When Letieia Hedgeman went to visit her daughter, she kept telling her to turn the volume up on the TV.
“She would say, ‘You need to get your hearing checked,'” Letieia told us. “I wouldn’t pay any attention.”
Letieia’s favorite pastime is going to shows and concerts, but with her bad hearing, she would have to leave an hour and a half to two hours early so she could get a seat up in the front of the auditorium, and she couldn’t sit with her family.
Many of our clients tell a similar story — and there’s usually an event that changes their minds. For Letieia, it was her neighbor coming her window at 3:00 in the morning to tell her that her TV was too loud.
Finally, she made an appointment to get her hearing checked. “I was devastated to learn I needed hearing aids,” she said. “I’m only 57 years old. I cried all the way home.”
Then, Letieia told us, “I had to wrap my head around getting hearing aids.” The expense was just too much — but her daughter started doing some research online, which led her to LSH.
She called our office, and within two weeks, she had her hearing aids.
“Everybody was so helpful and so nice. I didn’t feel embarrassed about not having a lot of money.” She was able to get her devices at a dispensary six miles from her home in Upland.
Right away, her world changed. “It was wonderful — I just felt so great because I didn’t realize how bad my hearing was. I could turn the radio down in my car, and I didn’t have to keep looking at people’s lips to figure out what they were saying. It really opened up the world for me.”
Now Letieia is hoping for the end of COVID restrictions so she can return to her shows and concerts. “I can’t wait — it’s driving me crazy!” The first thing she’ll do, she says, is go to a play or a musical.
And next time, she won’t have to leave early.
