Well this is something.  I spent an hour and a half writing a blog for this post and saved it numerous times while editing.  I clicked “Publish” and the whole thing disappeared.  Only my title remained.  It was a good one, too!  Darn!

Anyway, I started off by apologizing for not writing anything since July.  That’s an indication of how busy my summer was and how busy I’ve been.  Since I have the (not so) new hearing aids, I’ve been out and doing more things.  I’m feeling much more comfortable in the world again.

I had an experience last week and wonder if anyone else has ever had a similar experience.  I was on a tour of a huge local music store that has everything possible for the student to the pro – even recording studio stuff.  Would you believe they had a piano that costs $180,000.00? (I wonder if the music sounds different on that.) We went into a room that was a simulated sound mixing studio and I noticed there was a big difference in the sounds.  They were pure and clear – no echo, no fall off, no blurring, no bouncing.  Just pure, clean sounds.  (I still couldn’t understand speech of course, but the better sounds gave me better cues for reading lips.)

Someone asked what the funny little squares on the walls were, and our guide explained they were samples of acoustical materials.  Remember my little lightbulb that goes off sometimes?  TaDa! It was the acoustical squares that made that room special for me.  I want them!  “Could I get some of those and somehow set them up around me to help me hear?” I asked. The guide didn’t know and said I’d probably have to talk to an acoustical engineer and the whole thing would cost a fortune.  Totally out of reach and impractical.

But what if I’m on to something?  What if audiologists could simulate the acoustics in that room with these new, expensive, highly programmable hearing aids?  Shouldn’t someone find out about that?  Shouldn’t someone be interested in the possibility?  Shouldn’t someone care?  If anyone does it will be Wonderful Audiologist and I’m sure she’ll be interested.  But what about everyone else? What about the people who make hearing aids? How many lives could be better if someone would take an interest?

Something that really bothers me is that though I recommended three friends to Wonderful Audiologist, only two have gone.  She can help them, too, which is great.  But friend number 3 isn’t going because and I quote, “I don’t have money for hearing aids and don’t know when I’ll have that much.”  Way to go Ontario Health Care.  With all the hype about government health care and care for everyone, she can’t afford to hear.

I may have posted before about how the government only contributes a pittance to hearing aids every three years (I checked a previous blog, hence the edit) or if your prescription changes enough. I was months away from being entitled to that pittance and they denied me because they said I don’t have enough hearing to consider it a prescription change.  They said I had to wait all those months to get new hearing aids or forfeit my assistance. Which my taxes pay for by the way.  A good portion of our taxes go to the health care system.

Thanks to Darling Hubby we took the financial loss and I didn’t have to wait.  My life has been so much better because of it. No, that’s too mild. My life has resumed because of the new hearing aids. But what about people like my friend who just don’t have the money for expensive hearing aids? Anyway, my opinion of the health care system up here is another blog.  Right now let’s leave it that I’m not a fan.  Not a fan at all.

So if the government doesn’t care about people who can’t hear, who does? People who can’t hear don’t have anything to identify us to others so they won’t hit us with their cars, bikes or strollers, or slam into us while they’re skateboarding, rollerblading, etc. because we can’t hear them. There are still TV shows that aren’t captioned and we’ve found the cable “On Demand” shows are rarely captioned.  “Don’t complain to us,” says Rogers Cable. Who should we complain to? They don’t know and won’t try to help.  Now we’ve found some movies recorded on their system aren’t captioned either. Commercials?  Only a few.  And what about movie theaters?  Captioned theaters do exist but they are so few and far between, it’s very difficult to see a current movie.  Movies have tons of commercials these days too.   What? Only hearing people shop?  Hey world, don’t you want my money too?

Some of us can’t hear, but we are here.

Hello, can you hear me?