Taking part in the new Mega Curioso board featuring personal experience stories, I share with you some thoughts on the lives of those who need to wear hearing aids - even if the hearing loss is not the most serious.

Girl not paying attention

From an early age, I became known in the family as the distracted child, the one to whom the adults said something and did not respond. Concerned about the issue, my parents took me to the doctor and I had my first audiometry at the age of 7 - I still have it, along with all the audiometry I have ever done.

With the results, the doctor concluded that I was still too young to be sure that I really had any hearing loss and that, since the graph showed a slight loss, it might even be inattention during the tests. Well, to this day, 30 years old, my audiometry chart is pretty much the same at that time. That is, it was not lack of attention.

In fact, my hearing loss is mild at most audible frequencies and moderate at only a few. It's not like I couldn't live without appliances - in fact, I lived without them until I was 15 years old. I could always understand people's lines when they spoke at a normal time and not far away. But if it is someone used to speaking quietly, or perhaps in a more intimate or confidential conversation ... Then I am almost like the "old deaf" of the square is ours.

OK, it may not be that much, but the devices are sorely missed in everyday life. The worst situations are at work, with close colleagues talking just a few feet away - or talking with their heads turned away from my ears. Then it gets really hard. Teacher who speaks quietly in class? Assisted plays from student places paying half price? Forget it: I already know that I won't understand half if I don't take the devices.

First device: listening in half

Hearing aids have been outrageously priced since the 1990s, and they have not been low as new technologies replace old ones and cost increases. In 2013, I had my third device (a pair), and each cost 3 thousand reais. Installed in 12 times, of course. It was one of the hardest purchases to pay to the end, but one of the best I ever made in my life.

Let's go back to the beginning. Given this price, which has always been absurd, especially for microchannel devices (which are almost completely in the ear and barely noticeable to other people), we couldn't afford two hearing aids at the end of the 1990s when I was about 15 years old. So we bought one: better a bird in hand than two flying, right?

More or less. Of course, it was better to have a device than none, but this experience of hearing too much with one ear and too little with the other left me somewhat traumatized and I get “to die” when I have to go through it again.

Listening to some sounds for the first time

That first device of mine ended up not lasting long due to my total carelessness, battery leaking inside it. In fact, I didn't use it very often because I couldn't adapt to this one-ear listening situation. Then came my first pair, about two years later. I was about to try the college entrance exam and it was more necessary than ever for me to understand everything that was said in class.

So for the first time, as a teenager, I heard some sounds I had never heard before. For example, the analog clock on the wall makes a loud noise every few seconds if you are in an empty, quiet room. The refrigerator, then, is not even mentioned, what a noisy thing! Without appliances, I hear the sound of the refrigerator a little, but not at full volume. The water starting to boil in the kettle is another sound I didn't hear.

When you write pencil on paper, it makes a little noise that I have never been able to hear on my own. By the way, that pencil sound was what made my mother cry, when I was surprised to find it and went to tell her about this big news. It was as if a new world of sounds had opened for me at that moment. And look, my hearing loss can't even be classified as severe.

Another not so cool experience

You can wear hearing aids, but hearing loss still exists. I remember one striking job search experience that required an audiometry test because it was to work all day on the phone. For some reason, I did not test with the devices. With the result, the recruiter said she couldn't hire me: “It's for your good. You need to preserve your hearing and that position puts you at risk. ”

I didn't care if it was for my good or not. I didn't even want that job so much. But being rejected for hearing loss, even for my sake, was a terrible feeling. I called crying to my mother, who comforted me, "You'll find something better and something right for you, " she said. And, like every mother, she was right.

New lost gadgets

When we have something that is given, we often don't value it as much as when we sweat to pay it. It was no different for me with this new pair of handsets. They lasted many years, I don't know for sure, maybe seven or eight.

But they had one big problem: the battery, which, when it was about an hour away, made the device beep a slight alarm into my ear every five minutes or so. It was a bearable sound: the problem was that you had to stand it every 5 minutes (or less) for 1 hour until the battery ran out. And the worst is when you were on the street and had no new battery in your hand because you went out with friends and just took your cell phone, no purse.

Once the battery is depleted, the device no longer sounds from the outside world and acts as a real earplug. That is, I had to take both devices off and put them in my pants, because with them in my ear, I wouldn't hear anything at all.

The result you can already predict: the next day, barely remembering the appliances, my mother took my pants to wash and who knows if they were halfway home or disintegrated inside the washing machine. Of course it took me a long time to tell this to my parents.

New handsets

My current brand new gadgets (and much cuter than today). Personal archive.

About two years after this incident of losing the phones, I had to buy a new pair because it was impossible to work without them. Those who worked closest to me on a daily basis always needed to speak louder, anything and everything for me to hear. And I always worry more about people's discomfort in these situations than about my own.

So there I went to do some new research and fall back on the very high prices of the devices I wanted. There are several models and manufacturers available on the market, but the price is always high, especially for the discreet ones, which I use for aesthetic reasons. It's a personal matter that I don't want anyone who passes me to know that I have any hearing loss.

As I said earlier, 500 reais a month for 12 months is not an easy bill to pay, but it was one of the best I have ever had the pleasure of doing so.

Some funny reports

Today, my handset technology is better than I used before, of course, and the batteries won't beep for 1 hour until the charge is over (and your patience in this process). The devices are fully digital and process different sets of sounds in a distinctive and fully customizable way. For example, louder sounds that may cause more damage to the ear (such as a rock concert) will be completely drowned out by the devices. Yeah, it's horrible to go to shows with the devices, it seems like the sound comes from inside a can.

Other sounds are brought to light, such as supposedly the sound of speech (supposedly, because I don't understand it that much). Amazingly, my devices are programmed to bring out very loud popping sounds. I don't know why that is. A popping sound at 5 meters seems to happen from the side of my ear, and it ends up being funny by the scares I carry. I keep coming back to the speech therapist to fix this, but I never have time in the rush of everyday life.

Brave noisy world

The first time I went to test a device, the speech therapist said that not everyone would adapt and could use it all day. I thought that was silly ... Until I use it. The first three or four days are terrible: it's such a noisy world, especially on the street, that headaches are frequent. It's time for a little louder sounds hammering in your head. Only you get used to the first week. However, if I do not use them for a week, I will have to go through this whole process again.

So I only really use the devices inside the office at work and when I have classes, that is, in very specific and necessary cases. At home, I want to be silent - please! - but that causes communication problems as I go back to the annoying "huh?", "What?", "Hi?". The funny thing is, I get annoyed that people are talking quietly than I can hear when the phones are there, within reach. At such times, I understand that it's hard to understand why I have braces and don't always use them.

The right thing is to wear hearing aids from the time you wake up to sleep, but I can't. I am so happy with my little islands of moments of peace and quiet. Moments of relaxation, for me, include taking off the braces. After all, if you have any advantage in using them, you can take them off. So, I'll take advantage of her.