What's That Noise?

I come from a long line of hearing impaired people.  A great uncle received one of the first if not the very first cochlear implant.  Our family reunions are very loud and are a great place to peddle hearing aid batteries!  Can anyone explain to me why these kinds of genes are not watered down?  People get skipped with beauty, brains and sense but it seems that things like ultra white skin, bad knees and hearing loss just run thickly in the blood!

I had quite a few ear infections as a child and started to notice in high school that people needed to repeat themselves.  I've tried to avoid the whole thing be becoming an excellent lip reader.  (which, by the way is quite useful in school....not that I would blackmail or abuse the talent or anything.....).  But it's starting to get annoying and I'm tired of asking people to repeat everything and oh well, I can't see, my joints hurt and my hair color has to work really hard so why not go for the gusto and embrace aging with all my money.....

So two weeks ago I got hearing aids.  I'm not sure what to think.  The world is extremely noisy!  My Coke fizzes really loudly.  The lid rattles on the dish in the microwave.  The ticking of the wall clock is a nuisance.  Eating is a wearisome, noisy affair!  The microwave beeps at two different pitches.  A student writing scritches his paper, clothes are noisy, shoes are clompy and the fans on the computers and the heaters and everything else are just plain too loud.

But I still can't hear people speak that well.  The sound is kind of tinny and all those other sounds are still too loud.  Perhaps the audiologist or whatever he is can adjust this.  A face to face conversation is much improved but is someone behind me needs assistance, I have no idea anyone is even speaking to me.

I am driving my husband crazy with "What's that noise?" questions!