It’s not just me.  I often ask other people with hearing loss, or their significant others, if that’s the case for them, too.  And the answer is usually, “yes!” 

That effect has a formal term: recruitment.  Dr. Daniel Coelho, co-director of Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center’s Cochlear Implant Center, told me, “It results from damage to the stereocilia in the cochlea, and, as such, is always associated with sensorineural hearing loss.”

What happens is that the auditory cortex “recruits” the neighboring cilia (hair cells in the cochlea) to provide more volume. The result? An abnormally rapid increase in volume — too loud, too fast. Thanks, ears.

I have a great ophthalmologist. She’s very accommodating of my hearing loss. However, when I recently had cataract surgery, it was an eye-opener for both of us.

I usually have no problem communicating with my eye doctor. When I’m there for a visit I’m wearing my hearing aids and my glasses for lipreading and occasionally reading my automatic speech-to-text app on my phone to confirm what was said.

As we were discussing my cataract surgery, I started to realize just how isolated I’d be. I wasn’t going to be able to wear my hearing aids or glasses, and even if I could have my phone, I couldn’t read the auto-captions without my glasses. Oh, and the medical folks would all be masked. Operating rooms can also be noisy places so even if people spoke really loudly to me, I probably wouldn’t be able to understand them.

To tell the truth, I was feeling a bit panicky and out of control the more I thought about these things. This wasn’t on my doctor’s radar at all. She said we communicated so well in her office that it just didn’t occur to her that communicating in the OR would be any different.

There can be all kinds of problems with captioning on TV, especially live events.  I still remember one recent state of the union address. The captions went right across the president's face. That was far from the only problem.

Some errors were comical like when the captions suggested a commentator said the first lady was "planning of a coup."  I have no idea what was actually said.

Then the captions became so delayed that they got cut off mid-stream when there was a programming break, so I missed the end of what was being said. By that time, I had already taken out my cell phone and filmed the captions. I filed a complaint with the FCC the next day. I wish more people would do the same.

I was on a small-group discussion using a video conferencing platform with friends that have been connecting online for about a year. 

I couldn’t make out anything that two of the other people in the group were saying.  They were sitting together using the same laptop, which meant they were about three feet away from their microphone.  I mentioned my problem, and how being closer to the microphone when talking makes a big difference in speech clarity.  Nobody moved.

I turned my hearing aids way up, to get as much volume as possible, which didn’t really help.  I left the call once, to replace the filters in my hearing aids, in case that was contributing to the problem.  My husband sat by my side and interpreted everything I needed to hear, in short keywords, to the extent possible. 

There’s just no point in continuing to be part of this discussion group when I can't hear well enough to understand what everyone is saying even with the help of lipreading and captions. 

I’ve had a pretty significant hearing loss for many years. There are times when I need someone’s help to even know there’s a problem.

I had an overnight guest at my house recently, and when she joined me in the kitchen in the morning, she said she’d heard an intermittent beeping sound all night long. She managed to sleep, in part by taking out her own hearing aids. But that morning, she could hear it again. I didn’t hear anything. We never found where it was coming from.

After she left, I called maintenance at my apartment complex, and the maintenance guy discovered, pretty quickly, that it was my smoke alarm telling me its battery was dead. I wonder how long it would have taken me to figure that out on my own.

We’ve been holding our local church services using a videoconferencing platform for quite a while now, due to the COVID virus.  I found those services pretty accessible. The videoconferencing platform works pretty well for me, with my hearing loss, especially now that we have access to captions.  The speakers have their webcams on so I can read their lips, and I can turn the volume up on my laptop.  There's also been very little background noise since the speakers were talking from quiet spaces. 

As the pandemic seems to be ending, we moved to hybrid services, with both remote and in-person attendance.  A limited number of people, all at healthy distances, were allowed to be present in the sanctuary.  I've continued to participate remotely.  Halfway through the service, a person in the sanctuary was speaking from the podium wearing a mask.  Great!  No lipreading and the auto-captions are struggling.  I need to email our minister and re-up our discussion about accessibility.

When I purchased a new pair of hearing aids, my audiologist explained that they have a “boot-up” sound, to let me know I turned them on successfully.  It’s a five-note, upward pattern (an arpeggio).  I noticed, right away, that the pattern on the left-side aid was a different pitch than the one on the right.  The right one was higher-pitched, to a degree that was noticeable, but not unpleasant.

When I mentioned it to my audiologist, she said, “no, your aids’ boot-up sounds are both exactly the same pitch.”  Huh?  So, I took the aids out and booted each of them up in the same ear.  She was right!  When I listened with just one ear, the aids’ boot-up notes were identical. Apparently, pitch distortion, or diplacusis, sometimes comes along with hearing loss. I guess that’s why I can’t sing with my church choir anymore; I was slightly off-key and never noticed, but the choir director did.

When I bought my new hearing aids, I bought a compatible remote microphone to go along with them. My wife and I thought this would be a great idea. She could wear the remote microphone and communicate with me from another room, or while not facing me in the same room.

While this seemed like a good idea, we didn't realize some of the nuances that go along with this kind of setup. The problem was that when she was wearing the device she would sometimes forget that she was wearing it. She would make a phone call, and then I would hear the entire phone call as it’s proceeding. Not exactly the effect we were going for. We've adapted with time and it has been useful, but we didn't originally think through all the communications scenarios that happen at home and how we would use the remote microphone in them.

I have a hearing loss and struggle to communicate using surgical masks.  Nobody seems to find it easy, but for me it’s basically impossible. If I am listening to a person with a quiet voice,  I tell them I’ll make a deal with them: I’ll stand 6 ft. away with my mask on if they will take theirs off to talk to me.  I explain my ears aren’t the best and I can’t hear well.  Much of the time people oblige.

Today I had an eye appointment, and the doctor had two masks on - an N95 mask with a cloth mask over that.  While some people are willing to remove their mask to talk to me as long as I wear one and keep the 6 ft distance, this doctor was not going to remove his masks to talk to me.  So I got my phone out and used my transcription app.  I thought it might not work well, because automatic captions sometimes don't work well in the very same situations I have difficulty understanding.  However, it turned out to be a surprisingly good solution!

When I’m driving, I usually listen to NPR talk radio.  It's a great way for me to practice my speech comprehension so it doesn't get worse along with my hearing.  I put my hearing aids in the “car” setting, which provides extra noise reduction.  I also set the radio so that the higher frequencies are a bit louder, which makes speech sound clearer to me.

Sometimes, I’ll hear what sounds like an alert signal…a high-pitched, beeping sound.  I get worried, look around, and check my car’s mirrors, but don’t see anything.  Then, I realize that it was the radio playing some kind of sound effect or music, in-between the news segments.  Nothing like a false alarm to create a little confusion behind the wheel.