For a Florida couple, hearing aids were not working. The doctor provided the correction.

Lutz – From his Pasco County home, Dennis O’Neill will ask his wife Susan, “Do you want the TV to be turned on?”

To this, Susan replies: “I’m not ready for dinner yet.”

The couple was talking, but they were walking past each other and talking.

And then there’s nothing out of frustration.

Like so many seniors, O’Neill experienced hearing loss as he ages.

First, Dennis, 77, and Susan, 70, added more volumes of morning news. They will ask each other to repeat their questions.

But by a few years ago, the losses had become so severe that 40 years numbers began to change their routine.

The orchestra patrons did not listen to the music. Longtime trivia fanatics and frequent champions chose to stay home rather than nervous to pick a question from the noise of gargling. At dinner with friends, they smile and nod, hoping that the reaction is appropriate where the conversation was floating.

“It’s debilitating,” Dennis O’Neill said. “How do you interact with people when you can’t hear?”

For years, O’Neill tried different hearing aids, but the device wasn’t working for them.

Dennis, an avid swimmer with eczema in his ears, discovered that his hearing aids are unbearably itchy. Susan, who suffered from an ear infection, couldn’t stand the feeling of her ears stuffed in mold. Hearing aids must be worn consistently for them to work. O’Neill never was able to adapt.

And the retirement they dreamed of together had fulfilled an active, social and quality time – quieter than they wanted.

Then in December, their doctors talked about new devices that could help them.

Like hearing aids, the OSIA system of ch cows amplifies sound. But instead of sitting in the ear, the device is embedded in the skull. It uses bone vibrations to send sounds directly to the inner ear.

Surgery was required, and he gave O’Neill some pause. Unlike hearing aids, however, Medicare earns costs.

Can OSIA systems recover their world?

Connection lost

They worked for a major paper production company in Chicago in the 1980s.

Over the weekend, Dennis threw a house party. He had a big garden and a barbecue. Someone often brings a barrel.

Some persuasion was required, but Susan ultimately agreed to his invitation. Dennis offered her a house tour, and they bonded with their love for music.

When Dennis tells the story, he likes Susan turns to him and laughs, saying, “We’re sure we can make beautiful music together.”

Susan doesn’t remember that way. The rest were all the same history.

The couple raised four children. They moved to Texas and then to Washington. We traveled to Japan and went on a family trip to Vancouver Island. They packed the summer with their kids into a small RV. He led all the string instrumentalists of the time – violin, viola, and double bass.

Dennis had the trick to finding a conversation. He was the type to chat with campsite guests and then invited him to a momentary concert that his kids placed. He made friends everywhere he went.

When their hearing declines, it is spontaneity that Dennis and Susan miss the most out of the strangers and each other.

When a need urges it – with doctor appointments or family video calls – people will find ways to get information. They’ll say something loudly. They’ll say slowly. They write it down.

But many of the human connections live in the middle, when Susan and Dennis learnt. Inner jokes, witty remarks, callbacks that don’t feel as important as they repeat five times.

As your hearing progresses, so does their interactions. The sense of closeness begins to fade.

Approximately 30% of people aged 65 to 74, and almost half of the elderly over 75 live with hearing loss.

Not by chance, more than a third of American seniors report feeling lonely, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study found that while older people who were effectively treated for hearing loss remained more connected, untreated hearing loss is associated with a higher risk of death. One study found that people with severe hearing impairment were five times more likely to develop dementia. It also has a high risk of Alzheimer’s disease, and it will hit close to home due to O’Neill. Dennis and Susan’s mother were both sick.

Still, many seniors go with caution.

Insurance plans that include traditional Medicare rarely cover hearing aids that can cost thousands. Less than one in three adults over the age of 70 who can benefit from hearing aids use them, according to the National Institutes of Health. Numbers are low for black, Hispanic and other ethnic minorities.

Currently, implants like Cochlear Osaka offer alternative paths for some. However, this process is more invasive and lesser known.

I updated my hearing and hope

While not everyone is a good candidate for OSIA implants, the Vitale ear, nose and throat doctors from Zephyrhills performed the test and determined that both Susan and Dennis had reached the mark.

They synchronized each stage of the road, from consultation to pre-operative surgery to surgery.

Dennis struggled to recover. This is because the thinning of blood makes it difficult to heal. But when it was time to activate the device on April 24th, he was ready to go.

They sat in the clinic room lined up with fluorescent lights.

Dennis went first.

He swayed to the sound as Medic turned on the device. It felt like I was listening to it on Technicolor.

After that, we went to Susan.

Her eyes widened.

“Hello Susan! How are you?” Dennis asked gently. “Can you hear me?”

Susan turned to her husband and her face was etched with lines of smiles.

“Yeah, I can,” she replied.

Dennis smiled.

“We spoke to each other,” he marveled.

A new beginning

When you think about it, Dennis Misty looks.

Last month they began seeing friends and invited them to eat. Calling with children is more intimate and fake it, like an Olympic effort to catch up. Maybe they’ll go see live music again.

Most importantly, O’Neill is talking about it. It’s not very important. Something small. What they missed the most.