"Repair appointment at Audiology"

I’m  in my seventies. I’ve had my hearing aids since 2017 but they seem to have got a lot less effective, maybe because my hearing changed or maybe they’re just worn out- I rang Audiology to try to get a hearing test but they said, you have to have a repair appointment first. So this was my repair appointment with a technician. I wasn’t expecting a lot and I was a bit irritated that I’d had to wait weeks for this appointment and then of course I’d have another wait for the hearing test . .

Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong, thanks to the young man who did the repair appointment. His name was Lee I think and he was just brilliant- professional, but also friendly and reassuring- I’m always a bit nervous in hospitals- but he didn’t rush me, he explained everything and gave me time and made sure I understood. 

He said my aids were a very old, discontinued model but he wasn’t authorised to switch me onto newer ones- so he went and found a colleague who was, Dr Naik. She was also great, coming in and just overseeing everything and okaying the switch. 

So I came out with a new pair of hearing aids that work brilliantly, even though they’ll have to be fine-tuned when I do get my hearing appointment. 

I can 't tell you how miserable it is not to be able to hear what people are saying to you, unless you can see their face and lip read- and of course now with everybody wearing masks it doesn’t help. You feel stupid, constantly having to ask people to repeat themselves or making feeble jokes that they rapidly get tired of, but when I came out of the hospital it was as if the world was transformed, or  like being twenty years younger! I can hear again! Thank you both so, so much.