Better hearing after a lifetime of hearing loss

I come from South America in Argentina. I moved over to Australia when I was about 4 years old. After we immigrated my mother thought there was something wrong and took me to the doctor and when dropped the coins on the table, because I turned my head he thought I had normal hearing.

I started at school in a normal Kindy, the teacher noticed that I couldn’t hear so she recommended Mum take me to the hearing clinic. She took me to the clinic and yes they told me I was born partially deaf.  I finally got my first government hearing aid at seven or eight years old and at that time I could still only speak Spanish.  I had to learn to speak English at that early age with my new hearing aids

My parents decided to then stop talking Spanish at home and that we needed to concentrate on learning to speak English which we all did. I also went to a Partially Hearing School in Cottesloe. I loved it but unfortunately I kind of stopped speaking to the children that couldn’t talk or hear at all. I watched them and learnt sign language by watching them.

My parents took me out of the Cottesloe Hearing School and put me into a normal school so that I would start talking again. It was hard.  As I grew up my mother brought a restaurant. I started working in the café for her, then I couldn’t get into the Army because I was deaf so in the end I became a chef. If it wasn’t for my Mum I wouldn’t know what sort of job I would be doing.

In the last 10 years I’ve had such trouble with my hearing, even though I’ve worn hearing aids the whole time. I have been told I have a difficult hearing loss to fit with hearing aids and what I found is there was just too much noise and echo but I put up with it.  I couldn’t get into conversation with any of my friends, it wasn’t easy. You do feel like you have been left out.  You have to sit back and pretend you did hear what someone said. Its really hard when you’re as young as I am, and you’re trying to fit in and talk with people your ager in restaurants or around noise.

This was all before my beautiful family and friends decided to fundraise to get a better hearing aid. Luckily many of them had heard about Advanced Hearing WA and when we approached Eimear to see how much hearing aids would cost we were so pleasantly surprised that hearing aids from Advanced Hearing were thousands cheaper than what we were quoted in Perth.

Lots of funding was done locally by my circle of friends, we shook a tin at a sausage sizzle in Cowaramup, there was a ‘gofundme’ project on the internet and then my family friends approached the Lions Club in Margaret River who generously contributed. Between all the funding and with the help of Advanced Hearing WA we got one of the best hearing aids ever.

When Eimear gave me these Hearing Aids, as soon as we switched them on the first thing I noticed was that I could hear everyone breathing, it was amazing. Then we walked outside and listened to them on Queen street and I could still hear the conversations even though there was all this traffic. Eimear even went so far to get the hearing aid company to donate a Bluetooth neck loop so now I can hear my mobile phone or my music through the hearing aids, its mind blowing.

It has been amazing wearing them. I hear everything and have had to learn all new sounds. I keep saying “what is that noise?”. I hear it. Even when a balloon pops. When children are playing in the park and there is all that background noise. I am able to talk to everyone and I am able to hear again. I feel like I fit in with people and am not being left out in conversation.  And my children, they always thought I yelled at them but I talked too loud because I couldn’t hear myself.  It has been amazing. I can hear someone knocking on the front door.  I can even hear my child talking in the bedroom whilst I am in the lounge room.  At least I know what they are up to!!

Eimear has done so much for me. She has been amazing. Her work at making me hear better has been fantastic. She never gave up and has been so positive. Its been an amazing New Year with all my new hearing, and I cant thank Advanced Hearing WA enough for all they’ve done. I’m enthusiastic about my future with hearing this well.

Romy Sauli