The Saga Begins

Two asprin, one hot shower, and a moment without hearing aids. It’s nice to give my brain a rest right now.

The story begins at this afternoon around 2:20 p.m. That was when I first viewed my new hearing aids, and the first thought that came to mind was, “Ew. Did I really pick that color?” Turns out I didn’t — the color was wrong, but that can easily be remedied according to my hearing aid vendor.

“Now, things are going to sound a little different,” the vendor warned me. I nodded knowingly, then surrendered my old aids. He passed me the news ones, and I popped the plugs in. The first indication of the difference in sound was the air vent, which pumped out air in a sound akin to the working floor of an Industrial Age factory at full capacity. There was some heavy-duty puffing coming out of that thing. I tried to focus on the vendor’s voice, but the vent kept distracting me.

As I took the elevator to the first floor, I could still hear the vent. It was in the elevator too. Or maybe that was the elevator mechanisms working. I have no clue what I was hearing. What is it that hearing people hear in buildings? Do buildings really make that much noise? And does it drive them nuts?

The sound of my footsteps were quiet as I walked to my car. That was weird. I kept expecting to hear the pad of my foot on pavement, but there was nothing. My car door sounded muffled too. I started the engine up, and then began to buckle. My car beep at me to buckle up, like it always does, but this time, it sounded like I was hearing dual beeps, both at flinching frequencies. I, of course, flinched and quickly buckled up to get the darn thing to quiet down.

Talking with people has been exhausting. My husband’s voice sounds so beautifully clear sometimes, then it sounds like I’ve gone up in an airplane and haven’t quite cleared the pressure in my ears.

Water is incredibly cool. I cleaned the dishes and kept the faucet running just so I could hear the SHHHHH sound it was making. On the other hand, knocking sounds are not cool. I screamed when the FedEx guy dropped a package off and knocked on our door to let us know what he was doing. Yes, I screamed. I could’ve sworn it was a gunshot.

“Welcome to the world of the rest of us,” my husband told me. I am hearing more of what the hearing folks hear. My new aids amp up the sound 80 decibels, whereas my old aids only went as high as 60. All I need to do now is get my brain used to hearing what it’s missed out on.