Dilemma

Fidelity2

I cannot see what is wrong in asking her if she is getting a bit hard of hearing! You could add .....Mine is not as good as it used to be.
I have Tinnitus and it drives me batty !

I use oil that has Bee Propolis in it Fidelity2. Its called a "Tinnitus Soothing Spray" (although I use a pipette). It works if I use it regularly but comes back again if I take it for granted and miss it; then the tinnitus comes back.

The problem with hearing loss is it creeps up on you without you realising it. Your brain starts to adapt to it without you realising it.

I first went for a hearing test purely because I'd heard about the link with dementia, not because I had hearing problems.
It turned out I have some degree of hearing loss in the upper register. So I might have trouble hearing words with the letters S, F and H in them.
Different letter sounds are heard at different registers, so no others were affected.
I hadn't known about that before the audiologist explained it to me. He showed me the graph with the different registers and the different letters across them. It was fascinating.

A hearing test is free. NHS hearing aids, which I have, are free.
I tried a fancy private pair but didn't get on with them and gave them back.

Do you wait for a problem before you go for a routine eye test?
Or a routine dental check-up?

All of these health checks look for more than the basic problems that we would be aware of, and I feel we are very lucky to be able to have them.

Aveline, I can relate to your friend, as that was me until 18 months ago.

I have had a degree of hearing loss all my life - when about 7 or 8 an audiologist visited our school to conduct hearing tests on the pupils, I was deemed to be high-tone deaf, possibly due to having had the erithromycin antibiotic as a small child. ( A known side effect).

It wasn’t bad enough to be a handicap to me, until my hearing deteriorated over the last decade. I’ve lived alone for the last 14 years, so no partner to converse with. I had the volume on radio and TV turned right up, and used subtitles too, so I had adapted to my hearing loss, but did have problems understanding quiet voices and mumblers.

A close friend who visits once a week occasionally mentioned I should have m hearing tested, as I often had problems with her speech - she tends to mumble, and sometimes puts her hand to her face while speaking, which could be frustrating!

I decided to bite the bullet 18 months ago, and booked a hearing test with a private audiologist, which showed that I had moderate to profound deafness (in the upper register), and I went ahead and purchased top of the range aids which were programmed to my deafness. (I bought private as I was able to afford them, rather than go through the NHS).

The effect was transformational! I hadn’t realised how many sounds I had been missing! And it was rather overwhelming for the first week or so, but I persevered by wearing them all day, and soon adapted.

I realised how much I needed them when a problem developed with them a few months ago, and had to go without for two weeks while they were checked over. They were replaced with a new pair free (being guaranteed for 5 years), and I was really happy to be able to hear again!

Mine are very discreet, almost invisible, with just a fine silver wire from the “bean” behind my ear to the receiver which goes in the canal. (I’ve attached a pic).

So, I suppose what I’m saying is, do see if you can find a tactful way of mentioning to your friend (as many have already suggested), as she would no doubt find much benefit from wearing aids.

If she lives alone and doesn't really have anyone to talk to, she may not be getting the help she needs. I am sure there would be a tactful way of doing things. Maybe invite her over for a coffee, and during the chat you could say something like "How are you getting on these days - I hope your GP is looking after you." Wait to see what she says to that. It might depend what she says but you could lead onto something else. ie tactfully get round to saying something like - "Am I speaking loud enough - I'm aware I might not be sometimes". See if you can get her onto the topic of her hearing. I am trying to think if it was me. I have been gradually losing hearing a bit - I have the TV on very loud and keep telling OH he's mumbling. But I have no desire to do anything about it as I can hear well enough mostly. I think if someone said to me - have you thought about a hearing test or hearing aids, I'd just say yes but I don't want to do anything. But yes I probably wouldn't like it.

On a hearing issue - I'm now looking for a couple of YouTube channels by these girly-voiced presenters. I just dropped them totally when I thought "If they can't be bothered to deal with their voices - either speaking more normally or having subtitles - then I can't be bothered with them either".

So I've totally forgotten who any of these girlies are and need to use their channels for hearing test purposes. Reason being I've had one session of acupuncture to date where I requested help specifically for the nerve damage that has caused deafness in one ear (yep tests have revealed it is nerve damage from a virus - and not age that is the cause). I've found since that needling I've been able to turn down the volume on YouTube videos (yay!) and I shall ask for specific ear needling again during remaining two acupuncture visits. I feel pretty hopeful that maybe I can resolve that nerve damage and have my hearing back in that ear again.

So I need to conduct tests on channels by girly-voiced women and, if I can manage to hear them at normal volume = that hearing problem has been resolved.

So - if anyone knows any girly-voice YouTube presenters I'd be glad to know of their channels again - now I require them for testing purposes. I've been checking my way specifically through YT channels run by women - but not found any more girly-voice ones yet...

Please try and find some way to encourage her to get tested, I have hearing aids and really had no idea how little I could hear until I got them.
It is interesting that there still seems to be some stigma about having aids, years ago the same applied to glasses as it was seen as a weakness. I no longer struggle at all in social situations