While Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid worked with Patrick Mahomes and Co., his wife, Tammy, was struggling with simple communication. She had problems with her hearing, and all she could hear was Reid mumbling during their conversations.
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“My husband, I can’t hear him,” Tammy said about her hearing problem, according to The University of Kansas Health System. “But I think he mumbles and he’s got the moustache over his mouth. So, I can’t really see his lips. I would say, ‘What?’ When people would talk, I would say, ‘What?’ And I’d have to have them repeat it or whatever. I’m like, ‘You’re mumbling.’ Or I would make excuses.”
She later found out that she had presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss. But the realization didn’t strike before one of her friends whispered something in a church. She admitted that she couldn’t hear a thing and had to force herself to act as if she understood the words.
Presbycusis develops slowly over time, and tends to affect both ears equally. But it all begins with the loss of the ability to hear high-pitched sounds. Most patients miss their phones ringing, the microwave beeping, or their kids talking. To seek help, she paid the University of Kansas Health System a visit.
“She [University of Kansas Health System’s audiologist Dr. Christine Caudle] said, ‘You’ve lost that high pitch sound.’ Which is women’s voices,” Tammy went on. “If you think about it, women talk higher than men. I was really surprised at how bad it was. When she showed me the charts and all the things, I was like, ‘Wow.’ It was very freeing. I was just like liberated to be able to know that I could hear again.”
It was liberating for Andy Reid and his 14 grandchildren as well. After all, they were finally able to talk to Tammy naturally after she got her hearing aids.
That’s the only way to help people with age-related hearing loss. The damage is irreversible. But cochlear implants or hearing aids can bring the joy of hearing back.
“I got my Sparkle back,” Tammy said. “I’ve always been sparkly. But I can’t even tell you how life-changing it was to be able to hear. Everybody was like, ‘Mom. Thank heavens. You finally got them.’ I was like, ‘I know.’ And it wasn’t that I didn’t want to get them. You’re busy, you’re living your life, and you don’t make time for things like that.”
Now, she has found a seemingly unwavering faith in her hearing aids. The 67-year-old even urged the audience to “show them off.” By embracing her hearing aids and reclaiming her “Sparkle,” she is now inspiring others to tackle hearing loss head-on.