A few years ago when my family was coming to understand the true extent of the success of my hearing with cochlear implants, my daughter shared a realization with me. She said, “Mom, my sisters and I were talking and we came to realize that as you get older, your hearing will keep getting better and dad’s will get worse.” We laughed.

Unfortunately age-related hearing loss is a pretty common issue. I remember when I got my first pair of hearing aids I did not want to be lumped in with old people. I was 28. When you want to hear better, you get over feelings like that, or bury them somewhere and then cover the hearing aids with your hair.

My first pair of hearing aids helped some – but not in a life changing way. I relied greatly on lip reading to understand speech. My family felt they helped. Many times when trying to converse with me, I heard (or saw) my child say to me, “Mom – do you have your hearing aids in?” Usually I did – but with the extent of the progressiveness of my loss, we did not know exactly when that prescription stopped helping. With each new pair of hearing aids, approximately every three years, the prescription was stronger.

Hearing aids can be life changing for some. They help many people with moderate hearing loss hear sounds they have forgotten or may never have heard. Not too long ago I met a young woman whose experience with getting hearing aids was like that. It was inspiring to listen to her share her joy in hearing. Hearing aids gave to her what cochlear implants accomplished for me – the delivery of sound needed to comprehend speech and recognize environmental noises.

Recently I watched my dad recover sound with hearing aids. With age-related hearing loss, he graciously accepted that it is time for some assistance. He admitted to hearing some things he had been missing. Gradual hearing loss, from whatever cause and at any stage in life, fades a person into a quieter world. Hearing aids and cochlear implants give back sounds long forgotten and sometimes surprising to hear again. It is a noisy world and it can be hard to rejoin it.

Yes – my daughters are right. As cochlear implant technology continues to evolve and my brain can still figure out how to use the technology, my hearing keeps getting better. For age-related hearing loss, technology offers a lot for those willing to use it. For most, at all levels of hearing loss, there is hope.