"I Say Everything Twice." How 5 Partners Solved A Problem They Didn't Know Was Earwax.
“We’d been arguing about the TV volume for two years. Turns out the problem wasn’t stubbornness.”
For eleven years she repeated every sentence, every phone message, every question from the kids. He said his hearing was fine. A camera showed wax packed deep in both ears. After clearing: “Has the fridge always been that loud?” They haven’t fought about the TV since.
“I am frankly sick to the back teeth of being his personal hearing aid.” — SkyFullofStars1975, Mumsnet
“It’s soul destroying as her carer having to repeat yourself 8 times.” — HashtagShitShop, Mumsnet
“I spend about 75% of my time repeating things.” — jusnoneed, Gransnet
She doesn’t hear the first time. Her nine-year-old rolls her eyes: “never mind.” Her husband mutters “FFS.” “It hurts,” she wrote. Not the hearing loss — the rejection from her own family. She didn’t know wax was blocking sound because it built up so gradually she assumed it was aging.
“The worst part of not hearing isn’t the silence. It’s the eye rolls.” — EnglishBluebell, Mumsnet
Check the people you love.
See What’s Inside
Her father’s hearing faded so slowly nobody marked when it started. TV louder. Conversations louder. Then he stopped talking at all. After wax removal, he stood outside: “I can hear the birds.” He’d forgotten they sang. His daughter cried.
“He could hear the birds singing and he’d kind of forgotten that they sang at all. I cried.” — Readerofwords, Mumsnet
They bought the camera as a joke. He dared her. She dared him back. Within an hour they’d checked both of them, found years of buildup in his ears and a wax plug in hers, and cleaned both.
He heard the kitchen clock ticking for the first time in months. She realized the “clogged” feeling after showers wasn’t normal.
It started as a joke. Now they check every few weeks. Their kids want turns.
“My boyfriend and I spent an entire Friday night checking each other’s ears. Better than Netflix. We both found something.”
She’s 69. Refuses an audiologist — “doesn’t want to be sold hearing aids.” Her daughter bought a camera instead. No doctors. No waiting rooms. Mom agreed to look. What they found was wax — not nerve damage, not age. She never set foot in an audiologist’s office.
“She point blank refuses as she ‘doesn’t want to be sold hearing aids.’” — HousePlantNeglect, Mumsnet
It’s never really about the ears. It’s about the dinner table conversations that stopped. The TV fights. The eye rolls from your kids. The partner who’s exhausted from repeating everything. The parent who withdrew because they couldn’t keep up.
The first thing to go isn’t safety. It isn’t information. It’s humor. You can repeat an instruction. You can repeat a question. You cannot repeat a joke — the moment is gone.
“It’s wearing especially if I’ve just made a silly throwaway or funny comment.” — Bellanonna, Gransnet
At a certain point, it becomes physically impossible. Not difficult — impossible.
“It is not humanly possible to talk loud enough for her to hear.” — johnk6749, AgingCare
“I repeat and repeat and repeat, often yelling over the radio on loud. I cannot live my life like this.” — Dontlletmedownbruce, Mumsnet
Most of the time, the person who can’t hear doesn’t buy the camera. Someone who loves them does.
Slivor’s HD camera connects to your phone so you can see inside anyone’s ears in real time. Check your partner. Check your parents. Check yourself. It takes 5 minutes. And what you find might change more than just hearing.
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