
I got fitted for hearing aids yesterday. Now I’ve got 45 days to decide if I like them. 45 days to retrain my brain to hear through them. 45 days to get used to them.
So far, everything sounds a bit tinny, including my own voice. I’m getting the sense of a bit of an echo chamber inside my head. And I can hear things amplified that give me pause, like the sounds of a deck of cards being shuffled when my wife and I play 500 rummy or the sound of my stream hitting the toilet water when I pee. (TMI?)
But on the other hand, I can watch TV without having to wear headphones or to have the volume up so high that it blows my wife out of the room. At the same time, I have to remind my wife that she needn’t yell at me to make herself heard. Have you ever tried telling your spouse to keep her voice down? Take my advice, don’t try that at home!
And when I go outside now I can hear birds tweeting during the day and crickets chirping at night, sounds I haven’t heard in a long time, so that’s a good thing.
I have three biweekly follow up appointments with the audiologist for adjustments and fine tuning over the next 45 days. Hopefully, those will address any kinks and give my brain the time it takes to acclimate to hearing aids.
I’ll let you know how it’s going 45 days from now.