"Wiith a Conscience" - "What did ya say?"

               I was fitted with my frst pair of glasses when I was nine years old.  At the time, I thought they were kind of cool.  Individualistic, actually. I grew to accept the idea that I would be weariing glasses for the rest of my life.  I loved picking out new frames and I especially love doing that now. In 2024,  I was told I had a hearing loss that would now require me to wear hearing aids.  Trust me, having to get hearing aids was not even close to choosing a pair of fashionable frames for your eyes.  

            It starts with a hearing test which is surreal in itself.  You sit in a booth and they fire a series of hearing tests and you have your hand on a button to indicate whether you hear the sound or not.  It felt like I was a contestant on a game show.

            But here's the thing that I didn't realize. If you're hearing impaired and you haven't fixed the issue, people get angry because you can't hear them.  This continues to stun me because no one has a choice about corrective glasses or hearing loss.  ou to hear them and YOU want to hear them.  It's heart-breaking when you have the best of hearing intentions and have to ask someone you care about to repeat themselves.Trying to correct your hearing loss becomes quite the journey. Here's the issue...People want you to hear them perfectly without incident.

        Hearing aids are expensive.  Well...The ones that actually work beautifully are.  There are so many companies that claim hearing success inexpensively.  It's a sham.  You get what you pay for in terms of hearing clarity.  If you are 65 and have joined MediCare...They do NOT cover the cost of the better hearing aids.  Why??? Why???? I would think this would be one of the single most important health priorties today.  I don't understand.  

        I perform in local theater, have for decades.  Hearing loss has created quite the saddness until now.  Finally, I have hearinig aids that will bring me back to my joy. The cost was gifted but it has been a rights of passage for me.  I am back to normal but not wthout a huge cost.

        Hearing loss should not be taken lightly or become a source of frustration or something that occurs "on purpose."  If that was the case I would be asking everyone to repeat themselves.  Heariing correctly prevents so many issues.  Dementia being the most serious.  So do not negate the powers of aging.  We all learn when we are ready OR when we have to learn...