Pardon?   What did you say?  Sorry..?   Eh?   Come again?     By gum, everyone mumbles nowadays……

Over the past decade or so I have made a few faux pas hearing-wise:-   I thought the President of my drama group said “The most important thing is Celtic”….it transpired to be “The most important thing is to sell tickets”.  I could have sworn my grandaughter was singing along to “Go recycling”  (turned out to be ‘Go Greece Lightning’).  There have been umpteen of them over the years – all laughed off.  Then last week I honestly thought my partner was using the wrong word as a joke when he announced in response to my query about how he’d got on with his bike “ok, no trouble with my vagina” ….a split second later I realised he had said angina but not after I had almost choked on my coffee and everyone else in the room became aware of my mistake.

I know everyone mishears, I do not for a moment think this is anything much to worry about, but people have been mumbling a lot more lately; at the theatre  I’m always saying “I can hear the sound but can’t make out the words” and I find it almost impossible to tell what someone is saying if I’m not in the same room as them.  So, when I received an appointment for a check-up at  Hidden Hearing I went along.  I have had these check-ups for the past three years and each time have been told I didn’t require assistance equipment, but this time my results were much poorer and I was advised to think seriously about wearing a hearing aid.

If I do decide to get one it won’t be a big thing like those NHS hearing aids, mind you, I understand they have improved in recent years!

Seriously, it’ll be the teeny weeny computers with an almost invisible wire that I choose but the trouble is they are not inexpensive. 

So, I think my next step will be to see if I can get a second opinion re the need for assistance by asking my GP to refer me to the hospital, then, if they agree I need help I will go back to HH and bite the financial bullet.

Ach weel – they do say old age doesnae come itsel’