Through my eyes: My first 48 hours with hearing aids
As an editor and writer for Medical News Today, I am constantly exploring the causes and effects of a range of different diseases and conditions.
From time to time, I find that a particular article will pop up and alert me to my own health issues. And that is exactly what happened when I looked into deafness and hearing loss around a year ago.
I was going through the questions a doctor might ask during diagnosis, and I was staggered to find that as few as 5 percent of them did not apply to my own ears.
Sure enough, I took these issues to a doctor, and entered the referral process for treatment by an ear, nose, and throat specialist.
After 8 months of waiting, I now have two hearing aids. At the time of writing, I have only been wearing them for 2 days, yet their impact is already significantly greater than I could ever have imagined.
A gradual, creeping impact on your life
To recap, I'm lucky enough to have retained at least half of my hearing in each ear. At present, I can lead a mostly active, healthy life, I don't need to communicate with sign language, and my work is unaffected.
However, it's all too easy to dismiss the impact of a gradual, creeping condition such as hearing loss. It can develop suddenly, or, as in my case, take 20 years to reach a diagnosable level.
I will be 30 years old this year, and those 20 years mark a hugely important period in anyone's life.
Whether you are trying to make an impact as a young professional starting out, rounding off your formal education, building a family, or all of the above, you will undoubtedly be taking account of parts of your life that are becoming increasingly important and complex.
Communication is a huge part of navigating this formative stage. If any element of communication is lacking, it can have a significant impact on the way your personality develops, and the methods you use to connect with the outside world.
The big kicker with gradual-onset hearing loss is that you are not aware of how it's changing you until the physical symptoms have become moderate to severe.
