Family Perspective

Transcript

I’m active duty and hazardous noise exposure is fairly common. Let’s face it the military’s a noisy place. In the Army I worked in some pretty loud places.  At the range.  On the flight line.  In the cockpit.  And here at home too, there’s lots of noise. He came back from deployment with ringing in his ears and he couldn’t hear me anymore.  When he got out I could hardly wait to celebrate, but it’s hard to celebrate when he can’t hear.

Restaurants are the worst. Really, it’s hard for me to hear anything when there’s a lot of background noise. Even family get-togethers. The kids used to get upset that he couldn’t hear them. They didn’t really understand. 

I don’t want to frustrate my family. And I don’t want to feel isolated.  It’s hard on him and it’s hard on us.  I’m going to the audiologist.  I went to the VA.  I’m using hearing protection at home and at work.  I’ve got a hearing aid and I’m conserving the hearing that I’ve got left.  For my family and for myself.