What Inspired Me To Become An Audiologist?

A question that I get asked often is, why did I become an audiologist? What inspired me? The answer is simple – my father. Ever since I was a child, I have only known him to have hearing loss. My father, who grew up in Greece, came from a poor family, attributing to his hearing loss today. His hearing loss is most likely due to an untreated ear infection, ultimately destroying his ears’ bones and eardrums.

To say my family and I’s house was loud would be an understatement. Growing up living in the same house as my father it was a common practice to project our voices. See, my father never wore hearing aids, so in order to communicate with him, we would need to speak loudly.

So, when it was time for me to begin my college application process’, I knew there would be no better choice than to incorporate my father and I’s life experience into my studies. As an undergraduate student just starting out, I majored in Speech Pathology and minored in Audiology. Compared to Audiology, Speech Pathology just did not hold my interest quite as much. Audiology is a much faster process. Particularly, within my studies, the anatomy and physiology of the auditory system fascinated me. I was also extremely fond of the ability to treat audiologic disorders in a very specific and concrete way.

When working at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, I spent one day a week in their hearing aid dispensary.   I got my father a set of Widex CIC hearing aids. They were pretty new to the market 25 years ago.  He wore them for two days and then put them in the box and waited four years for his benefit to become available again to get another set of hearing aids that he never wore.

It was very frustrating having a father with hearing loss. Being an audiologist with the cure for his hearing loss–him refusing to wear hearing aids.   His resistance to wearing hearing aids continued for 20 years and now my father is 80 years old.  About two years ago my father had a stroke in his eye, which left him blind in one eye. Finally!! He wants to wear his hearing aids!!

After 23 years being an audiologist, my father wears his hearing aids religiously.  A few months ago, he called an ambulance for himself because he wasn’t feeling well and they met him over at the hospital and I grabbed a charger at work because I figured there was no way he would’ve remembered to take his charger.

Shockingly the one possession he had in his pocket was his hearing aid charger. He knows now he can’t live without them. But he had to get to that conclusion on his own being a very stubborn man.  I always tell family members you can want someone to get hearing aids but until they want to wear them themselves -it’s a hard battle!

I do know firsthand how impossible it is to live with someone with hearing loss and how disappointing it is when they don’t want to wear hearing aids.  It makes everybody’s life so much harder when a member of your family can’t hear.   It’s so much more stressful and more work for their brain to fill in all the gaps that they could easily fill in with the appropriately set of hearing aids.