The first inkling I had, which led me to believe that I might benefit from some assistance with my hearing, was when I asked my wife to repeat what she had said …….. for the third time! The expression on her face was enough to drive me to the Internet to look for hearing assistance providers. A friend at my church had hearing aids and talked very positively about his experiences with Beltone. So, I gave them a call and set up a hearing test. I was mentally geared up to do “battle” with an ignorant, hard-sell, know-it-all salesman who would pull recommendations for me, out of the air with no supporting data. Boy was I wrong!
When I arrived for my hearing test, I was greeted warmly by the receptionist, Cynthia, and within a minute or two I met Sally who escorted me into the testing room and the test was started. Sally was very patient with me, which I appreciated, because I knew I was missing a lot of the test items and doing quite poorly on the test; but then, that is why I was there!
When the testing was over, there was no hard sell. Instead, the test data was presented in a calm logical manner with visual aids, including a visual on a large computer screen of the supporting data in graphic form. Following her presentation, she put an appropriate model of a hearing aid on me and I could see instantly that there was an advantage to be had by using such a device. So, we worked together to develop and order for a pair of hearing aids.
My pair of aids arrived in a few days; they were adapted to my test data and put in my ears. I immediately started hearing all kinds of sounds and tones which I had not heard in years. An example of this was the turning signals in my car. I had thought that the auto engineers had engineered the clicking sound out of the turn signaling process and made them function silently. When I went to change lanes going home, I turned on my signal and I immediately thought, “What is that racket?” Then I realized that “that racket” was the first of many sounds I would be hearing, which I had not heard in a long time.
I bought the controller with my hearing aids and I have found it to be a very valuable asset to my hearing. Sally set it so I can have a setting for when I play my organ, another setting for when individuals who speak in meetings, who have a loud booming voice and another setting for basic or general use.
Overall, this process has been a very positive experience for me, from start to finish. I dug in my heels on doing this for long time but I am glad now that I went through the experience. I can now hear sounds I have not heard in years and my wife does not look daggers at me anymore, because I no longer need to ask her to repeat what she had said.
