened to me!

It couldn’t be me? Grant it, I’m middle age, but how could this have happen to me.

Coming to terms with the aging process can really frustrate a young minded middle age guy (notice my description of self). Although I could stand to lose 15 pounds, I have always been health conscience attempting to stay active. I’ve considered myself very healthy.

Over the last few years, Elizabeth and I have argued about very little. However, when we get in front of the TV, we played tug-a-war with the volume. I wanted it on 18, she wanted it on 10. For a long time, I thought it was just a gender thing. Later, I began struggling in group settings hearing people I would be having a conversation with. Then, embarrassed, people would speak to me and I would simply nod my head to acknowledge them. They could have been asking me a question, they could have told me they thought I was stupid….I’d just grin and try to change the subject to “it’s a great day”. It honestly became uncomfortable.

A few Sunday’s ago, I had a friend come to me and say “Kyle, did you not hear me hollering for you this morning?” I said “no”.  The time had come for me to have a hearing exam. But before I called the doctor, I ask this close friend, an attractive lady who happens to have hearing aids, to give me the scoop. When I called her, she said it would be a “game changer”. She suggested that it would change my quality of life. I was thinking… “are you serious?”

So, because I have faith in my friend, I called Dr. Scott Mills, an audiologist with Carolina Hearing Doctors. When the lady called me back, Dr. Mills asked me a series of questions. 15 minutes later he took me to a glass room and sat outside behind me asking me to press a button when I hear certain sounds. By the end of the hour-long meeting, he diagnosed me. In fact, I do have hearing loss; in both ears. He asked me about sounds…what could have caused this issue.  Like talking to a priest in a confessional box, I admitted to hard rock, shotguns and diesel engines. Years of rocking in my vehicle, killing ducks in cold duck blinds and running the bush hog caused me to lose my hearing. Heredity possibly caused some of the problem too.

So, he ordered me a set of hearing aids. Anxiously I waited one week. Treating me like her little baby, Elizabeth came to the fitting. Packaged like an iPhone, Dr. Mills unpackaged these new hearing devices. I was wondering deep in my heart, “would these things make any difference?”  So, he placed them in my ears and said, “can you hear better”. I said “No”, he said “good, I have them turned off”. Them with the press of a button, he turned them on. Have you ever had an AHA moment?  Wow! Instantly, I could hear things. He and his staff explained how they worked, and off I went.

Since that fitting, I have heard the blinker on the car, I have heard birds that I have missed. I now want the tv on about 10. Funny thing now is that I ask Elizabeth to lower her voice.

I came to terms with this issue of middle age called hearing loss. Rather than being frustrated with what I can’t change, I hit it head on. I can honestly say this has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in some time.