103 and Going Strong
I was working with a patient today, who lives in a retirement home here in Florida. Her name is Bea and she is 103 years young; she is so full of life and is just amazing to talk with. During our conversation today, she told me that everyone at the retirement home will tell the new people, "Hey, there's Bea and she is 103 years old." Bea said to me, "Can't they just introduce me and not always have to say my age?"
The reason I am writing about Bea is that at age 102 she decided she wanted new hearing aids. She felt her old hearing aids were not working anymore and was ready to upgrade to something different. She said, " I want to be able to enjoy life and hear everything I can while I am still alive." Bea also suffers from macular degeneration, but still can see enough to get around and can walk fairly well. She loves to listen to the television, and she attends church services and is still able to understand the pastor when he is giving his sermon.
So many times I hear people telling me, "I am too old for hearing aids." I don't believe age has anything to do with it. I believe if you set your mind to it you can do anything you want. She can't see to change the batteries so she decided to enlist a friend to help her change her batteries. She says "where there is a will there is a way." She stands by that and she is a hero in my eyes, nothing gets her down. Oh, sorry I just lied she doesn't like it when the Tampa Bay Rays lose!
I hope that this article might help someone who is struggling to make that first step to get help with their hearing. Hearing loss does not just affect the person with the loss but their friends and families also suffer. Please pass this article along to someone you might know that is struggling to take the steps neccesary to get back in the land of the hearing.
Jul 20, 2009 at 6:56 AM This really resonates with me. I am the Outreach Manager for the Northern Virginia Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons in Fairfax, VA, (NVRC). Much of my outreach work is with our senior population.
Two anecdotes.
The first happened at a senior retirement community. When I was preparing to leave after my hearing aid program, one of the seniors lingered to chat. She told me that a few of her friends had chosen to go to the presentation about arthritis that morning, and added "but I wanted to learn more about hearing aids, because my hearing is important and I want to get on with my life!" She was 90.
The other was at a senior center, following my program about coping with hearing loss. There had been some discussion about hearing aids in general, and one of the attendees said he was "too old" for hearing aids, that it was "pointless" at his age. He was 85. One of the ladies started nodding, but asked with genuine sincerity "I'm 88. What do you think, Bonnie? Are we too old? Aren't we worth it?"
It doesn't help when these seniors have family members who encourage them NOT get to get hearing aids because "you shouldn't have to spend all this money at your age," which is really another way to say they might die soon so why bother. A better support system would ensure a very different outcome.
Another impediment is that seniors are often the victims of audiologists and hearing instrument specialists who see easy sales. Just last week I met with a senior who had been wooed by a hearing aid specialist who felt she could really benefit from new, cutting edge technology type of hearing aids that cost $10,000 for the pair. He only gave her a pure tone test, no speech discrimination, nothing else, etc. Told her they would cut out the background noise, that she wouldn't lose any more of her hearing, and so forth. She wanted to see me before she went ahead with the sale. Needless to say......
In my outreach work I do stress the importance of hearing at whatever age, that you're never too old or too young to take whatever steps you can to create a better quality of life for yourself.
Oct 15, 2009 at 2:25 PM Michael, that is amazing. We have so much to learn from individuals like her. I have to admit though, I got you beat. I have a little lady that I see at one of the assisted living centers who is 112!