jacal5

Mom is 82 years old and can't hear her cell phone ringing when it is right next to her when the tv is on. If her cell phone is ringing in the next room when the house is quiet she can't hear it either, yet I can hear it ringing from the furthest room away from the phone in the house. This morning when I told her that her cell phone rang ten times, she didn't believe me (she never picked it up).

Now I am afraid that when she drives she might not hear everything that she should, and she drives with the radio on besides, but when I brought that up this morning, and told her that maybe she could use a hearing aid (at least when she drives), she started yelling and screaming at me to leave her alone! She said that everyone who drives in her car say she's an excellent driver, but I told her that wasn't the point and those people don't know if she hears everything or not while she is on the road.

I told her that everyone wears headsets, ear phones, etc., even the young people, so no one would know it was a hearing aid anyway, but she said it doesn't bother her if people know she is wearing one, so I don't understand what her problem is. She won't go for the hearing implants, because she always had trouble with one ear, she says it's a punctured ear drum. She complains that she can't hear out of one ear, but doesn't want to do anything about it.

I think the DMV should require hearing tests for the seniors so they don't end up killing anybody or themselves on the road, and I told her that.

Any suggestions about how to handle this problem with Mom will be appreciated, thx!