Real Patients: Hearing Aids

Transcript

Interviewee #1

Well, prior to me getting my hearing aids, you know, my fiancé was always telling me, you know … she’d talk and it’d be like, “Huh?” “What?” “You need to repeat that.” Or, “Can you say that again?” I’ve had my hearing aids for a little over a week now, and ever since we’ve had it I have not had an issue hearing her. You know, I hear things a lot louder, more clear. And it’s been a lot better.

Interviewee #2

The first experience when the audiologist put my hearing aids in, I was surprised. You could hear everything in the whole building, pretty much.

Interviewee #3

I had an incredible audiologist who was retired military and he was a civilian. And when I had the initial test, I went over to him, and he was very diligent to make me stay up with my hearing loss and to get into the VA system. I required hearing aids, at the time, only the one. But he was very diligent to say that I absolutely needed to get into the VA system and get on record, so that my hearing losses would be taken care of, and I’d get the care that I needed.

Interviewee #2

What’s really cool, though, is I have three different stages on my hearing aids. So three different types, I guess you could say you hear. One of them is for when I am in a restaurant surrounding. It’s one to help muffle the sounds behind me, so I can focus in on what’s in front of me. Another one is if I am just stressed out, everything is really loud, I can just turn it down … tone it down, so I can focus. And then a normal one, I guess you could say, as normal as it’ll ever get. To where I can hear what’s going on in front of me, behind me, to the side of me.

Interviewee #4

When I walked out of the audiology clinic, for the first time in years I could hear traffic on the interstate in the distance. And I have to tell you, I still walk around the lake at lunchtime, and for years I would wear a little iPod. I quit wearing the iPod because now I can hear the wind in the trees, and this time of year, the birds singing.

Interviewee #5

The way that it … one of the programs on the phone is that the Bluetooth capability makes it go right into that hearing aid and you can adjust that volume. So it makes my life easier. And I can … on a telephone conversation, you know, face-to-face in a clinical encounter, which is important, I really need to understand what you’re telling me, if I’m going to make a treatment plan.

Interviewee #4

I don’t care who sees them. I don’t care who knows because I can really hear everything again. It’s worth it all.

Interviewee #5

I can hear my 15-month-old daughter crying in the other room. That makes me feel more secure that I can take care of my family. And that in itself right there, pays for them hearing aids.

Interviewee #4

As my hearing faded … with my 13-year-old granddaughter, I told her, “The time had come for Grandpa to get hearing aids.” And I said, “I’m so excited.” And her comment was, “Grandpa, I’m even more excited.” And clearly it’s the impact to her was very apparent in that conversation … that now we can talk again. And I never realized what frustration she had with that.