Chuck,
I can sympathize with you. It's those little things....like hearing your wife's voice....or rather not being able to hear your wife's voice......having her to repeat herself or what other's said that make you feel the isolation.
Chuck...we spent Christmas in Houston with our youngest son, his wife and their twin 21 month old daughters. The youngest son is a 12 year US Navy veteran, 4th year dental student on a Navy scholarship. His wife is a pharmacist who works at MD Anderson Cancer Center. The son and wife haven't spent but a couple nights away from those babies since they were born. One night, we babysat the twins while the "kids" went out for the evening. We were playing with the twins on a love seat when little Haiden walked across the love seat with a clean cloth diaper in her hand...held it up in front of her face.. "Paw-Paw.....boo!" She wanted to play Peek-A-Boo with me ....and through the magic of a CI and HA I heard her and we did play Peek-A-Boo.
I wear a phonak Naida V UP hearing aid on my right ear. It's the most powerful digital HA made or was when I got it last year. Before I got my CI, I often turned the HA off during noisey situations as it becomes too much a mental struggle to hear in noisey situations. With the CI, I am gradually becoming able to hear in those situations. Two can be better than 1 in this case. I was told by an ENT 12 years ago that a HA wouldn't help my right ear due to the type of hearing loss and the type of residual hearing I have in my right ear. Then last year when I woke up with a dead left ear, my CI ENT/surgeon said....it won't be much but I'll prescribe a HA for your right ear so you'll at least have some hearing.
I've come to appreciate the unrecognized capabilities of the human brain. With either device by itself.....CI on my left ear...or HA on my right ear....I can get by but boy it's ugly. Each ear has it's own type of distortion and yet when I wear both, the brain takes the best of each and gives me some pretty good sound and it's getting better with each mapping of my recently implanted CI.
I was forced to retire as a result of my deafness. Frankly, it was my call and in reality it just relieved my manager of having to force the situation. When my left ear died overnight, it just became highly unsafe for me to continue working. It was unsafe for me and my customers equipment. I could no longer hear a 2,000 lb. frame spinning at .333 seconds per revolution....I couldn't hear fans running and know that something was energized....I couldn't hear cryogenic pumps running and know there was power to it.....just so many things that made it unsafe for me and the equipment. I haven't worn jewely of any kind for safety reasons since the mid-1960s when I started working on electronics. It is just too unsafe. Now I wear a titanium medical alert "dog tag" 24x7. "Ken Fitzgerald - Cochlear Implant - No MRI - No Mono-polar cathery." If they want to do an MRI on me for diagnostic purposes, first they have to surgically remove the rare earth magnet that holds the implanted subcutaneous antenna coil to the external antenna coil. If they do surgery and want to cauterize the wound, they have to use bi-polar cautery not mono-polar cautery. Luckily for me, I was old enough, had enough time with the company and was financially able to retire.
Now because of the HA and the CI, I had to retire. Can't wear either in the presence of x-ray and thus could no longer work on x-ray equipments or CT scanners. Can't wear either in the presence of the magnet used on MR scanners and without them I am deaf, becoming unsafe again.
I haven't mastered using the telephone yet. That should come with time and practice.
We bought a fairly expensive system. During the day when we are home, I can wear a remote on my belt and the system monitors the door bell, the telephone and the smoke detectors. If any of those get activated, say the telephone rings, the remote vibrates and there is an indicator light showing which device is trying to get my attention...telephone...smoke detector....door bell. At night I place that remote in a charger by the bed. There is a 6" "coil" that I placed between mattress and box springs and with the remote in the charger should any system alarm (telephone ring, doorbell, smoke detector alarm) the coil causes the bed to shake.
The wife was a little upset there was no place to put quarters and use it at her leisure. I told her to just call herself with her cell phone.
In the end...I'm still deaf...at night when I take off my hardware....I'm still deaf. I wear a hearing aid, a cochlear implant, dentures and eye glasses. I told my wife my greatest fear is seeing the headlines in the local paper "Old guy dies in house fire after going back in for his eyes, ears and teeth."
Protect your hearing, your eyes.....be safe.