Hear2day

Well, by way of introducing myself on our Hear2day website, the name is

Fred

ALEXANDER-HAMILTON FREDRIK BENNING, better known to all and sundry as ‘Uncle Fred’.

A born and bred Capetonian dating back to before the WWII , I lived with my parents and my brother Leo, for the first 24years at No 10 Bennington Rd, Tamboers Kloof in the City Bowl. I was born when my mom was well into her forties which was considered in those days to be pretty old to be having children.  Could it have anything to do with the fact that I was to be come deaf in later years???

It was during my junior school days at SACS Junior in Wandel St, Gardens that I first learned about the nature of deafness, its pitfalls and its established presence in the maternal side of my family.

This happened on a day, as my Mom would do every day come rain or shine, when she walked with me a 6yr old , from our home to school and back in the afternoons to safely cross the busy intersection of Rheede St to Kloof and Orange Sts.

On a day, having spotted me across the road at the intersection, she stepped off the pavement not noticing an approaching cyclist on his delivery bicycle to her right, bearing down on her.  She was struck down and suffered a damaged knee. After crossing over safely to help Mom to her feet again, she remarked to me “BUT I DID NOT HEAR THE BICYCLE APPROACH, AS I AM DEAF YOU KNOW!!’”.

And so began my experiences and knowledge of ‘deafness’ in my Mother’s family which I had not really noticed or grasped until that incident.

As the years passed this deafness in Mother got worse. As a family we had often to repeat things for her to understand. In addition I became very aware the my ‘Grossmama’ as one called ones grandmother of German descent, was in fact virtually totally deaf.

Most communication were by shouting out loud or by written messages on the slate board, which we all used at school in those days when paper was so scarce.    Hearing aids were in their infancy and very primitive and unobtainable during the late 40’s as there were greater priorities after the end of the war.

It seems though that I was fortunate that my deafness had not really begun to manifest itself until I had completed my high school and tertiary education as SACS Schools and UCT respectively. I cannot recall that I had difficulty hearing in class to follow lectures during my Engineering classes, whowever, what was said and written on the board was often rather hard to fathom out and understand!!!

I cannot really say at what age I began to realize that I had a hearing problem. However during  my my early forties, I spent much time working in industries which all emitted high decibel sound levels often well in excess of 85dbA. This exposure became more prevalent during the 70’s and 80’s when I was further exposed  to noisy working conditions as a commissioning Engineer responsible for ‘starting up and optimizing of steam boilerplant within sugar mill all around Southern Africa and neighbouring countries.  Foolishly, I did not take adequate precautions to protect my ears from harm with the use of earmuffs and plugs that I should have done.

So it was that I started to have hearing problems of such a magnitude that I had to ask my colleagues and family members to repeat question and conversations. That must have been some 15 years ago.  But it was only about 12 years ago that I consulted an audiologist for the first time at the House of Hearing.

I was then fitted with my first ‘in the ear canal’ hearing aid. As I got into my son’s car( he was transporting me) I clearly remember saying out loudly to him, “I can hear the music on the radio, it sounds wonderful!!!! This was the first for me in benefiting from assistive aids. I was overjoyed to say the least.

What a joy that was until the car’s engine was started, the car moving into the traffic. These motion noises came screaming into my tender ears with a deafening shock!!! You can imagine my innermost thoughts, one minute euphoria, the next a cacophony of noise!!! But I had to make a start

and learn to HEAR differently!!!!

I beleive I tried hard, but some three years later I returned to the H of H to complain about the really unsatisfactory assistance that particular H/A was giving.  I complained that people did not speak clearly nor directly enough for me to follow the conversation or discussion and that they, the speakers, needed to correct their ways of communicating to H of H persons.

I was told categorically by the audiologist “But Mr Benning, it is you who must adapt your hearing ways to be hear the speaker,it’s not incumbent on the speaker to always repeat and face you to enable you to hear!!!!!

I was shocked into silent disbelief, got up and left without saying another word and never returned to the House of Hearing.  Was I right or wrong to have walked out!!!!

And so my association started with Dr. Esterhuizen ENT, who on examination confirmed that he was unable to help me by way of any surgery, and introduced me to Gail, Audiologist at Constantiaberg Hospital Medical Suits. This association has been ongoing now for over ten years, would you believe it!!!

My hearing has deteriorated further over these years and several upgrades of H/A have been fitted with mixed success rates. We have moved from analogue Starkeys, to digital aids, to uni-directional to multi directional, from low power in the ear, to high powered BTE, from Hansetron, Otincon Adapto and  Sumo DM and the likes.  Denise, my wife and I have collectively participated in speak therapy lessons with Jenny, and I have undergone a preliminary CI assessment at Tygerburg Hospital.

All of this in an effort to IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF HEARING AND UNDERSTANDING PEOPLES COMMUNICATIONS.

From my experiences, the following are my specific problems;

• I have great difficulty with word and sentence recognitions and clarity, especially with the  ‘s’s and ‘t’s, even with the use of aids
• Sounds from radio, TV, mobile and landline phones are not satisfactorily intelligible for me to understand
• Trying to follow group discussions (except with HI support group members) is particularly difficult, making group meetings very difficult and tiresome and often results in me wrongly interpreting what is said.
• The habit of speakers have to direct their conversation to hearing persons, instead of to the ‘hearing impaired’ persons
• This is for me a major concern in particular with close family members, who just don’t seem to remember to direct their discussion with me. I cannot understand why not!!
• The generally ‘poor speaking habits(and accents) of speakers’ is a major factor in the success rate of my ability to hear, i.e people whisper, mumble, mutter, shout etc!! instead of speaking clearly and having eye contact!!

In summary then, my deafness has seen a gradual deterioration over the past twenty years or so, the main causes being;

• Family hereditary
• A very noisy long endured work environment
• In adequate use of correct ear protection
• Generally unsatisfactory help from assistive hearing aids
• The general ageing process

The way forward ??

• Further upgrading of digital hearing aid and modern assistive devices
• Enthusiastic support for Hear2day Support group initiatives
• Serious consideration to having C I surgery and rehabilitation
• Finding funds or state assistance to enable CI to take place

Thanks for you for attention, Uncle Fred