I've spent the last several years dealing with severe hearing loss. Operating large marine diesel engines, high pressure air compressors, and other noisy equipment in the U.S. Navy (sans appropriate hearing protection) will do that for you. But losing your hearing doesn't happen all at once, and usually your family notices it before you really get a clue. It's a degenerative progression once it starts.
Anyway, today I can hear again thanks to the Veterans Administration. I was recently fitted with a pair of state of the art hearing aids by the VA. As soon as the audiologist plugged them into my ears, it was like - wow - I can hear again!
This journey to hearing again started quite some time back. Ten years or so ago, I was noticing that I was saying, "I'm sorry?", or "Huh?" when someone was talking to me. I actually went to my primary doctor, and had my hearing evaluated. Based on that test, compared against testing that I had in my record from several years earlier, it was clear that my hearing loss was progressing at a significant pace. But my health insurance wouldn't cover hearing aids. So, like most folks with degenerative hearing loss, I just suffered along and coped. And so did my friends and family.
In 2010, I finally signed up for VA services after losing my health insurance when I was laid off. I've diaried before on my introduction to the VA, and the great assistance that a few folks here provided me in terms of navigating the system. One of the first things I mentioned to my primary care provider on my first visit to the VA was that my hearing was pretty crappy - so she set me up with an audiology appointment. A few weeks later, I was sitting in a chair in one of those soundproof audiology booths, getting a full evaluation.
Long story short, sometimes with the VA, you have to wait a little while for good things to happen. But recently, I finally received my hearing aids, and couldn't believe what I'd been missing for all of these years, from the moment they were plugged into my ear canals.
I found out (anecdotely) that the hearing aids I received cost about $8,000 for the pair. They're pretty sweet, almost invisible, and even have a remote control to modify the programming depending on the environment I'm in (I used to have real auditory issues in environments with a lot of background noise, like a store).
How much did these cost me out of pocket? $50 co-pay.
I'm really happy that it's no longer necessary to have the TV turned up to near full volume to watch, listen, or spew my own invective at Wolf Blitzer. When I'm out in public, I actually don't have to pretend that I'm hearing what a waitress or cashier says to me.
The VA is what public health care should look like. I've said before that if everyone had the opportunity to do one appointment at the VA, we'd all have single payer, government funded health care in a New York minute.
But politics and other crap aside, it's just nice, really nice, to regain one of my senses.
I can hear again.