Silence!

On another blog, I spoke at the beginning of this year on the silence in our Cathedral on Christmas Eve, when the choir had finished singing their anthem, the lights were dimmed right down, and only the flickering light of candles around the windows ‘disturbed’ the silence and darkness.

I have never experienced such a strange deprivation of sound which lasted for over 30 secs, and it set me to thinking what those who have been suddenly-deafened, experience.

I have spent over 30 years working in the world of the hard-of-hearing, and the deaf and deafened. I have endeavoured to release them from this non-desired silence and have often had to encourage and cajole them as they returned to a world of noise.

But I have never been able to get inside the head or mind of someone who has been suddenly afflicted with total deafness. For those of us who have been fortunate enough to enjoy the facility of sound all our lives I would like to hear some observations from those who have lost the sense.

Fear, terror, self-pity, aggression against those who seek to enter that world, but can’t, frustration, acceptance, re-adjustment…all of these must feature….so if anyone wants to comment and let us into this world, please do so.

A Free Hearing Aid?

An absolutely true story!

A few years ago, a lovely lady turned-up at our practice, and asked to see me, as a friend had suggested that we would be sympathetic to her. She was ushered to my office and after a few pleasantries, I asked how I could help.

‘I’ve come to get a free hearing-aid’, she said.

‘Who told you that we can provide this?’ I asked, somewhat flummoxed and querying her sanity.

‘A good friend, and a number of her family, have already been to see you’, she quietly said.

I was thinking around all those who might have told her this, but her sincerity told me that this gift was something she believed she could have.

She obviously was not prepared to divulge her friend’s name, but was able to tell me the town from which both came.

Then like a flash, it all fitted together. In that town I had worked with some seven members of an extended family, and had fitted a number with hearing aids.

It turned out that her friend had told her that I had supplied THREE hearing aids, but she had heard it as FREE hearing aids!

Audiometric testing proved what I had just witnessed…a simple mis-understanding. We both laughed over this and she was ultimately fitted with a better aid than the one she had previously!

Memories are made of this!

Do you ever wonder how you remember a tune, or a favourite poem, and can then hum or whistle the tune, or recite word for word the verses from start to finish.

It’s easy to say that ‘I just remember it!’

But the interesting thing is that, for music at least, you have to hear perhaps thousands of sounds, store them somewhere, recall them, and then perform them exactly.

It all has to come into your ears, be analysed, coded and stored in some memory cells. Then on request, this memory bank has to be opened, and the aural information trotted-out in exact order for it to make sense.

Now does that make you respect the ear and auditory system a little more?

It certainly should!

A really cheap hearing aid!

Bloke No 1 goes into a pub and sits down beside bloke No 2 who looks like a bit of a spiv. He tells the spiv about his hearing problem, and the spiv offers to sell him something that will help him hear better, for £10.  The £10 is duly handed-over (well, who could refuse an offer like that?).

From his pocket, the spiv pulls out a button with a piece of string attached, and hands it over.

‘What’s this?’ says our friend.

‘It’s a button with a piece of string’ , replies the spiv.

‘So what do I do with this?’, says our friend.

‘Stick the button in your ear, and put the string in your breast pocket.’ says the spiv.

‘So?’ replies our friend.

‘People will think that you have a pocket hearing aid, and shout at you, so you won’t need to buy a real aid!’

Boom! Boom!

A near-death experience!

I remember vividly one installation of a loop system where we were involved.

The oldest lady in the congregation in Kilsyth was invited to come with her hearing aid to test out how effective it was. She switched over to the ‘T’ position, and when the Minister spoke into the microphone, she literally jumped out of her seat! This was worrying as she had had a heart attack recently, and she was hurriedly encouraged to sit down!

Luckily she survived the experience and was eventually able to describe the new hearing experience as…  ’it was just like the Minister sitting on my shoulder talking into my ear!

I never asked the Minister what he thought of that!

Den’glish?

A distinguished retired Danish diplomat living in Scotland was advised to come to me for a hearing aid many years ago. He spoke perfect English and like many from that country, he also knew our slang.

After his first fitting he went back to his house in the countryside, with the instruction to record the good and bad points of wearing an aid for the first time.

On his return, I expected him to talk about hearing music, or the sounds of the country, or even hearing his wife better.

But no! What struck him most was revealed in the short phrase…’Going to the loo! I never realised the cistern was so noisy!’

So much for word tests and sophisticated fitting techniques! needless to say, other aspects of life eventually came to be improved and the cistern was eventually forgotten.

The irreverend Reverend

A ministerial friend of mine, who lives some two hours drive away by car,  phoned me many years ago to ask me to test him for hearing aids. In the ear aids were by this time available and so were offered, but he insisted on a large behind the ear aids.

‘A strange decision’, I thought, but he would not be swayed!

After a two hour drive back to the office I was told that I had to phone him. ‘Surely he hasn’t decided against aids?’ I thought.

‘What colours do these aids come in?’ he queried.

‘What colour were you thinking off?’, I parried. ‘

What about bright crimson?’ he said. 

I almost told him that I thought he was being silly! However I retained my professional distance and he was successfully fitted with the aids (which he was to wear for many years).

However I was sufficiently courageous to ask him (having known him first over thirty years ago) why he wanted to have the gaudy aids.

‘Well, I have been trying to tell the Bishop for many years that I have a hearing loss. He’ll darned well have to believe me now!’

A case of inverse aesthetics being used to good effect!!

Aesthetic appeal?

It’s very interesting to note the visible changes in hearing aids over the last few decades. When I first started practising we fitted pocket aids, which were then followed by behind-the-ear aids (which by this time were almost as powerful).

As time went on we could fit very severe losses with in-the-ear aids, and even completely-in-the-canal aids. These not only were more aesthetically-appealing, but gave an improved sound as they were nearer the eardrum.

About five or six years ago we saw an amazing volte-face in that now we could offer aids which were called 0n-the-ear (OTE), as they sat behind the ear and led the sound through a tube to the ear. They were followed by the receiver-in-the-ear, where the loudspeaker is now in the canal of the ear.

They are certainly evident for all to see in their gaudy colours, so aesthetic appeal cannot feature highly in the mind of the wearer. The truth is that they give a very-natural sound, and this is proving more important than how they look.   GOOD!

The value of music

Choral music has been part of my life since I was a young boy, and still keeps me amused.

In various choirs, we have had people with hearing aids who have been long-established and loyal members. Singing is known to have a therapeutic effect, and no less so, those with hearing aids.

There is one limitation however….it is necessary to tell those who fitted your aids that you are in a choir and must have the MPO (maximum power output) reduced. This can now be done quite easily with digital aids. So if you are asked to join, or are thinking of become a chorister, get on with it!

Hello world!

Hi, all….I’ve spent well over 30 years trying to alleviate the problems of hearing-impairment, but am now heading towards retirement.

However it will be some wrench not being involved in the day-to-day struggle of helping people, so I have had the idea of  making this blog a celebration of hearing, and not just a purely technical dissertation of audiology or sound systems.

Anyone who wants that can look at my other blog http://northernacoustics.wordpress.com !

So if you have anything which you feel should be here….let me know.