At times the first step can be the biggest one. In talking to patients I have come to realize that the journey to the front door of my clinic can be the longest, most difficult one. It would appear to those who suspect they have a hearing loss coming in for a simple hearing test does not just represent knowledge. It potentially represents a prejudged string of events that many find daunting. A hearing test can take away one’s ability to continue to deny that they have a hearing problem.
I just had a conversation with one of my patients that had felt this way. This woman was having trouble hearing in her workplace and finally made an appointment to see me. She didn’t want to use a hearing aid; she didn’t want to be hearing impaired but her reality was that she did have a hearing loss and she did need hearing aids. Today, weeks after being first fit with hearing aids, she sat in my office telling me how much her hearing aids were helping her to live her life to its fullest. This woman puts her hearing aids on in the morning and forgets about them. She simply hears…in the workplace, in the boardroom and socially. As this woman describes it “life is now better.”
The first step to better hearing may be hardest but perhaps it will lead to a life lived to its fullest.
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