We created this website as a resource for people who are going through a similar experience as ours.

It started off with comments like "you never listen to me", "why aren't you answering me", "I told you already", "how many times do I have to repeat myself", "you're mumbling, talk up". He blamed me and I blamed him.

George and I have been together for 20 years. His partial hearing loss was gradual. It took a toll on our relationship as we kept getting angrier and angrier at each other.

George started to feel more and more ignored when we went out with friends. His inability to hear the general conversation and participate, made people impatient.

Does any of this sound familiar?

I kept after him to see a hearing specialist and get tested but earing aids denote old age and old age denotes insignificance in our culture. George admitted he would be embarrassed to wear a hearing aid. He's a very young-looking and active 72 year old He didn't want anyone to think he was old.

It took a young friend who had hearing aids to tell George how her life had changed since she got the aid. She explained how isolated she had felt and the hearing aids were like a new lease on life for her. She was only 40 years old and wasn't embarrassed to wear them...keeping her hair short so the aids were visible.

So off we finally went to an audiologist near our small rural town. Tests were done and George was offered many hearing aid style options for his hearing loss. The audiologist spent quite a lot time with us, explaining the problems couples face when one of them has a hearing loss and some of the things both of us could do to help alleviate our lack of communication.

After we got back home, I started doing research on the internet and discovered that there was very little information out there about hearing aids and reviews of the different brands. Only ads. (this was 3 years ago).

So, George chose the least obtrusive inner ear aid. It was very expensive but his insurance company would pay $4000 out of the the $7000 of the cost. This is a lot of money for us but we felt it was definitely worth it.

But over the next several months, George ended back at the audiologist all the time since the aids kept getting clogged or broken. Very frustrating and annoying. TRY TO FIND AN AUDIOLOGIST NEAR YOUR HOME! WE HAD TO KEEP TRAVELING BACK AND FORTH. Plus George's expectations that he would be able to hear perfectly were not met. That's a biggy. Hearing aids can only help to a certain degree.

After about a year, George ended up with aids that were behind the ear and less easily clogged or damaged. The tube that runs from the ear to the back of his ear is clear plastic...not terrible noticable.

They don't work great...but better than none.