remember kids, wear your earplugs

[anotheranon]

Most of you who know me in person have probably run up against my inability to carry on a phone conversation and in-person conversation at the same time, or realized that the reason I sometimes fall silent at parties is because I can't pick out the different voices from the many.

For a long time I wrote this off as an unfortunate inability to concentrate on my part, but a few recent incidents have made me concerned that it's getting worse:

The "white noise" of the metro or heat coming on interferes with my ability to hear anything on my phone - yes, I've got the volume cranked up.

Sitting in a circle of ~4 people, I can't follow the conversation if there's ANY background noise.

Across a crowded room, shouting doesn't really reach - I need to be standing right there to distinguish what's being said.

So..

I'm going to an audiologist next week for a hearing test and try to figure out whether I'm genuinely poor at aural multitasking or whether my hearing is physically damaged.

I'm really irritated by this, because if EITHER case is true I'm not sure how to fix this. I love good conversation and it sucks when I can't keep up :(

Comments

[hadesgirl.livejournal.com]

It DOES suck rocks. DAMN that loud rock and roll... sure wish I'd turned it down a couple of dozen years ago, LOL.

Very, very sophisticated hearing aids are out there, ones that work very well, but OMG the cost... that for me, would be the true issue. But the digital ones, they tune to your specific hearing-loss frequency, and I'm told the results are quite good.

Still... disturbing. I mean... that's a sign we're getting old, isn't it??????

*runs screaming from the room*

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Getting old I do not mind - I'm far smarter/saner now than when I was young and dumb :P

But when things start breaking? Not so fun. First my feet, now this. What did my grandmother say? "Getting old isn't for sissies" :P