Taking Charge of The Hearing Loss Journey Finally, At Age 40, I Had My First Big Hearing Loss AHA Moment

By Gael Hannan

Living with hearing loss for a long time is no guarantee you’regoodatit.

Regardless of the time of onset — congenital, such as case, or at a later point in life — effective navigation of chronic health condition is not intuitive. A successful hearing loss journey involves personal intent, learning, commitment. Until recently, the standard services offered to people with mild-to-severe hearing loss assessment, hearing aids, and a push-out-the-door. Patientcentred care was a thing of the future, and professionals were not trained to counsel their clients on how to betterwithhearingloss.

People like me weren’t counselled on how to live more skillfully — by sloughing off the stigma, embracing our condition, and using various strategies, including non-technological tactics that support our technology. We didn’t recognize the need to take more control of our hearing loss, and we could, especially through partnering with a patient-focused professional and the communicationpartnersinourlives.

Ittookfourdecadesbeforethisboulder-sizedpennydroppedforme.

I had been receiving hearing health care services since age two, and beyond wearing increasingly sophisticated and better hearing aids since age 20, the only strategy I consciously employed was maneuvering to read people’s lips. To understand a spoken message, visual information in many forms is crucial to augment the audible. For decades, hearing aids and speechreading were the only items in my toolbox until a major milestone changed my life in severalunexpectedways.

At age 40, I was expecting a baby. It was a mix of excitement and terror. My ability to hear and understand took on a new urgency: I would soon be responsible for a child’s wellbeing! What if I couldn’t hear my child crying in the night? What if I couldn’t hear my child burp — would he blow up? Who tells you these things? My hearing care provider at the time wasn’t an excellent resource. I didn’t know a single other person with hearing loss. My mother was a nurse, but all shecoulddotoallaymyfearswasthestandardmommycomfort;you’llbefine,dear.

For the first time in my hearing loss life, I had to stretch out for help. I discovered that a relatively new organization called the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association was having a conference in a few weeks. I walked into that event as one person and walked out three days laterasanotherdramaticallychangedperson.

Through the power of peer support, I learned that I was not alone. I learned about communication-enhancing technology, such as real-time captioning. I saw a lack of shame and anopennesstochangethatIhadneverconsideredpossibleforapersonwithhearingloss.