Do you know someone who is deaf? Or going deaf? I don’t mean in the “haha every time I speak the hubby doesn’t listen to me” kind of way. I mean suffering from actual hearing loss. Now don’t get me wrong, I think most of my husband’s hearing loss is specific to me. I mean, he can hear our daughter say “daddy” from the basement, but if I’m talking to him in the same room his standard response is “what did you say?”
No, I’m talking about real physical damage caused hearing loss. Think it’s not real? Think again. These days you don’t have to be loading ammunition into an anti-aircraft cannon or working on a runway or be a heavy metal musician to suffer hearing loss. It can come from all different directions. Listening to that mp3 player with earbuds and the volume cranked up. Seriously… my phone even TELLS ME when the volume is too high, that’s a far cry from the days of my youth and the venerable Sony Walkman. Or how about mowing the grass for a couple hours every week? Ever come inside and had a ringing in your ears from that? Speaking of ringing in your ears, have you ever gone to a concert and come away with a ringing in your ears so loud you actually can’t hear for a couple hours. Umm, yeah, the hubby has had all of these. I’ve heard more than one story from his youth of him seeing Ozzy or Metallica in concert and they all ended with “I couldn’t hear anything except the ringing in my ears for 12 hours. It was great.”
Now, how many of you would do the same thing with your vision? “Hey, let’s stare at the sun for 4 hours until we can’t see, that sounds like fun.” If you did that once you would probably learn your lesson and never do it again (assuming you weren’t permanently blinded) but people do it all the time with their hearing. Just imagine if your husband or wife actually couldn’t hear you? Or you couldn’t hear them? The voice you depend on for support and reassurance and laughter slowly getting quieter and quieter until you can’t hear it at all. I don’t know about you but that’s a pretty terrifying thought to me.
This is my daughter, I can’t even imagine not being able to hear her cute little voice, her laughter, her reading to me.
Now imagine that there was a remedy, but that you couldn’t afford it. They’re right there, speaking at you, if only you had a hearing aid. Or $5000 to get a hearing aid? That’s how much they can cost. And most insurance plans don’t cover hearing aids. Glasses? Sure. Teeth? Sure. Hearing Aids? Probably not.
If hearing health is NOT a covered benefit for you, take a stand and request a change. EPIC Hearing Healthcare has created an advocacy flyer that anyone can just share to start a conversation with their HR professional. Download it at: http://www.epichearing.com/listenhear/resources/
Don’t become a member of #GenerationDeaf. Make sure you have health coverage for your hearing. And turn down the volume.
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post written in conjunction with EPIC Hearing Healthcare (EPIC). Regardless, all opinions expressed are still 100% my own.
