A lot of people have asked me what it is like to transition to the world's way of hearing. So I thought I would share a little bit of what it has been like the last two weeks.

When they told me I was a perfect fit for hearing aids, based on my discrimination tests, they also said they believed I would do well, simply based on they way I compensated already my whole life. I was very encouraged hearing this, and went in with a positive attitude.

The first day I got them I was numb. Numb because I could not believe all that I was not hearing in the world, and I did not know.

Emotionally it was a draining experience. How did no one ever know? How did I not know? How did this go on for 50 years? I spent night and day re living all of the times in my life that there actually was a clue that came our way, but we missed it. I read everything I could get my hands on to understand the science behind how I was living like this my whole life.

Later I joined two groups for people who are deaf or hearing impaired. That helped me a lot concerning the work it would take, and what I would be going through physically.

A lot of people compare this experience to getting eye glasses. Lucky for me, I was also visually impaired as a child, so I know that experience as well. It is very similar, with one difference. With glasses you put them on and you see. It is pretty much an ah ha moment.

With hearing, your brain has to learn every single new sound. Over and over. So it is a daily ah ha experience, over and over and over again. Just when you think you got it, you have to do it over again. Then you go to bed, and wake up the next morning, and start all over again. Then they move your hearing aids up, and you start over again.

What I did not expect when they told me they thought I would do great with hearing aids, is how much energy it would take. Learning to hear like the rest of the world is more work than I have done in my life. Putting those hearing aids on did not just make me hear. I had to do the work. My body was exhausted for the first two weeks. I would wake up in the morning, and it felt like I never slept. Though I did, soundly each night, because I fell into bed exhausted.

This morning was the first morning since I got my hearing aids that I woke up almost as fresh as I used to wake up. That is why it was my first time in the two weeks that I had the energy to take a walk in the neighborhood. Which I only got as far as my next door neighbor's house, because I had to stop and take in all of the amazing sounds of the world waking up! Wow!

It has been an incredible journey, an exhausting journey, and a grateful journey.

I am so happy to be two weeks into this, and getting closer to what I think the rest of the world hears like. One of my new friends, in the hearing loss community told me to expect 6 months before I am really settled in. As long as every day continues to get better and better like it is now, I can do this from here on out.

Thank you to each of you as you have given me and my family the support and love during this time. We can't tell you how much that means to us. I am so very proud of my husband and kids. They have been amazing as I recall over and over countless stories that should have given us clues that I was not hearing like the rest of the world. They have helped me process so much of this, and have given me the unconditional love that I have needed as I learn who I was, and who I am now.

As promised, I am going to announce the winner of #namemyBFFs. Thank you to all of you who played along. Through the grit and grind of this process, I have been grateful for so many of you joining me in this journey. And naming my BFF's is one place that I have smiled from ear to ear reading your suggestions. Thank you thank you thank you!

So what have I named my two best friends?

Faith and Hope. Faith is my right hearing aid and Hope is my left hearing aid. I had a few runners up, but these names jumped out at me as if my hearing aids said, "Yes, Diane, this is us!"

I chose the sides because left has four letters and so does Hope. And right has five letters and so does Faith.

I also liked these two for one other reason.  I never ever want to lose Faith or Hope. Literally or figuratively.

Congratulations Carol Marie Brown! Please message me your address and we will get that coffee right out to you!