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Success Stories


Regarding Our Selection of Hearing Aids...

Carl D. Norlin, Owner of MGM Locksmiths, Mundelein

General overview and opinion: I have been wearing hearing aids for over 25 years and CIC (Completely-in-the-Canal) style for over 10 years. Without a doubt, these CIC aids have been the absolute best.
Specific observations:

  • The fit is extraordinary with zero leakage and no "whistling" or feedback. The feedback suppression works very well and even when using earphones.
  • The sound is more natural and extremely clear. Noise suppression seems improved when in noisy environments like at restaurants and meetings.
  • Sounds that I have not been hearing are now clearly audible. I hear voices and sounds that normally would be missed.
  • Music sounds very good and I seem to be hearing in a wider frequency range. In particular the higher frequencies (female vocalist and high notes).
  • When I sing it has been a totally new experience. I hear myself better, which helps me sing the correct notes and maintain proper pitch (sometimes I wish I could not hear that part, but at last I can make the adjustments).
  • Use on the phone (which is a very high percentage of my work) is excellent. I hear voices, even soft ones; clearly and even hear electronic sounds I never realized were there.
  • The material used in the case seems to be easier to clear off the ear wax. The lack of the totally red or blue case had created problems trying to install in the wrong ears. That was only a temporary issue.
  • Battery life seems to be the same, approximately 5-6 days. I really like the low battery alert, which gives you time to get to your battery supply.
  • Even though they CIC, I seem to hear sounds from areas other than directly in front of me.
  • With no program buttons to push, it has become totally automatic. All sound environments are immediately compensated for, be it loud, soft, music or voice.

Thank you for the wonderful gift of hearing.


Regarding Our Ultimate Goal to Preserve Hearing...

Darlene Anderson, Indian Creek

My Good Gal is Dr. Linda Remensnyder of Hearing Associates in Libertyville. In October of 2008, with no warning, I was diagnosed with peritoneal/ovarian cancer. I began a very intense treatment of chemo, which could possibly include permanent hearing loss as a side effect. The day before my second round, my oncologist called and said I needed to get my hearing tested right now! It was already noon so I didn't know where I could get in. I called Dr. Remensnyder's office and explained my situation. They checked with the doctor, then told me to come right on over. She took me right away. She did a complete hearing test, then fitted me for a hearing aid because I did have diminished hearing. She loaned me a very expensive hearing aid for the duration of my treatment so I could hear the doctors. Every three weeks she monitored my hearing to guard against further hearing loss from chemo. She was absolutely the sweetest, kindest doctor; she treated me like family. I will never forget how much she did for me during my darkest days; she is truly a wonderful human being.


Regarding Our Dedicated Professionals...

Kay Guzder, M.A., Counsling Psychologist, Hawthorn Woods.

A "From the Bottom of My Heart" Thank You to Dr. Linda Remensnyder and the Staff at Hearing Associates, P.C.

I am sitting here at my computer trying to find the words to sufficiently thank Dr. Linda Remensnyder and her staff at Hearing Associates, P.C. for the great gift of hearing that they gave me in March, 2009. I have a second goal in mind and that is to reach out to every one of my fellow hearing loss patients and let them know about the remarkable new technology available to you at Hearing Associates, P.C. And so let me begin my story with a brief bit of background information about my hearing loss and my history with hearing aids. I began to lose my hearing when I was 35 years old and the hearing loss progressed gradually over the years until I had lost nearly 70% of my hearing. I was told that my hearing loss was in the severe hearing loss range and then the hearing loss stopped and progressed no further. Over the years I engaged the services of many audiologists to be tested and fitted with hearing aids, and although I was helped somewhat with my hearing loss, there was always a feeling of struggling to hear and be part of the conversation and the social settings at work and within my family. Without the hearing aids I was officially deaf, unable to hear anything without them. This situation left me at risk when my husband was out of town and I was in charge of my children's and my own wellbeing. I was not able to hear the sirens in the summer that denoted a possible tornado or any other emergency situation that would depend on my hearing an alarm when I wasn't wearing my hearing aids at night. Over the years I compensated one way or another for all the extraneous issues that my hearing loss brought into my life, such as not being able hear in church, at plays, at social functions in big cavernous rooms or weddings. In short I was missing out on a lot and pushing down my feelings of mourning over the loss of my sense of hearing. While my hearing aids did function to give me some hearing I was truly compromised in many of life's situations. For years I continued to regularly see my audiologist to find out what the latest technology was and every four or five years I replaced my hearing aids with what I was told was the latest and best models. The fact that I spent considerable sums of money for hearing instruments that were supposed to be the best but in truth were still not addressing my hearing loss adequately put me in a state of emotional sadness and acceptance that this was the best that it could be considering the circumstances.

Oh, how I wish I had been referred to Dr. Remensnyder sooner. For the sake of time and to keep your interest I will cut to the chase and bring you up to date as of March 2009. My medical doctor recognized that I was struggling so much to hear that he decided to refer me to Dr. Remensnyder for an evaluation. The rest is history. Now I can begin to tell you about the personal miracle that took place for me. When I met Dr. Remensnyder I was immediately impressed with the thoroughness of her examination and the questions she asked me about the history of my hearing loss and the history of the hearing aids I had been using in the past dispensed by other audiologists. She took her time and listened to my answers and administered many tests that I had never had done before. She was so personally in tune to what I was telling her and so attentive. I felt that I was in the hands of a remarkable expert who herself had experienced hearing loss. At last I had found an audiologist who really understood at a much deeper level what my struggles were all about. I will never forget when she finished her examination and analysis she turned to me and said, "Kay, I think we can do a lot better for you than what you have had in the past." At that point I felt such a sense of relief that someone really grasped the magnitude of my hearing loss frustration and I began to have hope that maybe this time it would be different, maybe this time there really was this new technology that would not let me down and have a feeling of disappointment a month after getting them. And let me shout it to the hilltop, THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. I GOT THE BEST HEARING AIDS I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE AND THEY ARE SO WONDERFUL THAT I FEEL AS IF I HAVE MY NATURAL HEARING BACK AGAIN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS.

I think it would be helpful here to reiterate all the differences that I recognized from the time I walked out of Dr. Remensnyder's office with my the new hearing aids she recommended for me up to the present day. The first thing I noticed was that when I walked outside I was not inundated with a cacophony of noise. The trucks and cars did not sound like there were drowning out the songs of the birds nearby in the trees. I stopped in my tracks to experience the new softer sounds of good hearing that differentiated and separated all the sounds. As I got in my car to drive home I began to listen to the radio and it wasn't drowned out by the tire noise, the motor noise and the heating/air conditioner system. I felt like a baby hearing the sounds of the earth for the first time without all the jumble of motor noises that I had endured before. As I continued to drive home I realized I could make out all the words of the songs being played on my radio and C.D.'s. That was definitely new, in the past I would hear the music but in a muffled fashion very blunted and never any of the words. With this discovery I realized that I might be able to hear in a restaurant and I went into a fast food place that I knew to be very noisy just to see if I could order a cup of coffee and hear the questions the server asked me. I was astounded when I could without reservation answer her questions of whether I wanted cream and sugar rather than guessing at what she had asked. The next discovery I made, all in the same first day, was that I came home and invited some of my friends to join me at lunch. I was never able to actually visit and take part in the social communication over a table of four or five people and this day I found I was not struggling to hear what they had to say over the music that was being played and the silverware and dishes that were being "clanked" around. All of these experiences in one day, I felt overjoyed and euphoric. But the best was yet to come.

That night when my family came home they were stunned to see what I was able to hear what they knew I hadn't been able to hear prior to that day. They were all so happy that they kept bringing on all the challenging situations they could think of that would have stymied me in the past. They couldn't believe the miracle that had happed for me and ultimately for them. They had me back. I could joke and join in and be part of the group again. But wait, there is more and this is more subtle so I am going to set it apart from the rest of this text because I think it is so important to pass along.

As time when on, and I am not talking about a lot of time, I am talking a matter of days, I began to feel more relaxed, less stressful, I began to feel my muscles relax, I was sleeping better and as I analyzed this I began to realize how hard I had been struggling to hear and to stay out of the isolation of hearing loss. I desperately needed to stay in a social circle of friends and I continued to try to keep working in my profession. as a counseling psychologist. My analysis led me to discover how much energy I was expending previously just trying to hear. After getting the new hearing aids I recognized how much more relaxed I was. I recognized how different I felt when I was not spending my waking hours stressed out trying to hear. Now I realized how much of my feelings I had pushed down out of awareness and the sadness and mourning process that had gone on as I accepted the limitations of my hearing loss. Only when I had my hearing back again could I let those feelings surface. If it had come up before I would have been so paralyzed that I would have given up. But I was not willing to give up and I would not give in. I had learned to accept my lot in life because I didn't think it could be any better. When I could finally let my guard down the tears came. I realized how sad I was at all the things I hadn't been able to do for so long, all the things I had to give up like music, conversation, plays, church, intimate conversations with my family. I always felt like a person on the outside of the window with the party going on inside and I could observe but could not participate.

Once I got my new hearing aids I allowed myself to analyze and shed a few tears for the time lost but then they quickly became tears of joy and a resolution to make up for lost time with a robust grasp at everything that I can now do with my new hearing aids.

The new hearing aids work independent of one another. You don't hear a double dose of noise. They differentiate the sounds and they give a sense of direction that was missing before. You don't feel exhausted at the end of the day because you haven't been bombarded with a barrage of mechanical noises that drown out the natural sound. The end result is that you have a feeling of participating with very little effort on your part, just like with normal hearing people. You feel back in the loop again.

I have one more bit of story to tell. Dr. Remensnyder has been instrumental in getting something called a looping system installed in some local churches and which allow hearing impaired people to hear in their place of worship. She recognized that not only do we have hearing impaired congregations we have hearing impaired ministers, priests, and rabbis and spiritual leaders who can't hear their constituency from the altar. One of the things I had mentioned to her was that I found it painful to attend my church services because it brought to the forefront the seriousness of my hearing loss and left me so frustrated. I had dropped out of church attendance many years ago out of frustration and sadness at not being able to participate. I couldn't hear the sermon, I couldn't hear the cute things the kids said when they were brought forth to the altar before going out for their Sunday School lessons and when I would occasionally go along to church when I visited my sister or a friend, I would constantly be interrupting their attention asking what had been said, what had the congregation been laughing at and then I would have this feeling of dread knowing that right after the services there would be the fellowship gathering over coffee and sweets where I would be introduced, could not hear the other peoples names and would have to repeatedly explain that I was hearing impaired and that I could not hear what they were saying. I was given many different responses in that situation, everything to having people genuinely tell me they were sorry and then turn away to having some people repeat very loudly but to no avail and then give me the "Oh, never mind" hand wave that let me know they were too frustrated with my disability to continue trying to engage me.

The beautiful ending to this story is that Dr. Remensnyder invited me to attend services at her place of worship. She had installed the looping system and wanted me to experience it. My husband and I attended and I was stunned and shocked beyond belief. I could hear every word of the sermon, I could hear what the children said when asked questions, I could hear individuals above the choir, I could sit anywhere I wanted, not just up front and in the middle so I could lip read. I could hear when the lecturer turned away from me. In other words, the looping system was not dependent on being within 4 to 5 feet of a microphoned person, it encompassed the whole experience and it was as natural a sense of hearing as the day I was born with normal hearing. And that is my personal miracle.

I started writing this testimonial with the intention of thanking Dr. Remensnyder and her staff, all of whom have been remarkable in their abilities to help me find a better solution to my hearing loss. I write this from my heart with a deep sense of gratitude for all that you have done for me and my family. I am able once again to have the closeness that I missed for so long in my conversations with friends and family and I have embraced my new found abilities with gusto and ultimate happiness. I feel like a whole person once again and I feel so blessed to be in your capable hands for my ongoing audiology care.