My husband’s hearing declined to the point that he did get fitted for hearing aids some years ago, and went on to purchase them for nearly $6000. I was there. The specialist, George, noted on the test that his greatest hearing loss was just in my vocal range.
George emphasized again and again that the most important place to wear them was at home. Did he? Guess again.
I wish I’d been tough enough to refuse to make up for that by repeating and speaking louder. (It was my fault that he couldn’t hear me, because I speak quietly.) But we both took on a lot of unnecessary stress when he thought he heard some ridiculous thing, didn’t verify, and later acted on the basis of mumblescrambledywhackdoodle, which could have been anything from when we have to leave for an appointment to thinking I was taking him to task for something.
More than once, I said, “I’m just going to start only saying things the second time.” Of course I was being facetious, but he didn’t bother to listen until I’d said a thing once.
We were in the car on our way to a meeting once when I asked, “Do you have your hearing aids?” and he said “No. There’s nothing that I want to hear.” And then he wondered why I didn’t feel like talking to him.
A few years later, he decided that it was too inconvenient to put them on and off when what he really wanted was to wear earbuds and watch movies, so he quit using the hearing aids at all.
He didn’t even wear them to onsite medical appointments. I’d stay with him (right through covid time) and take extensive notes.
I wonder if the hearing aids have any sort of resale value now.
Stick to your guns, @Dutchess_III. This isn’t on you. Not when he has a choice.