More Machine than Man

I've had a significant hearing loss in my right ear since I was young. Around age 8 or 9 I developed a ringing in my right ear after a bad cold. My ear rang for a year, and after all was said and done I struggled to hear higher frequencies in that ear.

Most people would never know this about me because it never handicapped me in an appreciable way. [My mother might have disagreed with this point. My teenage years were torture to her...she knew I wasn't listening to her, but the possibility always existed that I couldn't hear her. I allowed the ambiguity to persist as much as possible.] My old bandmates knew because I was maniacal about protecting my good ear. Emily knows because I sit on her right if I want to hear her at the movies, and sit on her left if I want to focus on the film.

Over the past few years I've noticed my right ear getting worse, and with Alastair arriving last summer, the volume of sounds in the house suddenly became an issue where it rarely was in the past. For significant chunks of the day, and all night after his bedtime, the TV has to be quiet, our voices need to be subdued, and music can't be blasted. Fatherhood quickly made me think it might be time for a hearing aid.

I'm always eager to throw technology at a problem, so I took the plunge. After getting tested in December and confirming that my right ear has deteriorated over the last ten years (I'm REALLY bad in the higher frequencies now - I can stand next to a smoke alarm, plug my left ear, and only hear a quiet tone), I picked up my first hearing aid on Thursday.


Day 1 was a little shaky. It seemed like all I was hearing was wind. I'd hear the air going by as I walked down the hall, not just outside in the breeze. I constantly heard my own voice. I was constantly aware of the hunk of plastic in my ear. I wasn't keen on hearing myself eat. Suffice it to say I wasn't a happy camper. Day 2 was better, although I did cheat by taking it out while I listened to headphones at work. Day 3, today, was better yet. I forgot about it for long stretches and didn't play with it much at all. Wind is still an issue, but less so indoors.

Everyone says it takes your brain time to adjust to hearing new things. If the wind continues to be a problem, I may return it and upgrade to a more expensive model that includes wind noise cancellation, which will be key while I'm biking. Wind cancellation or not, I can tell just how bad my right ear was when I take the hearing aid out. Feels like I'm totally deaf on that side without it. I guess that means I'm going to be part machine from now on.