Hear What You’re Missing

COURTESY PHOTO

During the 32 years that Bill Dowdell worked for NASA, he had a front-row seat for all 135 space shuttle launches. And well he should have. After all, he had a hand in building the six shuttle orbiters.

“The technical discipline I was hired into was environmental control and life support,” Bill explains. “That encompassed the design and build of the crew module’s cooling water systems and the breathing air systems, the tanks for breathing air that were located in the craft’s midbody.

“I was also involved in the build, assembly, testing and launch of the International Space Station. I was on that project from day one, so it was a wonderful run that I had with NASA. A wonderful run.”

Bill, 67, hasn’t stopped running. After taking a few years off, he got bored with retirement and recently took a job with the Air Force, where he is once again involved in the technical side of the aerospace industry.

“I appreciate a good technical challenge and a good technical product,” says Bill, who recently became the recipient of hearing aids, a technological product for which he immediately developed a great appreciation.

“This hearing aid I was fit with works like a charm,’’ Bill enthuses.

Bill’s history with hearing loss dates back several years, but it was only recently, after he struggled to understand what his granddaughters were saying, that he did something about it.

“Whenever I was around my granddaughters, I found myself saying, Yeah, uh huh, right. But the truth of the matter was, I had no idea what in the heck they were saying,” he explains. “I finally thought to myself, This is absolutely ridiculous.

“Of course, it had been that way with other people for a while. I mean, no pun intended, but the volume of times that I had to say to someone, I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you; can you repeat that please? was incredible. I finally realized, This isn’t normal.”

That and the realization that he was missing out on some of life’s most important moments because he was unable to carry on a conversation with his granddaughters prompted Bill to start looking for a solution to his hearing woes.

COURTESY PHOTO
Bill was having a hard time understanding what his wife and granddaughters were saying to him, so he visited EarCare, where he was fit with hearing aids that have him hearing clearly for the first time in years.

The Right Fit

He found that solution at EarCare, which has locations in Melbourne, Merritt Island and Indian Harbour Beach. Bill’s care began with practice co-owner Karen Cowan-Oberbeck, AuD, FAAA, CCC-A, providing a thorough hearing examination.

The exam revealed that Bill was suffering from a significant age-related hearing loss (presbycusis), a progressive condition that occurs as people get older.

Bill then sat down to discuss hearing aid options with hearing instrument specialist Glenn Oberbeck, NBC-HIS.

“Bill said his first priority was to hear his granddaughters and his wife,” Glenn says. “He said, I’m missing too much. But he also wanted to hear the TV better and to hear music better.”

To achieve those goals, Bill was fit with the ReSound Omnia™, a receiver-in-canal hearing aid. These hearing devices rest behind the auricle with a small receiver inside the ear and can quickly be adjusted to the listening environment.

In addition, they have “some of the best noise cancellation that patients have ever experienced,” Glenn says.

“They also have a television transmitter that provides direct audio input from the TV,” Glenn adds. “And they can be paired up with a smartphone that allows the wearer to hear phone calls and any other sound from the phone directly through the hearing aids.”

The functions of the ReSound Omnia can be controlled through an app that can be downloaded onto a smartphone, and Bill says you don’t need an engineering degree to figure out how to use it.

“Adjusting the volume, base and treble and any of the special settings is easy and helpful,” Bill says. “For example, there’s a restaurant setting that focuses your hearing to the front, which I have found very useful.

“And even though they have a TV adapter, I don’t use it. I prefer to just sit in a room and listen to the TV naturally. “That way I know if the volume on the TV is up too loud, and I can either turn it down or turn up my hearing aids if I can’t hear it.”

There is a convenient rechargeable version of the ReSound Omnia hearing devices, but Bill opted for the nonrechargeable model because it gives him the utmost freedom and convenience for his lifestyle.

“I don’t find it a problem at all to replace the small batteries that you have to replace every so often, so I just carry a package of them around in a little container that I keep in my vehicle,” he says. “That works great for me, and so do the hearing aids.

“I’m really pleased with them. I hear everything I need to now, and I hear a lot of things others can’t, so I consider myself fortunate to have found EarCare and met with Dr. Cowan-Oberbeck and Glenn because they helped me tremendously.

“Not only did they diagnose my hearing problem, they did a great job helping me select the right hearing aids and in showing me how to acclimate to them and use them properly and to my best advantage. I can’t say enough good things about them.”

Hearing Check

Bill says he wishes he had done something about his hearing sooner, and he’s not alone. Many of the customers who visit EarCare say the same thing after they’ve been fit with hearing aids.

But that is just one of the reasons why most audiologists believe that age 50 is a good time to establish a hearing baseline. The process for doing that is easy and can be started by answering the following questions:

• Do you have trouble following a conversation when two or more people are talking?

• Do people complain that you turn up the volume on the television too high?

• Do you have a problem hearing phone conversations?

• Do you have trouble hearing in a noisy background?

• Do you find yourself asking people to repeat themselves?

• Does it seem to you that many people mumble or fail to speak clearly?

• Do you misunderstand what others say and respond inappropriately?

• Do people get annoyed because you misunderstand them?

If you are 50 and older and answered yes to three or more of these questions, it may be time to be examined by an audiologist such as Dr. Cowan-Oberbeck at EarCare.