About Hear Well After Fifty

The moment that got me to act happened at Thanksgiving. My granddaughter said her first real sentence -- something with a subject and a verb, her parents told me afterward when I asked. I was sitting close enough to catch every word. I heard none of it. The table reacted and I reacted with them, and it was only later that my son told me what she had actually said.

My wife had been pointing this out for about two years before that. Telling me things twice. Noting, diplomatically, that the TV volume was higher than it needed to be. I maintained that people were mumbling more than they used to. She was patient about this for longer than I deserved.

Thirty years as a school principal in suburban Boston. Eight years teaching before that. Public school buildings are loud -- hallways at passing periods, the lunch cafeteria, a gymnasium when a basketball game is close. I had told myself the hearing loss was a reasonable occupational outcome for someone who spent four decades in those environments. That is plausible. It was also a comfortable story that let me avoid doing anything about it.

After Thanksgiving I finally saw an audiologist. Got hearing aids. They made more difference than I expected, probably because I had been compensating for longer than I realized -- choosing quieter seats, leaning into conversations, reading faces. Then I started looking into supplements. Found the field scattered: confident claims, almost nothing from people logging their own experience honestly. So I started my own log -- a simple weekly record of how conversations felt across the situations that actually matter to me. Restaurants, where background noise is unpredictable. Phone calls, which strip out facial cues. Sunday church, where acoustics are bad and I know everyone well enough to notice the gap. Family dinners, where everyone talks at once. Not a number on a test. Whether I got through the evening without asking anyone to repeat themselves.

That is what this site is. Notes from one retired school principal on what he tried, what two years of logging showed, and what he thinks is worth a look. I am not a doctor. Not an audiologist. Not any kind of health professional. If you are experiencing hearing decline, please work with an audiologist who can assess your specific situation. These are personal observations, nothing more.

Find out who writes here on the author page.

Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only write about products I have personally tested alongside my hearing aids.