“Not hearing is greatly understated”….By Dr. Richard Reikowski, Au.D Family Hearing and Balance Center

“Not hearing is greatly understated” was said by a 90 year young woman who remains very active in sports, travel, and community meetings. I had to ask further as to what she meant by this thought provoking statement. She said that as she played tennis, hearing the ball hit the racket as well as land on her side of the court, was very important. However, her hearing loss has removed the anticipation of these sounds.

Hearing the location of the ball was rather impossible to hear. When she played outdoors, lawnmowers made it even more complicated to hear the tennis ball sounds. Not to mention, when she attended, and continues to attend regular board meetings, the speech from a person across the table was not understood.  This affected her involvement in the conversation and enjoyment of these meetings. She also loves to travel to concerts and performances throughout the world and found that her hearing loss created such challenges in social events, hearing the clarity of voices, and the music that was heard was dull and muted. She gladly shared that her improved hearing with digital hearing aids have offered such a life success of these areas in which she loves! She is able to easily adjust sound and noise, as necessary, with her smartphone via a very user friendly app.

I so enjoyed hearing her sharing and am fascinated by her busy and fruitful life activities. It’s my goal to continue to help in any way I can to ensure she hears to her fullest abilities!