Did I hear that?

It does take one to know one.

Having lived with hearing issues all my life, periods of retesting are always necessary. Often with anxiety I would enter “the box”; it was sound proofed and very intimating in appearance. One lone chair sat inside this dark and ominous looking place. A large window inside was the link between myself and the technician performing the tests. Upon my head would be placed a huge headset and through these would come the sounds to be evaluated. After giving the instructions on how to designate which sounds were actually heard, the technician would leave and close the door between myself and the outside world.

With that the testing would begin; a series of pitches, tones and noises would be passed through the headset awaiting my responses. Feeling confident in the beginning; I would signal appropriatedly to each sound heard. But as time would pass, it always seemed that my world would slow down. Self doubt would creep in, nervously I would pondered each and every possible noise that I heard. Did I hear that? Was that it? Surely it hasn’t been that quiet all this time? That was a beep, right? Right, left right? Am I almost finished? It’s been forever since I really heard something, right? Finally the technician would signal through the glass window that the testing was completed. The intimidating door would open, I was allowed to leave. The testing results would be complied and follow up forthcoming.

I don’t think anyone who has shared this repeated testing every really forgets it. So like a private club, I claim these hearing tests for my fellow hearing impaired friends, truly it does take one to know one.