{"id":3888,"date":"2026-07-23T00:56:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T00:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3888"},"modified":"2026-07-23T01:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T01:07:11","slug":"ftv-hear-hear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3888","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Hear, Hear"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the May 8, 2026 edition Green Sheets, <\/span>The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel<\/span><\/i> ran a headline feature entitled \u2018Awareness about hearing loss raised by Jane Lynch\u2019.\u00a0 Lynch is a 65-year-old actress and comedian who many will remember for her role as the, \u2018ruthless cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on <\/span>Glee\u2019<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 This wasn\u2019t a show I had watched but it raised Lynch\u2019s profile enough that it seems to have helped her land some pretty lucrative TV gigs hosting a variety of game shows.\u00a0 That she is now an advocate encouraging people with hearing loss to not ignore the problem and seek help compelled me to read on.\u00a0 Jane acknowledged that she was completely aware of what was happening to her own hearing early on.\u00a0 We will take a deeper dive into how Lynch became a hearing loss advocate in a minute.\u00a0 What drew me into her story was the similarity of how Jane recognized what was happening to her own hearing and my own experiences.\u00a0 The difference is, my troubles started in my mid-thirties and her problems didn\u2019t arise until she was twenty years older than that.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Growing up in a house with two active smokers, I had my share of sinus infections when I was in elementary school.\u00a0 All too often my clogged head left my hearing somewhat dulled until things cleared up.\u00a0 Being one of the few kids I knew who never had their tonsils removed, it was never clear if that exacerbated my situation.\u00a0 Thankfully my mother stopped smoking in my early teens but it took my father confronting his own breathing problems in his seventies before he finally went cold turkey.\u00a0 The bottom line here:\u00a0 I grew up accustomed to periods when my hearing was compromised for short periods of time, but there was never any permanent damage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cut to the 1980s.\u00a0 Before smoking in the teacher\u2019s lounge went the way of the dinosaurs, I had avoided similar workplace health troubles by eating lunch in my classroom.\u00a0 Working closely with a large assortment of kids, illness still found its way into my head from time to time with the same old effects on my hearing.\u00a0 After catching a bug on a field trip to Marquette, I kept waiting for my hearing to rebound.\u00a0 When it didn\u2019t after a month, I visited Dr. Lahti who proclaimed that whatever illness I had was gone.\u00a0 He suggested a visit to an Ear – Throat –\u00a0 Sinus specialist in Marquette to investigate what was going on.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My appointment in Marquette didn\u2019t start well.\u00a0 The technician who was sending various beeps into my headphones opened up my little phonebooth size compartment and said, \u201cYou are supposed to raise your left or right hand when you hear a tone on that side!\u00a0 You haven\u2019t raised your left hand at all\u201d\u00a0 I said, \u201cThat is because I haven\u2019t heard any tones on that side yet.\u201d\u00a0 She returned to her control panel and upped the volume some at which point she got the left hand signals she was seeking (and a window into my referral to their office).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The doctor who examined me hemmed and hawed over my hearing test report.\u00a0 He looked in my ear canals and then put a small probe in each ear that made an audible hum.\u00a0 He showed me the readout and explained it showed how my eardrums responded to the tone.\u00a0 It was supposed to rise to a peak and then gradually return to the baseline where the graph started.\u00a0 That is what the chart for my right ear showed. \u00a0 My left ear, however, started the upslope part, then flattened out like the top of a mesa.\u00a0 \u201cThis isn\u2019t what we want to see so I am going to send you downstairs for a scan,\u201d the doc told me.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0An hour later, he gave me the run down:\u00a0 \u201cThe scan did not show any tumors on your auditory nerve which could cause this.\u00a0 We will do one more scan in six months just to make sure.\u00a0 You said you had a head cold before this deficit occurred.\u00a0 It was probably a virus and it knocked out the middle and lower frequency response in your left ear.\u00a0 It may or may not come back but you are lucky.\u00a0 This same thing can happen to people and they lose their sense of smell or taste.\u201d\u00a0 He read my mind and continued, \u201cAnd at this time, there isn\u2019t anything we can do for it.\u201d\u00a0 Six months later, the second scan for any tumors on the nerves was also negative so I began to adapt to the situation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The first thing I became aware of was how hard it was to track conversation when there was a lot of background noise.\u00a0 When \u201cI am sorry, could you repeat that?\u201d got to be a tiring routine, my only solution was to buckle down and concentrate on who was speaking.\u00a0 In essence, I learned how to read lips.\u00a0 This helped in many situations but not when someone was facing away from me when they spoke.\u00a0 I got good enough at it that when a student was not paying attention in class, I would take them in the hall, repeat to them what they had been talking about in the back row, and suggest they remember my new superpower.\u00a0 This tactic worked so well,\u00a0 my classes were given fair warning at the beginning of each year that the teacher in the front of the room had the ability to \u2018listen\u2019 to what they were saying via my newly honed skills.\u00a0 This helped in school, but not in all situations.\u00a0 Not being able to hold a phone to my left ear (it always sounded like whoever was on the line was talking to me from a cave) or to hear well in loud locations was not painful, but it was a pain.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Those who knew my history of playing drums in rock bands would nod and say, \u201cOh, that loud music made you deaf.\u201d\u00a0 It probably didn\u2019t help the situation, but the combined effects of loud music and \u2018presbycusis\u2019 (age-related hearing loss) took another twenty five years to affect my right side hearing.\u00a0 As for Lynch, she was in the middle run of <\/span>Glee <\/span><\/i>around 2012 when she began experiencing the same signs of hearing loss I had encountered.\u00a0 She began avoiding loud situations like restaurants and maintaining conversations at work.\u00a0 She says, \u201cIt just got to be too much to try and listen to these young whippersnappers talking to the old lady.\u00a0 And it made me feel old.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She wasn\u2019t alone – according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, hearing loss is the third most common chronic physical ailment in the country after high blood pressure and arthritis.\u00a0 The World Health Organization estimates that by 2050, 2.5 billion people will have some degree of hearing loss.\u00a0 The realization hit Lynch right between the eyes because of what her father had gone through with his own hearing loss in the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI had experienced it with what happened to my dad, how he kind of started to recede,\u201d Jane told <\/span>USA Today\u2019s<\/span><\/i> Charles Trepany.\u00a0 \u201cI refused to do that.\u201d\u00a0 When her late father, Frank Lynch, began to have trouble, he refused to seek help.\u00a0 She explained that hearing aides at that time were bulky and large which\u00a0 would have made it obvious to everyone that he had a problem,\u00a0 Lynch firmly believes he did not want to be seen as being disabled.\u00a0 \u201cMy dad was a very gregarious guy, very positive and happy, but you couldn\u2019t talk to him about that,\u201d she says.\u00a0 \u201cAnd that was back in the day when hearing aids were that big, and it meant disabled.\u00a0 So my dad didn\u2019t want that at all.\u00a0 When he eventually did cave in and get them, he didn\u2019t wear them very often.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cSo finally, he\u2019s 75 years old,\u201d she says.\u00a0 \u201cHe can\u2019t hear a thing,\u00a0 He\u2019s not the gregarious guy he used to be.\u00a0 He\u2019s really muted.\u00a0 And so, my mom talked him into going to a hearing doctor, and he got little hearing aids that he never charged.\u00a0 He\u2019d never use them.\u00a0 There was such a stigma in him, and I think it\u2019s his generation, too.\u201d\u00a0 Lynch told Trepany that she views hearing aids as being no more significant than wearing glasses to see, but some people still have more shame about hearing aids than they do glasses.\u00a0 \u201cPerhaps,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause hearing aids have a stronger association with aging than glasses do.\u00a0 In our society, anyway, it feels like a disability, so people won\u2019t do anything about hearing loss.\u00a0 They think a hearing aid is the most embarrassing thing in the world, even though you can\u2019t even see them anymore.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Past experience tells me that denial is all too often the first reaction to diminished hearing.\u00a0 In a speech at the SWITCH:\u00a0 Vision Innovation Summit in March of 2026, Lynch detailed the first subtle signs of her father\u2019s hearing loss:\u00a0 \u201cThe television in their home started getting louder.\u00a0 He\u2019d ask people to repeat themselves at dinner conversations.\u201d\u00a0 No doubt about it –\u00a0 I recognized the same things in my own experiences.\u00a0 If one does not think they have a hearing problem, ask your immediate family members about the \u2018what did you say?\u2019 moments.\u00a0 Most will tell you exactly how annoying it can be.\u00a0 I would often wait until we were on the way home from some social function to ask my wife about conversations I could not hear in noisy locations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lynch\u2019s take on people wearing glasses reminded me of my own eyesight revelations.\u00a0 My mother wore glasses as long as I can remember but my father did not need them until he was in his fifties.\u00a0 I must have inherited his eyesight because at about the same age, my first visit to get an evaluation went something like this:\u00a0 Dr:\u00a0 \u201cSo what brings you in today?\u201d\u00a0 Me:\u00a0 \u201cI think it is time for me to get reading glasses.\u201d\u00a0 Dr:\u00a0 \u201cReally?\u00a0 Nobody comes in here asking for glasses.\u00a0 They usually want to find out why they are having trouble reading fine print or why they are getting headaches when they read.\u201d\u00a0 Me:\u00a0 \u201cYep, that is exactly why I am here, but I already know why and what the solution is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There was a thirty year span between my initial hearing loss and my retirement.\u00a0 Within certain limitations, I was able to function reasonably well using my lip reading skills.\u00a0 Everytime I would listen to music with headphones, all it took was to set the balance a little farther to the left side to even things out.\u00a0 My wife noticed that when she would talk to me, I had a tendency to turn my head to the left to put my \u2018good ear\u2019 toward her.\u00a0 Driving in the car wasn\u2019t much of a problem with my left ear facing away from her, but it caused some awkward moments when we would be listening to the radio.\u00a0 Her hearing, being much better than mine, meant she wanted the radio set at a lower volume.\u00a0 This meant there were a lot of things said on air that passed me by completely.\u00a0 I knew it was getting serious when I didn\u2019t recognize Deep Purple\u2019s version of <\/span>Kentucky Women<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 I had to ask my wife, \u201cWho is Charlie Walnut?\u201d which I am sure made her wonder if I was the nut in question.\u00a0 With my retirement in 2018, the plan was to finally get a re-evaluation on my hearing situation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The plan slipped a few years when our son needed eye surgery to correct a torn retina in 2020 and 2021.\u00a0 My visit to the hearing clinic was postponed again in the fall of 2023 when my wife survived a 99 percent blockage of what is known as \u2018the widow maker\u2019 (left anterior descending artery).\u00a0 During the months that followed, she needed weekly rehab trips to Houghton and my decades-old problem was not on the top of the list of medical priorities until the fall of 2025.\u00a0 We waded through all of the information that kept popping up on the subject and decided there was no point investing in anything on my own without getting an updated hearing evaluation.\u00a0 Our\u00a0 thought was, \u201cCould the technology now exist that was not available to help with my particular problem as diagnosed forty years ago?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Doing the intake interview with the doctor, she was not at all surprised why I was there considering my age.\u00a0 She expressed some concern when she learned about my virus induced hearing loss but reserved further comment until we were done with the battery of hearing tests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Back in the day, my results were displayed on paper.\u00a0 In this case, Dr. Fischer was able to flip between various computer screens to analyse what the tests showed.\u00a0 \u201cI was worried when you mentioned how the left ear deficit happened because there are cases where virus damage can not be reversed,\u201d\u00a0 she explained.\u00a0 She put up a two line chart comparing my left and right hearing profiles and continued, \u201cExcept for a bit of a mismatch on the lower frequency end, both ears show a similar pattern.\u00a0 There is some age-related deficit but it looks like we will be able to correct what is going on with both ears.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The next step was what the doctor called \u2018their test drive\u2019 program.\u00a0 She set me up with a loaner set of hearing aids she was able to tune specifically for my ears.\u00a0 After a two week try out, the next appointment provided even more data to help me make a final decision about which model of hearing aids to order.\u00a0 What she hadn\u2019t told us before was that each hearing aid collected data.\u00a0 When she plugged them into her computer, it told her how many hours a day I had worn them and the different kinds of \u2018hearing environments\u2019 I had been in (crowded rooms, watching TV, listening to radio, and so on).\u00a0 She said, \u201cOh, you have had them on for \u2018X\u2019 number of hours a day, that\u2019s very good.\u201d\u00a0 She was even happier when informed that a) I really liked what I could now hear and b) could not wait until I had my own set.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Obviously, there are different levels of affordability built into the products available.\u00a0 The loaners I was given were the top of the line model.\u00a0 There were certain features I did not feel were necessary now that I am not working with a roomful of Jr High students everyday so my choice was one step down from the \u2018Cadillac\u2019 model but still a couple of levels above the basic \u2018VW Bug\u2019 model.\u00a0 Once I got accustomed to hearing things like the squeak of my shoes on the\u00a0 floor tiles and the sound of turning the pages in a book, I realized how much I had not been hearing in the world around me.\u00a0 Dr. Fischer let me keep the loaners until my new set came in and after one more visit for them to be adjusted, there has not been a day where they haven\u2019t been in use.\u00a0 \u201cHow do you like them?\u201d she asked on my last visit.\u00a0 \u201cI love them and many nights, I have to remind myself to put them charging because I totally forget I am wearing them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Before coming across the article about Jane Lynch\u2019s experience, I had already seen a lot of information about the connection between hearing loss and Alzheimer\u2019s disease.\u00a0 Lynch expanded on these topics when she pointed out, \u201cOne of the biggest tolls of hearing loss is how it makes connecting with others so much more difficult.\u00a0 This challenge often leads many with hearing loss to recede from life.\u00a0 So many who struggle silently either fade into the background at social gatherings or avoid going out entirely.\u201d\u00a0 This kind of isolation is not a good way to maintain a healthy brain.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t let all of those excuses get in the way of taking action if you are experiencing hearing loss.\u00a0 Yes, it will cost a little money but it is worth it in terms of improving one\u2019s life.\u00a0 If you think no one notices your hearing loss, you are wrong.\u00a0 The odds are they will not notice your hearing aids as much as they recognize your hearing problems without them. \u00a0 If you won\u2019t take my word for it, surely a celebrity like Jane Lynch wouldn\u2019t steer you wrong, would she?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By the way, October is National Audiology Awareness Month and is dedicated to educating the public on hearing health, noise-induced hearing loss, and the importance of professional hearing evaluations.\u00a0 It emphasizes that untreated hearing loss is a major, yet often hidden, health concern linked to cognitive decline, dementia, and fall risks.\u00a0 You do not have to wait until October to seek help.\u00a0 More information can be found by searching for the American Academy of Audiology website.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Okay, The Who tackle a different ‘disability’ but it is kind of hard to find songs about losing one’s hearing!\u00a0 Woodstock generation, get those ears checked!<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the May 8, 2026 edition Green Sheets, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a headline feature entitled \u2018Awareness about hearing loss raised by Jane Lynch\u2019.\u00a0 Lynch is a 65-year-old actress and comedian who many will remember for her role as the, \u2018ruthless cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on Glee\u2019.\u00a0 This wasn\u2019t a show I had watched […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3888"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3897,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3888\/revisions\/3897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}