Sorry about your hearing loss though.
Thank you, but no need for sorrow. A) I was born with it, so I didn't lose anything. B) It is surgically repairable, so I still get to hear.
I'd put up my left ear, which was surgically repaired about 16 years ago when I was 22 (and has the 35% loss), up against most people's ears my age who have subjected their ears to overly loud and noisy (not musical) music through ear buds, ear phones and overly loud speakers. In fact, you could listen to symphonic music at the same volume as, say, grunge music, and your ears would sustain far more damage from the grunge than from symphonic music. I'd venture to bet most people my age have a 40-50% loss of hearing, in both ears, and have no idea. My right ear, when I have it done again, should be even stronger than my left, because a new ear drum will come with this surgery, which was not available when I was 5, but was when I was 22. A very small skin graft does the trick.
It's actually pretty fascinating what they've been able to do with hearing in just my lifetime alone. Knowing what I know about Beethoven's symptoms, and the in-and-out nature of the onset of his deafness, I'm pretty certain he had the same condition I have. Fortunately, he had perfect pitch and was a genius, so it didn't impede his 9th Symphony (contains Ode to Joy), which was mostly penned while he was quite deaf. I'd be as deaf as he was, were it not for the surgical (out-patient when I was 22; but a week's hospital stay when I was 5) techniques around now. If you want to be moved, watch Immortal Beloved, which is mostly about Beethoven. There is a 10-minute scene where Ode to Joy was premiered to the public that is among the most moving scenes I think I've ever seen on film.
Hearing is probably the sense that is the most fixable of the 5 senses. Vision correction/restoration is way behind the hearing field. Fortunately, I have no damage to the auditory nerve, which would be infinitely harder to get around. My problems are with deformations of the bones in the middle ear, and with the eardrums. Both problems are very treatable, but occur in a certain percentage of the population. A lot of people who think they are doomed to a lifetime of poor hearing and even deafness might not necessarily be.
This is the end of my PSA for getting your hearing checked.
This is my first check in today. I just got busy this morning and didn't sign on until now. 
Just a little reminder that the holidays are right around the corner.
But I always "listen" to the Chicks and Roosters on here. 
The weather people said this week will feel like summer again. Oh, say it ain't so. 
