1 00:00:01,501 --> 00:00:05,538 And now America's Healthcare Advocate, Cary Hall. 2 00:00:05,972 --> 00:00:06,806 Hello, America. 3 00:00:06,806 --> 00:00:08,541 Welcome to America's Healthcare Advocates. 4 00:00:08,541 --> 00:00:11,778 Show broadcasting coast to coast across the USA. 5 00:00:11,945 --> 00:00:15,115 Here on the HIA Radio Network, you can find out more about us 6 00:00:15,115 --> 00:00:19,085 by going to our website: AmericasHealthCareAdvocate.com. 7 00:00:19,085 --> 00:00:24,491 Also, all these shows are posted on 15 podcast platforms, including Rumble, 8 00:00:24,491 --> 00:00:28,762 by the way, which we just did again today, and our YouTube platform. 9 00:00:28,762 --> 00:00:31,765 We've got about almost a half a million views up there. 10 00:00:31,831 --> 00:00:33,767 You can like us, you can subscribe. 11 00:00:33,767 --> 00:00:35,568 It doesn't cost anything. 12 00:00:35,568 --> 00:00:37,470 If you want to go up on 13 00:00:37,470 --> 00:00:39,706 the YouTube platform or on those podcast platforms. 14 00:00:39,706 --> 00:00:43,710 So all these shows where we record them with video, then we put them up there 15 00:00:43,710 --> 00:00:46,746 after we do them, and you can listen to them up there or subscribe 16 00:00:46,746 --> 00:00:49,983 so you can hear what we are talking about that might be of interest to you. 17 00:00:50,250 --> 00:00:54,854 If you are chronologically challenged and are looking for Medicare, 18 00:00:54,888 --> 00:00:58,858 please give Carolee Steele a call over at RPS Benefits by Design. 19 00:00:59,025 --> 00:01:00,026 She's an expert. 20 00:01:00,026 --> 00:01:03,496 She can help you show you all the options in the marketplace. 21 00:01:03,663 --> 00:01:05,265 There are a lot of changes coming. 22 00:01:05,265 --> 00:01:07,967 It'd be a great time to call and just have her take a look at your plan 23 00:01:07,967 --> 00:01:08,401 and review it. 24 00:01:08,401 --> 00:01:09,436 And by the way, 25 00:01:09,436 --> 00:01:11,304 if you are looking for group health insurance, 26 00:01:11,304 --> 00:01:14,274 I had a company call me out of Columbia, Missouri last week. 27 00:01:14,274 --> 00:01:17,610 They were on, a very old Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan. 28 00:01:17,877 --> 00:01:19,679 They were a heating and air conditioning company. 29 00:01:19,679 --> 00:01:21,915 The premiums had gotten completely out of hand. 30 00:01:21,915 --> 00:01:24,517 The policy was 20 years old, actually. 31 00:01:24,517 --> 00:01:27,887 Maria Ahlers helped them find something significantly less money 32 00:01:28,088 --> 00:01:29,622 continued with great benefits. 33 00:01:29,622 --> 00:01:35,095 So they can help you once again, the phone number (877) 34 00:01:35,095 --> 00:01:38,231 385-2224. 35 00:01:38,364 --> 00:01:41,234 Anywhere in the country, it doesn't matter where you are, 36 00:01:41,234 --> 00:01:43,470 they can help you wherever you might be. All right. 37 00:01:43,470 --> 00:01:46,506 Joining me in studio again today Shannon Schneller. 38 00:01:46,606 --> 00:01:48,174 Welcome back. 39 00:01:48,174 --> 00:01:51,878 What are we in our fourth one now I think yeah something like that okay. 40 00:01:52,112 --> 00:01:55,281 So Shannon Schneller is the CEO and founder of Focus Hearing. 41 00:01:55,281 --> 00:01:56,349 They are the folks that 42 00:01:57,383 --> 00:02:00,854 I go to that, you know, got my hearing aid straightened out. 43 00:02:00,887 --> 00:02:03,423 You know, they've done a great job for me and for my wife Lauren 44 00:02:03,423 --> 00:02:06,092 also, in studio with me Len Randazzo. Hey, Len. 45 00:02:06,092 --> 00:02:06,893 Good morning. 46 00:02:06,893 --> 00:02:10,263 So this man is usually the man that handles everything here at Cumulus. 47 00:02:10,263 --> 00:02:12,732 He is our rep does a great job. 48 00:02:12,732 --> 00:02:17,403 But I'm driving down the, the road on a Saturday after Shannon’s last show aired. 49 00:02:17,837 --> 00:02:19,873 And he calls me up and he goes, 50 00:02:19,873 --> 00:02:22,876 are those guys really, really that good at what they do? 51 00:02:23,343 --> 00:02:26,646 And I went on to tell him, yeah, that and a bag of chips, actually, 52 00:02:26,646 --> 00:02:27,614 if you want to know. 53 00:02:27,614 --> 00:02:28,948 Well, he went to Shannon. 54 00:02:28,948 --> 00:02:31,384 I'm going to have him talk about his experience 55 00:02:31,384 --> 00:02:34,020 so you can see what it was like for him to go 56 00:02:34,020 --> 00:02:37,657 and the difference he had between that and the other people he was working with. 57 00:02:37,891 --> 00:02:40,894 And then we've got a really special guest after that. 58 00:02:40,994 --> 00:02:45,999 Our producer, Dave Thiessen, is going to sneak out from behind the cameras today. 59 00:02:45,999 --> 00:02:49,035 You're actually going to see who he is, and he's going to talk 60 00:02:49,035 --> 00:02:52,038 about what his experience and Focus Hearing was. 61 00:02:52,172 --> 00:02:53,773 So you'll get to hear from a couple of folks 62 00:02:53,773 --> 00:02:55,808 that have actually been there and done what needs to get done. 63 00:02:55,808 --> 00:02:56,409 But let's 64 00:02:56,409 --> 00:03:00,713 let's just start by talking about what you guys do, why I think it's so different 65 00:03:01,014 --> 00:03:02,882 than what I call the conglom-o, 66 00:03:02,882 --> 00:03:05,919 or the national firms or the franchise firms or whatever. 67 00:03:06,219 --> 00:03:09,389 And it's certainly different than what you see on television 68 00:03:09,689 --> 00:03:12,792 when people are going to order a hearing aid. 69 00:03:12,926 --> 00:03:15,128 I always find that amusing because I'm like, 70 00:03:15,128 --> 00:03:17,797 how do they know what you're hearing issues are 71 00:03:17,797 --> 00:03:21,267 if they can't test you until you order this thing off the television? 72 00:03:21,267 --> 00:03:24,904 So, so so let's just start with about what you guys do, 73 00:03:25,004 --> 00:03:28,641 what you offer, and then how you interface with various insurance programs. 74 00:03:28,641 --> 00:03:29,275 Shannon. 75 00:03:29,275 --> 00:03:32,912 So I mean state guidelines, we all of our professional lives, 76 00:03:32,912 --> 00:03:36,516 our industry, we have guidelines that we have to follow. 77 00:03:36,983 --> 00:03:38,885 So of course we're going to do those. 78 00:03:39,886 --> 00:03:40,420 We just 79 00:03:40,420 --> 00:03:44,190 feel that going above and beyond that is really important. 80 00:03:44,190 --> 00:03:45,692 What makes us different. 81 00:03:45,692 --> 00:03:50,196 And the individual plan of the person that's in front of you, 82 00:03:50,230 --> 00:03:51,331 because not everybody is the same. 83 00:03:51,331 --> 00:03:53,866 You can have ten people with the same hearing loss, 84 00:03:53,866 --> 00:03:56,869 and that hearing aid is going to sound ten different ways. 85 00:03:57,270 --> 00:04:00,840 So there's a little bit of art, a lot of science behind it. 86 00:04:01,341 --> 00:04:04,277 And we just believe in doing what's best for the patient in front of us. 87 00:04:04,277 --> 00:04:05,311 And that doesn't always mean 88 00:04:05,311 --> 00:04:08,548 that you're getting a new hearing aid every time you come in as a new patient. 89 00:04:08,581 --> 00:04:09,415 No, it doesn't. 90 00:04:09,415 --> 00:04:11,417 And that's really funny because the hearing aids 91 00:04:11,417 --> 00:04:15,488 I'm wearing, okay, when I first came in, you didn't sell me those hearing aids. 92 00:04:15,488 --> 00:04:16,022 Okay? 93 00:04:16,022 --> 00:04:18,591 You did convince me to get the second one that I got. 94 00:04:18,591 --> 00:04:21,361 I only had one for one ear because I'm deaf on one side. 95 00:04:21,361 --> 00:04:22,996 And you got me a transmitter. 96 00:04:22,996 --> 00:04:25,999 But, they weren't working right, and I couldn't get it 97 00:04:26,065 --> 00:04:29,202 straightened out, and I couldn't get, it’s got great software. 98 00:04:29,435 --> 00:04:31,604 I couldn't get it to work. Didn't know how to down. 99 00:04:31,604 --> 00:04:32,905 You guys did the whole thing. 100 00:04:32,905 --> 00:04:37,176 And I have been back on several occasions when I had issues. 101 00:04:37,477 --> 00:04:37,944 Okay. 102 00:04:37,944 --> 00:04:41,814 And did the walk in, walked right in your customer service, 103 00:04:41,814 --> 00:04:44,083 your folks at the front desk were right there. 104 00:04:44,083 --> 00:04:45,051 Took care of the problem. 105 00:04:45,051 --> 00:04:47,453 I got back out in like ten minutes. 106 00:04:47,453 --> 00:04:50,823 In the past, you know, when I was dealing with another company, 107 00:04:51,591 --> 00:04:54,494 you'd have to get an appointment that might be a week out or two weeks out. 108 00:04:54,494 --> 00:04:58,631 Meanwhile this isn’t working and I can't hear and I'm going nuts, okay. 109 00:04:58,931 --> 00:05:01,934 Because I've become so dependent on these things, 110 00:05:02,135 --> 00:05:07,073 because they make such a difference for me that without them I'm like, I'm lost. 111 00:05:07,073 --> 00:05:09,676 I mean, it's, you know, it's like they can't see. 112 00:05:09,676 --> 00:05:12,712 Yeah, I can see, but I can't hear and it drives me nuts. 113 00:05:12,945 --> 00:05:13,980 Or, you know, I'll forget. 114 00:05:13,980 --> 00:05:16,015 I'll walk out of the house and I'll get halfway down, 115 00:05:17,617 --> 00:05:19,786 the road from my house, and I'm a mile away, and, 116 00:05:19,786 --> 00:05:21,788 Oh, God, I forgot the hearing aids. You. I gotta turn around. 117 00:05:21,788 --> 00:05:22,388 Go back. 118 00:05:22,388 --> 00:05:25,391 Yeah, I and I do, because they become that critical to me. 119 00:05:25,925 --> 00:05:28,928 So the first time you told me this, I was completely shocked. 120 00:05:29,228 --> 00:05:34,033 78% of the people in this country don't treat hearing loss. 121 00:05:34,033 --> 00:05:39,205 The 12 we got, we've got like 12% of the people that are actually treating it. 122 00:05:39,372 --> 00:05:42,375 And the rest of the people letting it go untreated. 123 00:05:42,709 --> 00:05:45,511 So talk about what happens as a result of that, 124 00:05:45,511 --> 00:05:50,149 because there are so many issues that come with that. 125 00:05:50,149 --> 00:05:52,885 If you don't take care of it, let's just talk about that a little bit. 126 00:05:52,885 --> 00:05:54,721 Well, I just think about my patients. 127 00:05:54,721 --> 00:05:57,290 What I see in front of me, the degrees of hearing loss 128 00:05:57,290 --> 00:06:00,193 is what's really can set the tone for your experience. 129 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:02,462 It's always so much 130 00:06:02,462 --> 00:06:06,232 easier to adjust to a hearing aid when you're at a mild to moderate 131 00:06:06,232 --> 00:06:09,335 hearing loss, because you're not having to make this huge jump back to normal. 132 00:06:10,770 --> 00:06:12,839 If you can catch it earlier, your transition 133 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:15,842 just is so much easier for the patient. 134 00:06:15,942 --> 00:06:19,178 And it kind of goes back to, you know, ten hearing losses that look the same. 135 00:06:19,178 --> 00:06:20,646 But those hearing aids are going to sound different. 136 00:06:20,646 --> 00:06:23,249 It's about your preference about your tolerance. 137 00:06:23,249 --> 00:06:26,285 It's also in the booth what is your best case scenario. 138 00:06:26,285 --> 00:06:28,654 Because that's not the same for everybody. 139 00:06:28,654 --> 00:06:31,190 And so it's important for us to set realistic expectations 140 00:06:31,190 --> 00:06:34,127 about what we can do for you and what we can't. 141 00:06:34,127 --> 00:06:38,731 And I think that's what's fair for me to inform the patient, look, I can do this. 142 00:06:38,731 --> 00:06:42,034 I know you want me to be able to do this, but that's just not in the bag for you. 143 00:06:42,034 --> 00:06:44,470 And because the nature of the beast. 144 00:06:44,470 --> 00:06:45,371 We waited too long. 145 00:06:45,371 --> 00:06:46,472 Stop right there. 146 00:06:46,472 --> 00:06:49,442 We waited too long. Right. Okay. 147 00:06:49,442 --> 00:06:51,978 I didn't wait too long, but I went through three different 148 00:06:51,978 --> 00:06:54,046 sets of hearing aids with three different companies 149 00:06:54,046 --> 00:06:58,418 before I finally found you guys and was able to get myself set up. 150 00:06:58,418 --> 00:06:59,986 And now, you know, I've. 151 00:06:59,986 --> 00:07:01,053 My hearing is great. 152 00:07:01,053 --> 00:07:02,221 I mean, I could sit in a restaurant, 153 00:07:02,221 --> 00:07:04,323 if I really want to, and listen to four tables around me. 154 00:07:05,525 --> 00:07:06,559 Don't do that, folks. 155 00:07:06,559 --> 00:07:09,562 It's annoying. But I'm just saying.. 156 00:07:09,762 --> 00:07:12,765 The hearing has made an enormous difference to me. 157 00:07:13,266 --> 00:07:16,269 So waiting is not a good thing, right? 158 00:07:16,335 --> 00:07:18,805 I mean, let's say you come in and you have hearing loss and you're 159 00:07:18,805 --> 00:07:22,508 just not quite ready, and then you wait 4 or 5 years, maybe longer than that. 160 00:07:22,975 --> 00:07:27,013 You come back, your audiogram, the graph, your blue and red dots 161 00:07:27,013 --> 00:07:27,880 might look the same. 162 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:30,883 You're hearing has not changed the response. 163 00:07:31,117 --> 00:07:33,953 Your ability to process and understand speech is what 164 00:07:33,953 --> 00:07:36,589 typically changes and degrades, 165 00:07:36,589 --> 00:07:40,159 and that even translates over to how you hear in noise. 166 00:07:40,660 --> 00:07:44,130 So when those neurological pathways between the air in the brain don't stay 167 00:07:44,130 --> 00:07:48,468 stimulated, that ability to understand that speech processing is what degrades. 168 00:07:49,302 --> 00:07:52,371 And that's what a lot of patients don't realize, that 169 00:07:53,439 --> 00:07:54,507 we waited too long. 170 00:07:54,507 --> 00:07:56,943 And I can only take you to 80% speech understanding. 171 00:07:56,943 --> 00:07:59,011 That 20% is gone forever. 172 00:07:59,011 --> 00:08:00,780 And that's just a fair expectation. 173 00:08:00,780 --> 00:08:03,783 I don't want to promise the moon when I know I can't give that to you. 174 00:08:04,083 --> 00:08:09,188 And maybe that's, a big part of why patients respond to us. 175 00:08:09,188 --> 00:08:11,190 Because we're not going to make promises that we can't keep. 176 00:08:11,190 --> 00:08:14,160 Yeah, but conversely, the other thing is, if you don't do it, 177 00:08:14,427 --> 00:08:15,561 it's going to keep degrading. 178 00:08:15,561 --> 00:08:18,064 I remember this, Laurie being told this 179 00:08:18,064 --> 00:08:19,999 because she was the first one I had the issue. 180 00:08:19,999 --> 00:08:24,570 The longer that you wait, the more the more difficult it's going to be 181 00:08:24,570 --> 00:08:29,175 to get you back to any level, because it's going to continue to degrade. 182 00:08:29,175 --> 00:08:31,677 Just like if you have a broken arm and you don't do your physical therapy, 183 00:08:31,677 --> 00:08:34,747 you're not going to get your full range of motion back if you don't do the work. 184 00:08:35,147 --> 00:08:38,017 So it's it's always easier to take the cast off. 185 00:08:38,017 --> 00:08:40,720 Get in your PT. Get your arm back. Don't wait. 186 00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:43,523 Same thing, but you have to teat it like that. 187 00:08:43,523 --> 00:08:43,656 Very similar. Yeah. 188 00:08:43,656 --> 00:08:46,459 And that's a great analogy that there's something you can see 189 00:08:46,459 --> 00:08:48,661 and you know, this is something you can't see. 190 00:08:48,661 --> 00:08:50,429 And it's gradual, okay. 191 00:08:50,429 --> 00:08:54,534 But people around you are going to notice it and you're going to notice it. 192 00:08:54,867 --> 00:08:56,602 And that's typically how the process happens. 193 00:08:56,602 --> 00:08:58,137 Is that the nature of hearing loss 194 00:08:58,137 --> 00:09:00,973 is that it's so slow and gradual you don't realize it. 195 00:09:00,973 --> 00:09:04,410 So you're walking around where you are swearing you're at normal, 196 00:09:04,410 --> 00:09:07,113 but your loved ones are complaining. You're not. You're not at normal. 197 00:09:07,113 --> 00:09:09,482 So that's the case. So it does make a difference, folks. 198 00:09:09,482 --> 00:09:11,751 If you want some help, if you want an evaluation, 199 00:09:11,751 --> 00:09:15,054 if you just want to know where you're at, here's what you need to do. 200 00:09:15,154 --> 00:09:19,091 Give them a call (913) 754-2144. 201 00:09:19,091 --> 00:09:21,527 They've got two locations easy to get to. 202 00:09:21,527 --> 00:09:23,996 If you want help, they can do it or go to the website. 203 00:09:23,996 --> 00:09:25,798 MyFocusHearing.com. 204 00:09:25,798 --> 00:09:27,767 MyFocusHearing.com. 205 00:09:27,767 --> 00:09:29,068 When we come back from the break. 206 00:09:29,068 --> 00:09:30,870 We're going to talk a little more about this. 207 00:09:30,870 --> 00:09:34,006 And we're going to talk about how it ties into cognitive decline. 208 00:09:34,307 --> 00:09:37,276 And for all of us out there that are chronologically challenged 209 00:09:37,276 --> 00:09:38,511 that's a real issue. 210 00:09:38,511 --> 00:09:40,646 Stay tuned. We'll be right back after the break. 211 00:09:40,646 --> 00:09:45,151 You're listening to America’s Health Care Advocate broadcasting here on the HIA 212 00:09:45,151 --> 00:09:46,385 Radio Network. 213 00:09:46,385 --> 00:09:48,387 Coast to coast across the USA. 214 00:09:48,387 --> 00:09:49,121 Don't go anywhere. 215 00:09:56,429 --> 00:10:01,033 You. Welcome back. 216 00:10:01,033 --> 00:10:04,470 You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show, broadcasting coast 217 00:10:04,470 --> 00:10:08,240 to coast across the USA here on the HIA Radio Network. 218 00:10:08,441 --> 00:10:12,311 If you have a question or comment like that gentleman in Columbia, Missouri, 219 00:10:12,511 --> 00:10:14,947 send me an email. I'll get back to you. 220 00:10:14,947 --> 00:10:17,550 I'll be happy to help you with anything that I can. 221 00:10:17,550 --> 00:10:20,686 Also, you know, if you want to help, maybe you've got a husband. 222 00:10:20,987 --> 00:10:23,489 It's too stubborn to go get the hearing test. 223 00:10:23,489 --> 00:10:25,324 And you're telling the guy, look, 224 00:10:25,324 --> 00:10:28,327 you're not hearing what I'm telling you, or turn the clothes. 225 00:10:28,561 --> 00:10:31,230 Maybe we get rid of the closed caption on TV. 226 00:10:31,230 --> 00:10:34,233 If you actually got your hearing checked and got a hearing aid. 227 00:10:34,233 --> 00:10:38,304 Well, I would suggest you have him listen to this broadcast on the podcast 228 00:10:38,304 --> 00:10:39,472 or on the YouTube channel 229 00:10:39,472 --> 00:10:43,042 so he can actually understand what we're talking about and why. 230 00:10:43,309 --> 00:10:47,480 If you don't do something about this, it gets progressively worse. 231 00:10:47,747 --> 00:10:49,248 That's the point. Okay. 232 00:10:49,248 --> 00:10:52,718 So if you want an evaluation, it costs nothing to go in 233 00:10:52,718 --> 00:10:56,722 and sit down with Shannon and her folks and let her tell you what the problem is. 234 00:10:56,722 --> 00:10:58,257 And here's what the solutions are. 235 00:10:58,257 --> 00:11:02,662 You can do that by calling (913) 236 00:11:02,662 --> 00:11:05,898 754-2144. 237 00:11:06,065 --> 00:11:08,601 They've got two locations you can easily get to them. 238 00:11:08,601 --> 00:11:13,172 The website MyFocusHearing.com MyFocusHearing.com. 239 00:11:13,172 --> 00:11:16,442 This isn't conglom-o franchise. 240 00:11:16,442 --> 00:11:18,244 You know some nationally advertised. 241 00:11:18,244 --> 00:11:20,913 These are local folks right here in our community 242 00:11:20,913 --> 00:11:23,382 that know what they're doing and do it very well. 243 00:11:23,382 --> 00:11:26,552 So let's get to this cognitive decline thing because this is an issue, 244 00:11:27,019 --> 00:11:29,321 you know, if you're a seasoned citizen okay. 245 00:11:29,321 --> 00:11:30,122 Which you're not. 246 00:11:30,122 --> 00:11:31,624 But there's two of us in here 247 00:11:31,624 --> 00:11:34,827 actually three because we're going to bring Dave up behind the microphone. 248 00:11:35,494 --> 00:11:39,665 If this is something you think about okay I mean I take a supplement. 249 00:11:40,132 --> 00:11:40,933 Okay. 250 00:11:40,933 --> 00:11:45,137 And I do it every night specifically developed for cognitive. 251 00:11:45,137 --> 00:11:47,807 To enhance cognitive and not 252 00:11:48,774 --> 00:11:49,875 face cognitive decline. 253 00:11:49,875 --> 00:11:53,913 I've got two companies, one I own and one I own part of that I'm, you know, I'm 254 00:11:53,913 --> 00:11:56,949 76 years old, and I'm as busy as I've ever 255 00:11:56,949 --> 00:11:59,952 been, so that's important to me. 256 00:12:00,119 --> 00:12:02,021 Now, you talk about this hearing thing. Okay. 257 00:12:02,021 --> 00:12:07,126 So you here, you've you're a lot of people working past 65, 70 now a lot of people. 258 00:12:07,526 --> 00:12:07,927 Okay. 259 00:12:07,927 --> 00:12:11,330 And so what happens is you don't pay attention to this. 260 00:12:11,330 --> 00:12:14,366 And then so what happens from a cognitive standpoint. 261 00:12:14,366 --> 00:12:16,869 Well comes to the whole hearing system. 262 00:12:16,869 --> 00:12:19,472 It is truly I use it or lose it system. 263 00:12:19,472 --> 00:12:22,074 Repeat that. It's a use it or lose it okay. 264 00:12:22,074 --> 00:12:24,143 So it's just like you know when you talk about exercise. 265 00:12:24,143 --> 00:12:26,178 Get out. Exercise. 266 00:12:26,178 --> 00:12:27,847 Whatever, use it or lose it. 267 00:12:27,847 --> 00:12:29,415 Same deal, different day. 268 00:12:29,415 --> 00:12:30,015 Right. 269 00:12:30,015 --> 00:12:33,018 It's just about, you know, what does your system look like? 270 00:12:33,452 --> 00:12:34,620 Can we reactivate it 271 00:12:35,921 --> 00:12:38,724 when you have untreated hearing loss? 272 00:12:38,724 --> 00:12:42,094 I don't know if you're aware of this, but as of right now, untreated 273 00:12:42,094 --> 00:12:45,965 hearing loss, that's the number one modifiable risk factor for dementia. 274 00:12:46,465 --> 00:12:47,099 Everything else. 275 00:12:47,099 --> 00:12:49,969 Is just that's the first time I've heard that it's just a toss of the dice. 276 00:12:49,969 --> 00:12:52,471 The number one modifier. 277 00:12:52,471 --> 00:12:55,141 Modifiable Risk Factor. 278 00:12:55,141 --> 00:12:59,178 Meaning you can slow it down, stop it, or do whatever you need to do if you. 279 00:12:59,178 --> 00:13:00,980 Yeah, that's the only thing that you can control. 280 00:13:00,980 --> 00:13:02,414 While the studies up to this point, 281 00:13:02,414 --> 00:13:05,718 I know they're looking about diet and other things, how that affects. 282 00:13:05,718 --> 00:13:10,456 But if you really think about the risks of dementia and untreated hearing loss, 283 00:13:10,456 --> 00:13:14,026 and you can actually do something about it, that's pretty powerful. 284 00:13:14,293 --> 00:13:15,728 Oh, yeah. 285 00:13:15,728 --> 00:13:18,831 You know, and we all want to age well, I know I do. 286 00:13:19,765 --> 00:13:24,069 And if there's anything that I can do to help that process slow down, 287 00:13:25,137 --> 00:13:27,273 I'm going to do the best I can to make that happen. 288 00:13:27,273 --> 00:13:31,844 You know, I told this story before I was standing in my, in Pasco, Washington. 289 00:13:31,844 --> 00:13:36,182 And in my, at my son in law's parents farm, that big alfalfa farm 290 00:13:36,448 --> 00:13:38,450 and the grandkids are running around 291 00:13:38,450 --> 00:13:41,654 and Evelyn then the oldest was, I think, four years old. 292 00:13:42,021 --> 00:13:44,890 And she came up to me and she was talking to me, 293 00:13:44,890 --> 00:13:47,593 and I didn't hear a thing she was saying. 294 00:13:47,593 --> 00:13:51,831 And Sean, look, she goes, Cary, Cary, Evelyn's trying to talk to you. 295 00:13:51,831 --> 00:13:53,399 And I'm like, 296 00:13:53,399 --> 00:13:56,335 there she was right at my legs, standing there looking at me. 297 00:13:56,335 --> 00:13:57,603 Talk to me, I didn't hear. 298 00:13:57,603 --> 00:14:00,673 I said, you know what, I got a problem here, right? 299 00:14:00,673 --> 00:14:01,974 I didn't hear her. 300 00:14:01,974 --> 00:14:04,610 Well, I got six grandkids, okay? 301 00:14:04,610 --> 00:14:05,911 And it's important that I, 302 00:14:05,911 --> 00:14:08,948 you know, that you can understand them, hear what they're trying to say, 303 00:14:09,181 --> 00:14:11,350 interact with them. Those are all critical things. 304 00:14:11,350 --> 00:14:15,821 So for me, that was the one that pushed it over, that pushed the button. 305 00:14:15,888 --> 00:14:18,724 That was like, okay, I gotta do something about this, right? 306 00:14:18,724 --> 00:14:21,293 Okay. Because I'm not interacting with my family. 307 00:14:21,293 --> 00:14:24,463 The other thing that drove me nuts was trying to watch a television 308 00:14:24,463 --> 00:14:26,732 show, not understand what the hell they were saying. 309 00:14:26,732 --> 00:14:29,935 Yeah, and I got news for you can't closed caption, Fox news. 310 00:14:30,135 --> 00:14:31,070 Okay. All right. 311 00:14:31,070 --> 00:14:33,639 Yeah, I don't bother with CNN. I'm just telling you. 312 00:14:33,639 --> 00:14:34,874 Okay. Straight up. 313 00:14:34,874 --> 00:14:35,908 Okay. 314 00:14:35,908 --> 00:14:38,911 Or CNBC, you know, you're looking at what's going on in the markets. 315 00:14:39,545 --> 00:14:43,082 You can close caption TV shows but you can't or movies, but so 316 00:14:43,282 --> 00:14:47,686 being able to hear what people are saying when you said not understanding people, 317 00:14:47,686 --> 00:14:52,658 I remember sitting at luncheon meetings, business meetings one night in particular, 318 00:14:52,658 --> 00:14:56,395 I had with the folks over Blue Cross, and we were at Jacks Stack Barbecue. 319 00:14:56,428 --> 00:14:59,531 There were four of these people at lunch with me, and I'm asking people 320 00:14:59,531 --> 00:15:02,268 to repeat like two and three times what the hell they're saying. 321 00:15:02,268 --> 00:15:04,169 It's noisy in there. I couldn't hear it. 322 00:15:04,169 --> 00:15:07,973 Now I go to the restaurant setting on my phone. 323 00:15:07,973 --> 00:15:12,945 I push the button and they dials me in to what the people that are sitting near 324 00:15:12,945 --> 00:15:17,049 me and I am not hearing, you know, If you leave it on the regular sound, 325 00:15:17,049 --> 00:15:20,586 you're picking up sound from other tables, but it works amazingly well. 326 00:15:20,986 --> 00:15:23,522 So you, as you said, you can correct it, right? 327 00:15:23,522 --> 00:15:25,124 Yes, absolutely. 328 00:15:25,124 --> 00:15:29,862 And and stop dealing with the annoyance of not understanding people. 329 00:15:29,862 --> 00:15:31,830 Well, you don't realize 330 00:15:31,830 --> 00:15:35,801 as time goes on the things that your body has to do to accommodate hearing loss. 331 00:15:35,801 --> 00:15:38,704 Okay. You’re lip reading, you don't even know you're doing it. 332 00:15:38,704 --> 00:15:42,141 That's just the body being the amazing thing that it is to compensate. 333 00:15:42,608 --> 00:15:45,611 So you’re lip reading, you're leaning, you're 334 00:15:45,811 --> 00:15:48,914 positioning yourself in certain areas to give you the best fighting chance. 335 00:15:48,914 --> 00:15:49,782 And there just becomes like 336 00:15:49,782 --> 00:15:53,585 this mental and physical load to pull this off on a daily basis. 337 00:15:53,585 --> 00:15:57,556 By the end of the day, there's a level of exhaustion that doesn't need to be there. 338 00:15:58,624 --> 00:16:00,893 You know, if we can fix your hearing, 339 00:16:00,893 --> 00:16:04,296 then you're not having to mentally and physically do all those things 340 00:16:04,296 --> 00:16:05,764 to cope with your hearing loss. 341 00:16:05,764 --> 00:16:07,633 It's just make it easier for you. 342 00:16:07,633 --> 00:16:09,068 Yeah, because that's it. 343 00:16:09,068 --> 00:16:10,803 And that's exactly what I used to do. 344 00:16:10,803 --> 00:16:15,507 In fact, I used to position most until you convinced me to get the second 345 00:16:15,841 --> 00:16:18,677 hearing aid because I'm deaf on one side, I had a brain tumor in ‘85. 346 00:16:18,677 --> 00:16:20,312 I lost the hearing over there. 347 00:16:20,312 --> 00:16:22,681 I was lucky that that's all I lost. 348 00:16:22,681 --> 00:16:25,884 And I would set so that if I'm at a business 349 00:16:25,884 --> 00:16:28,921 meeting, the people I'm doing business with are on this side of me. 350 00:16:29,021 --> 00:16:30,089 I don't want them on the other side 351 00:16:30,089 --> 00:16:33,692 because I couldn't hear a damn thing they say right now, it doesn't matter. 352 00:16:33,692 --> 00:16:38,330 Because this, this piece that you got me transmits sound from that ear over 353 00:16:38,330 --> 00:16:42,301 to this hearing aid that does a great job, and I can hear what's going on. 354 00:16:42,601 --> 00:16:43,902 Boy, what a difference that made. 355 00:16:43,902 --> 00:16:46,305 And I even after I got the hearing aid, 356 00:16:46,305 --> 00:16:47,973 I remember you said you don't really have to do this, 357 00:16:47,973 --> 00:16:50,009 but I'm telling you, I'm like, okay, Shannon. 358 00:16:50,009 --> 00:16:50,976 I'm going to listen to you. 359 00:16:50,976 --> 00:16:53,479 And I did it like, oh, Lord have mercy. 360 00:16:53,479 --> 00:16:56,048 This really works. Yeah. It's not you don't have a blind spot. 361 00:16:56,048 --> 00:16:57,850 Your echolocation is back. Yeah. 362 00:16:57,850 --> 00:17:00,152 You can tell here sounds are coming from. Yeah. Yes. 363 00:17:00,152 --> 00:17:02,087 It just made a huge difference. Right. 364 00:17:02,087 --> 00:17:03,355 So that's really interesting. 365 00:17:03,355 --> 00:17:06,825 I had no idea that it played this big a role in cog. 366 00:17:06,925 --> 00:17:09,928 I mean, I knew it was important in cognitive decline right here, 367 00:17:09,962 --> 00:17:14,333 that that's the one factor that can turn that to a certain degree. 368 00:17:15,267 --> 00:17:16,568 I'd say that's pretty important. 369 00:17:16,568 --> 00:17:20,005 Well, and you partner that with, you know, if you're not hearing 370 00:17:20,339 --> 00:17:23,742 and then you start to withdraw and then you don't, you're not hanging out 371 00:17:23,742 --> 00:17:28,080 with your family and, you know, your relationship starts to degrade. 372 00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:31,083 You're just not doing the things that you usually do. 373 00:17:31,417 --> 00:17:32,818 And then you start to isolate. 374 00:17:32,818 --> 00:17:36,955 And then the isolation is where that cognitive factor comes in. 375 00:17:36,955 --> 00:17:37,856 It's like when you're not 376 00:17:38,891 --> 00:17:39,992 engaging with your 377 00:17:39,992 --> 00:17:43,695 family and your relationships, that's when things start to slow down. 378 00:17:43,796 --> 00:17:44,563 And that's the concern. 379 00:17:44,563 --> 00:17:47,599 And then that causes friction in the family and a whole bunch of things. 380 00:17:47,633 --> 00:17:48,500 And again, 381 00:17:48,500 --> 00:17:50,936 you know, like I said, there are a lot of us that are working 382 00:17:50,936 --> 00:17:55,841 past retirement age of 65, 64, whatever it is, if you're doing that 383 00:17:56,008 --> 00:17:58,710 and you can't function in the business environment, 384 00:17:58,710 --> 00:18:00,846 you're dealing with people a lot younger than you are. 385 00:18:00,846 --> 00:18:03,415 They're kind of looking at you like, what's the matter with you? 386 00:18:03,415 --> 00:18:04,983 You know, it's it's not a good thing. 387 00:18:04,983 --> 00:18:07,319 So it makes sense, you know, to find out. 388 00:18:07,319 --> 00:18:09,988 Now, take the time and find out, okay. 389 00:18:09,988 --> 00:18:11,490 It's simple enough to do. 390 00:18:11,490 --> 00:18:14,893 You can call (913) 754-2144, 391 00:18:15,127 --> 00:18:17,963 make an appointment, go in and see Shannon or one of her techs. 392 00:18:17,963 --> 00:18:20,966 They'll be happy to take you through the process or go to the website. 393 00:18:20,966 --> 00:18:22,401 My focus here. Income. 394 00:18:22,401 --> 00:18:26,038 We come back from the break Len Randazzo's going to tells his story, 395 00:18:26,138 --> 00:18:27,339 and then we're going to drag 396 00:18:27,339 --> 00:18:31,276 Dave Thiessen out from behind the cameras and he's going to tell us his story. 397 00:18:31,410 --> 00:18:33,479 So stay tuned. We'll be right back after the break. 398 00:18:33,479 --> 00:18:37,282 You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate Broadcasting Coast 399 00:18:37,282 --> 00:18:41,453 to coast across the USA here on the HIA Radio Network. 400 00:18:52,831 --> 00:18:53,532 Welcome back. 401 00:18:53,532 --> 00:18:56,101 You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show, 402 00:18:56,101 --> 00:18:58,770 broadcasting coast to coast across the USA. 403 00:18:58,770 --> 00:19:03,175 Speaking of which, I want to do a shout out to 98.7FM 404 00:19:03,408 --> 00:19:06,678 in WBFD in Bedford, Pennsylvania. 405 00:19:06,678 --> 00:19:08,680 They're one of our newest affiliates. 406 00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:10,749 Happy to have you folks on board. 407 00:19:10,749 --> 00:19:14,553 And listening to America's Healthcare Advocate here as part of our America's 408 00:19:14,553 --> 00:19:15,821 Healthcare Advocate family. 409 00:19:15,821 --> 00:19:18,790 So hello to everybody in Bedford, Pennsylvania. 410 00:19:18,790 --> 00:19:21,660 In studio with me again, Shannon Schneller from Focus Hearing. 411 00:19:21,660 --> 00:19:24,696 She's the CEO and the founder, my producers, Mr.. 412 00:19:24,696 --> 00:19:27,699 Dave Thiessen behind the cameras, who will not be behind the cameras 413 00:19:27,766 --> 00:19:29,201 a little later on today. 414 00:19:29,201 --> 00:19:32,538 And Garner Cowdrey here of behind the microphones in our Cumulus 415 00:19:32,538 --> 00:19:36,008 studios, our flagship studios here in Overland Park Kansas. 416 00:19:36,008 --> 00:19:38,310 All right. So now we're going to switch to Len. 417 00:19:38,310 --> 00:19:41,313 And this is a funny story because like I said, 418 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:44,883 I think I'm coming back from Bible study because we're on at 8:00 and, 419 00:19:45,150 --> 00:19:49,321 but and I, we start at seven and we don't usually get out to 830 or 9. 420 00:19:49,555 --> 00:19:53,358 And I get this phone call from Len and he goes, I just listened to that show. 421 00:19:54,059 --> 00:19:56,995 And are they really that good, Cary? 422 00:19:56,995 --> 00:19:58,263 Take it. Len. 423 00:19:58,263 --> 00:20:03,569 Yes, I was really impressed with the information 424 00:20:03,569 --> 00:20:08,440 that you were explaining and, and how you service people. 425 00:20:08,440 --> 00:20:14,813 And when I called Cary, I was really impressed with the demeanor 426 00:20:14,813 --> 00:20:18,150 and also the focus that you have on 427 00:20:18,784 --> 00:20:21,453 setting up people correctly. 428 00:20:21,453 --> 00:20:26,558 And I could tell just from that show that there was passion in what you do. 429 00:20:27,526 --> 00:20:30,562 When I called after talking to Cary, 430 00:20:30,862 --> 00:20:36,068 I spoke to your gal at the front desk, and she was equally as helpful. 431 00:20:36,068 --> 00:20:41,506 And then when I walked in to talk with you, I just felt a total difference. 432 00:20:41,506 --> 00:20:45,477 The place that I was at, as you aptly said, conglom-o. 433 00:20:45,477 --> 00:20:46,745 It was a factory. 434 00:20:46,745 --> 00:20:48,213 You know, they had rooms like 435 00:20:48,213 --> 00:20:50,849 and they just whipping you in and whipping you out of there. 436 00:20:50,849 --> 00:20:55,754 And no matter how many questions I had and I went through two, 437 00:20:55,821 --> 00:20:58,857 this is now my second set with this company, 438 00:20:59,191 --> 00:21:02,194 and I was very frustrated because I was like, 439 00:21:02,261 --> 00:21:06,898 these are expensive propositions, you know, $5,000. 440 00:21:06,932 --> 00:21:08,133 $2,500 apiece, you know. 441 00:21:08,133 --> 00:21:11,570 And I was feeling 442 00:21:11,570 --> 00:21:15,374 like I should be able to demo multiple things. 443 00:21:15,374 --> 00:21:21,046 And then you guys can hone in, you know, the technology is amazing. 444 00:21:21,046 --> 00:21:25,450 And I am very happy about how the app works. 445 00:21:25,450 --> 00:21:27,653 And viewing things that way. 446 00:21:27,653 --> 00:21:29,588 And the other one that I had previous 447 00:21:29,588 --> 00:21:32,791 had a better app, but this one was a little bit different. 448 00:21:33,358 --> 00:21:37,229 My hearing pattern is a lot different than most 449 00:21:37,229 --> 00:21:41,733 because being around radio so much, listening to things at decibels 450 00:21:41,733 --> 00:21:45,871 that probably most people don't do, and I'm sure I've done some damage. 451 00:21:46,071 --> 00:21:53,612 So the highs and the lows for me are very different than most people's problems. 452 00:21:54,012 --> 00:21:56,515 And then on top of that, I have tinnitus. 453 00:21:56,515 --> 00:21:58,050 And so the ringing in the ears. 454 00:21:58,050 --> 00:22:02,354 So it's just another level of, you know, factoring things in. 455 00:22:02,354 --> 00:22:06,758 And when I came in you explained what you said before 456 00:22:06,758 --> 00:22:10,329 about where you can possibly get me to, 457 00:22:10,662 --> 00:22:14,499 but it was more about how can I help you? 458 00:22:14,499 --> 00:22:16,802 And that's what made me feel great. 459 00:22:16,802 --> 00:22:20,305 And then you also said something to the effect of, 460 00:22:20,305 --> 00:22:23,308 did you ever have a background test? 461 00:22:23,308 --> 00:22:24,376 And that just blew me away. 462 00:22:24,376 --> 00:22:26,278 I didn't know what you were talking about. 463 00:22:26,278 --> 00:22:28,213 So explain the background test. 464 00:22:28,213 --> 00:22:28,814 Right? 465 00:22:28,814 --> 00:22:32,017 Well, and that's one thing that we did as a practice, 466 00:22:32,017 --> 00:22:35,087 just believe is very, very important because when we're testing in the booth, 467 00:22:35,420 --> 00:22:37,389 we want to know what is your best case scenario. 468 00:22:37,389 --> 00:22:39,491 But that's in a booth in quiet. 469 00:22:39,491 --> 00:22:40,926 That is not the same 470 00:22:40,926 --> 00:22:44,463 and does not translate over to how you hear when you're in a crowd. 471 00:22:44,763 --> 00:22:48,433 So if you don't test for that, the provider is literally guessing and 472 00:22:49,334 --> 00:22:52,337 majority of the time it's not even close to what you think it would be, 473 00:22:52,704 --> 00:22:54,473 because you can have somebody that's great in the booth. 474 00:22:54,473 --> 00:22:56,208 And yes, they have a moderate hearing loss. 475 00:22:56,208 --> 00:22:59,211 You put them in background noise and somebody just completely falls apart. 476 00:22:59,444 --> 00:23:00,078 Yeah. 477 00:23:00,078 --> 00:23:02,948 And if you're not prepared for that and I don't prepare you for that, 478 00:23:02,948 --> 00:23:04,616 you're thinking, I just spent all this money 479 00:23:04,616 --> 00:23:07,853 and I still I'm still not hearing in this restaurant. 480 00:23:08,453 --> 00:23:08,820 You know. 481 00:23:08,820 --> 00:23:11,890 And when you came to me, you have great hearing aids. 482 00:23:11,923 --> 00:23:14,025 They're like one and a half, two years old. 483 00:23:14,025 --> 00:23:16,962 This wasn't necessarily about you and I needing to discuss you needing 484 00:23:16,962 --> 00:23:17,629 new hearing aids. 485 00:23:17,629 --> 00:23:20,699 We just needed to fix what you have and maximize what you could and 486 00:23:20,699 --> 00:23:21,666 couldn't do. And, 487 00:23:22,768 --> 00:23:25,303 and in your case, it just we just 488 00:23:25,303 --> 00:23:28,407 manipulated what you already had built on what the professionals did before me. 489 00:23:28,473 --> 00:23:31,042 Right. And just changed a few things, tweaked a few things. 490 00:23:31,042 --> 00:23:32,844 Just based on what you told me you liked, what 491 00:23:32,844 --> 00:23:34,880 you didn't like, what you're struggling with. Right. 492 00:23:34,880 --> 00:23:37,983 So I had been through several adjustments 493 00:23:37,983 --> 00:23:42,320 with the other firm, and what was different was 494 00:23:42,821 --> 00:23:46,625 they just did the manual things that, based on what I told them, 495 00:23:46,758 --> 00:23:51,096 for example, like with my wife, was in the kitchen and she opened tinfoil. 496 00:23:51,563 --> 00:23:54,366 Oh, that would send me through the roof. 497 00:23:54,366 --> 00:23:58,236 It was just, you know, and if I didn't have my hearing aids 498 00:23:58,236 --> 00:24:01,239 in, it would not have had that effect. 499 00:24:01,406 --> 00:24:06,278 So it was having these day to day things that are in our life 500 00:24:06,278 --> 00:24:12,017 that you have to put up with or do that were not the same. 501 00:24:12,083 --> 00:24:14,820 So I was trying to explain those things to them, 502 00:24:14,820 --> 00:24:18,390 and then they just did what the mechanical things to do. 503 00:24:18,757 --> 00:24:21,793 When we sat down, and you went through those things with me, 504 00:24:21,793 --> 00:24:25,997 you asked all of those type of things, and I felt so much different. 505 00:24:25,997 --> 00:24:31,102 I felt like I had somebody that was more of a qualifier 506 00:24:31,203 --> 00:24:34,439 and more of a, you know, saying, this is 507 00:24:35,941 --> 00:24:37,008 how we can help this. 508 00:24:37,008 --> 00:24:40,645 And and maybe we couldn't do this, but how we can get to you 509 00:24:41,079 --> 00:24:44,850 having a better quality of interpreting things, 510 00:24:44,850 --> 00:24:47,853 like you said before, which I thought was fascinating. 511 00:24:48,253 --> 00:24:51,056 I didn't realize how how the human brain 512 00:24:51,056 --> 00:24:54,693 has to be conditioned itself when hearing loss happens. 513 00:24:54,926 --> 00:24:56,161 Tell me more again. 514 00:24:56,161 --> 00:24:58,930 So what you were mentioning is it's very common, 515 00:24:58,930 --> 00:25:01,933 especially for a patient that has high frequency hearing loss. 516 00:25:01,967 --> 00:25:06,004 Those that part of your hearing system is not used to being stimulated. 517 00:25:06,004 --> 00:25:07,339 So then all of a sudden you're hearing aid 518 00:25:07,339 --> 00:25:11,209 is giving you this audibility for sounds you're not used to hearing. 519 00:25:11,476 --> 00:25:12,677 Dishes banging and clanging. 520 00:25:12,677 --> 00:25:14,112 You flush the toilet, you know, ice 521 00:25:14,112 --> 00:25:17,215 cube machine, all those high frequency sounds you're not used to hearing. 522 00:25:17,883 --> 00:25:19,885 Your ear is very sensitive to that. 523 00:25:19,885 --> 00:25:22,587 And so if I just correct you all at once 524 00:25:22,587 --> 00:25:25,457 and then you're having to get used to it, you don't want to wear them, 525 00:25:25,457 --> 00:25:27,025 you're going to take them out, put them in the drawer. 526 00:25:27,025 --> 00:25:27,792 Yeah. 527 00:25:27,792 --> 00:25:30,695 It's more about let's introduce you to sound. 528 00:25:30,695 --> 00:25:33,498 Where you’re comfortable? Let's tweak it. Is that too much? 529 00:25:33,498 --> 00:25:34,833 Okay, let's go back down. 530 00:25:34,833 --> 00:25:36,067 Let's have you wear it there. 531 00:25:36,067 --> 00:25:37,702 Get used to that. 532 00:25:37,702 --> 00:25:41,206 And then as you acclimate, then I'll bump you a little bit next time 533 00:25:41,206 --> 00:25:42,807 instead of just taking this huge jump. 534 00:25:42,807 --> 00:25:43,975 You just can't tolerate it. 535 00:25:43,975 --> 00:25:49,047 Yeah, I feel so much better after walking out of our visit. 536 00:25:49,047 --> 00:25:54,219 After the tweaking that you did compared to the four and five visits that I had had 537 00:25:54,219 --> 00:25:58,890 that I was still in, in my opinion, la la land, was that so? 538 00:25:58,890 --> 00:25:59,958 It really, 539 00:26:01,560 --> 00:26:04,563 you know, puts the emphasis on, 540 00:26:04,729 --> 00:26:08,500 and I got it in the title of your business “Focus Hearing”. 541 00:26:08,533 --> 00:26:11,269 I mean, you know, it's perfectly said. 542 00:26:11,269 --> 00:26:12,671 We’re going to have to use that line somewhere, Len. 543 00:26:12,671 --> 00:26:15,674 It's really pretty good. 544 00:26:15,941 --> 00:26:18,944 You know, it's funny because, you know, 545 00:26:20,011 --> 00:26:21,179 customer service. 546 00:26:21,179 --> 00:26:26,484 I say, in this country, the word service has gone out of customer service. 547 00:26:26,518 --> 00:26:28,219 I'll give you another example. 548 00:26:28,219 --> 00:26:30,255 I have, a sleep apnea machine. 549 00:26:30,255 --> 00:26:31,656 I have one that I travel with. 550 00:26:31,656 --> 00:26:33,959 I travel if I don't travel with it on vacation, 551 00:26:33,959 --> 00:26:36,328 you know, Laurie spends most of the nights awake. 552 00:26:36,328 --> 00:26:37,963 So obviously I travel with it. 553 00:26:37,963 --> 00:26:39,631 I needed a new mask. 554 00:26:39,631 --> 00:26:41,433 I reached out to the company. 555 00:26:41,433 --> 00:26:44,069 You can only do it online. 556 00:26:44,069 --> 00:26:47,105 Made eight phone calls in two days. 557 00:26:47,439 --> 00:26:51,276 Spent over three hours trying to get something done. 558 00:26:51,776 --> 00:26:54,212 Finally the people were nice enough. 559 00:26:54,212 --> 00:26:58,617 Finally the owner of the company called me back, was responsive, got it done. 560 00:26:58,850 --> 00:27:01,853 But my point in telling that story is 561 00:27:01,953 --> 00:27:05,523 there's no damn service in customer service and you can go spend. 562 00:27:05,857 --> 00:27:08,793 He spent the same amount of money I did these these hearing aids, 563 00:27:08,793 --> 00:27:12,797 although I got a nice discount because I'm I have Blue Cross and Blue Shield 564 00:27:12,964 --> 00:27:16,101 and they have Blue 365 with discount programs. 565 00:27:16,101 --> 00:27:20,271 And by the way, they take all the insurance products Medicare Advantage. 566 00:27:20,438 --> 00:27:25,276 If you have an allocation on your Medicare Advantage plan, they take it. 567 00:27:25,276 --> 00:27:29,247 And also they accept the discounts from Blue Cross and other carriers 568 00:27:29,447 --> 00:27:30,915 to to reduce the cost. 569 00:27:30,915 --> 00:27:32,851 But it was the same thing. 570 00:27:32,851 --> 00:27:33,885 But they weren't working 571 00:27:34,953 --> 00:27:36,621 and I was pulling my hair out. 572 00:27:36,621 --> 00:27:38,223 Same thing as Len. Okay. 573 00:27:38,223 --> 00:27:41,559 So to me, that customer service piece, that's 574 00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:45,830 if that's not as important, maybe it's more important for me. 575 00:27:45,830 --> 00:27:47,899 I would wholeheartedly agree with that. 576 00:27:47,899 --> 00:27:50,902 Hearing aids, especially with Bluetooth, 577 00:27:51,903 --> 00:27:55,840 connectivity, the streaming, there are things that are going to come up 578 00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:59,277 and it's it's just a service based product. 579 00:27:59,310 --> 00:28:01,746 It's not like I'm just going to fit you with the hearing aid. Oh good luck. 580 00:28:01,746 --> 00:28:04,549 I'll see you in a couple of years. You know, you need cleaning. 581 00:28:04,549 --> 00:28:05,350 You need support. 582 00:28:05,350 --> 00:28:06,484 You need Bluetooth support. 583 00:28:06,484 --> 00:28:08,553 You need all those little things. 584 00:28:08,553 --> 00:28:10,255 I don't want you waiting two weeks. 585 00:28:10,255 --> 00:28:12,257 I can't do it To see me. Well, that's what I was saying before.. 586 00:28:12,257 --> 00:28:14,492 If that's something that my tech's up front can just. 587 00:28:14,492 --> 00:28:15,660 Oh my gosh. 588 00:28:15,660 --> 00:28:17,696 Yeah. You're, da da da, 10 seconds later, you're on your way. 589 00:28:18,663 --> 00:28:20,098 And that's what we're very passionate about. 590 00:28:20,098 --> 00:28:22,600 And I know we have our set walk in hours between 10 and 3. 591 00:28:22,600 --> 00:28:25,603 And that's just because we feel it's very important to staff enough 592 00:28:26,171 --> 00:28:28,206 to handle the traffic. 593 00:28:28,206 --> 00:28:31,176 Yeah, but the point is, and Len, I think you’ll agree. 594 00:28:31,176 --> 00:28:35,313 I could never get into the other, you know, I had to make it. 595 00:28:35,313 --> 00:28:37,682 I couldn't walk in. Oh, there open at 10. 596 00:28:37,682 --> 00:28:41,519 I'm going to be there at 10:15, walk in, get my problem solved 15 minutes later 597 00:28:41,553 --> 00:28:42,687 out the door and I'm done. 598 00:28:42,687 --> 00:28:43,054 Okay. 599 00:28:43,054 --> 00:28:46,758 That to me was an enormous difference that you have walk 600 00:28:46,758 --> 00:28:49,861 in, you can walk in, you can get service in, you walk out. 601 00:28:49,861 --> 00:28:52,831 Yeah. You can make an appointment if you need an evaluation, whatever. 602 00:28:52,831 --> 00:28:55,867 But the fact that you've got that and that those girls up front 603 00:28:56,101 --> 00:29:00,071 know how to do all of that stuff to fix these things, adjust these things. 604 00:29:00,071 --> 00:29:03,074 To me, that's half the battle. 605 00:29:03,241 --> 00:29:04,976 I know you can. You can have the damn equitment. Right? 606 00:29:04,976 --> 00:29:08,046 But if you don't know how to make it work, it doesn't do you a lot of good, right? 607 00:29:08,046 --> 00:29:10,181 Or you leave on vacation and your hearing aid just died. Yeah. 608 00:29:10,181 --> 00:29:12,150 And you need a new wire. Yeah. 609 00:29:12,150 --> 00:29:13,151 You can't get it for two weeks. 610 00:29:13,151 --> 00:29:17,355 It's it's an amazing thing because the equipment is the same across 611 00:29:17,355 --> 00:29:18,990 every company you're going to do. 612 00:29:18,990 --> 00:29:20,792 I mean, there's little differences here and there differences. 613 00:29:20,792 --> 00:29:22,627 The difference is the service. 614 00:29:22,627 --> 00:29:25,063 The difference is the service. And that’s what I’m so excited about. 615 00:29:25,063 --> 00:29:26,464 You heard it from Len. 616 00:29:26,464 --> 00:29:28,700 And that's absolutely correct. And that's it. 617 00:29:28,700 --> 00:29:30,301 The difference is the service. 618 00:29:30,301 --> 00:29:36,207 And so if you want that service (913) 754-2144 you've got a set of hearing aids. 619 00:29:36,207 --> 00:29:39,210 They're not working. Go in and talk to them. 620 00:29:39,511 --> 00:29:42,046 They'll help you fix it. If you need new ones. 621 00:29:42,046 --> 00:29:44,783 They'll tell you that if you don't Len didn't need new ones. 622 00:29:44,783 --> 00:29:46,684 He needed the ones he had fixed. 623 00:29:46,684 --> 00:29:47,685 Go in and see them. 624 00:29:47,685 --> 00:29:48,586 They're happy to do it. 625 00:29:48,586 --> 00:29:49,888 Or the website. 626 00:29:49,888 --> 00:29:53,124 MyFocusHearing.com. MyFocusHearing.com. 627 00:29:53,124 --> 00:29:53,792 Stay tuned. 628 00:29:53,792 --> 00:29:54,526 We're right back. 629 00:29:54,526 --> 00:29:58,163 After the break we're going to bring Dave Thiessen out from behind the cameras. 630 00:29:58,163 --> 00:29:59,164 Get ready for this. 631 00:30:05,970 --> 00:30:06,704 Welcome back. 632 00:30:06,704 --> 00:30:10,775 You're listening to America's Healthcare Advocate show broadcasting coast to coast 633 00:30:10,775 --> 00:30:14,012 across the USA here on the HIA Radio Network. 634 00:30:14,012 --> 00:30:16,781 Once again, we're on all those podcast platforms. 635 00:30:16,781 --> 00:30:18,583 We're up on our own YouTube platform. 636 00:30:18,583 --> 00:30:20,451 You want to tell somebody about this show? 637 00:30:20,451 --> 00:30:21,319 Maybe it's a spouse. 638 00:30:21,319 --> 00:30:23,388 Maybe, hey, maybe it's your grandfather 639 00:30:23,388 --> 00:30:26,791 or your father or your uncle, you know, have them go listen to it. 640 00:30:26,925 --> 00:30:28,593 They'll learn why they need 641 00:30:28,593 --> 00:30:32,530 to do something about this before it gets to be significantly worse. 642 00:30:32,730 --> 00:30:36,968 It's the folks are at Focus Hearing, and they really do a wonderful job. 643 00:30:36,968 --> 00:30:39,504 Shannon Schneller is the CEO, the president, the founder. 644 00:30:39,504 --> 00:30:41,239 She's sitting here in studio with me. 645 00:30:41,239 --> 00:30:45,243 The phone number there is (913) 754 2144, 646 00:30:45,243 --> 00:30:49,547 (913) 754-2144 for the website. 647 00:30:49,547 --> 00:30:52,550 MyFocusHearing.com. There the best in town. 648 00:30:52,550 --> 00:30:54,085 I know because I use them. 649 00:30:54,085 --> 00:30:56,120 All right Dave. We actually got him out. 650 00:30:56,120 --> 00:31:00,325 So to the whole lot this is Dave and you've never seen him before. 651 00:31:00,692 --> 00:31:01,893 No you have not. 652 00:31:01,893 --> 00:31:02,961 There you go. See. 653 00:31:02,961 --> 00:31:06,531 And so Dave you went in for an evaluation. 654 00:31:06,531 --> 00:31:08,733 What was your experience like. 655 00:31:08,733 --> 00:31:10,768 What did you think of what you experienced? 656 00:31:10,768 --> 00:31:13,771 Well, first of all, I don't always listen to your show 657 00:31:13,771 --> 00:31:15,640 while I'm recording your show. 658 00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:20,011 But once I listen back, I hear all the details and I edit the sound. 659 00:31:20,411 --> 00:31:22,814 And, you know, I'd been noticing some issues. 660 00:31:22,814 --> 00:31:25,216 So it was like, well, I'm, I'm going to go in. 661 00:31:25,216 --> 00:31:27,352 And finally, you know, there's a connection. 662 00:31:27,352 --> 00:31:31,022 There's somebody that I think I can believe in what they say. 663 00:31:31,022 --> 00:31:35,193 And they're not just, you know, selling some sort of 1940s technology. 664 00:31:35,660 --> 00:31:37,829 And I kind of have a high standard, I think, 665 00:31:37,829 --> 00:31:40,632 I mean, I've been in the audio business for a long time. 666 00:31:40,632 --> 00:31:43,268 But even before video. So coming in, 667 00:31:44,335 --> 00:31:46,604 it was a pleasant experience. 668 00:31:46,604 --> 00:31:49,207 You've got a very nice staff. 669 00:31:49,207 --> 00:31:52,210 I immediately felt 670 00:31:52,844 --> 00:31:57,081 once talking to you that you understood what I was talking about 671 00:31:57,081 --> 00:32:00,618 and what I would need, and we went in for the test in the actual booth. 672 00:32:02,220 --> 00:32:03,988 And I know what an acoustically, 673 00:32:03,988 --> 00:32:06,991 you know, quiet booth sounds like and, that did. 674 00:32:08,192 --> 00:32:11,162 And kind of understanding that what you put everybody through 675 00:32:11,162 --> 00:32:12,630 is fascinating to me. 676 00:32:12,630 --> 00:32:16,034 But I see why you're successful 677 00:32:16,234 --> 00:32:18,469 because you were very thorough and how you went through it. 678 00:32:18,469 --> 00:32:21,572 You listened, you understood what I was talking about, 679 00:32:21,673 --> 00:32:24,676 and then you know about all of the different 680 00:32:24,742 --> 00:32:28,046 possibilities and options, insurance plans and whatnot. 681 00:32:28,046 --> 00:32:31,049 So it was a wonderful experience. 682 00:32:31,282 --> 00:32:32,984 I think that 683 00:32:32,984 --> 00:32:34,352 I'm ready to make that decision. 684 00:32:34,352 --> 00:32:36,054 I still haven’t pulled the trigger on it. 685 00:32:36,054 --> 00:32:40,224 And when I do, Cary's going to be mad at me because I'll be able to run 686 00:32:40,224 --> 00:32:44,462 all of the gear really fast and on my phone. 687 00:32:44,462 --> 00:32:46,764 And, Cary did you know it could do this? 688 00:32:46,764 --> 00:32:48,766 How long have you been doing radio? 689 00:32:48,766 --> 00:32:51,903 And I'm trying to do here's create a perspective of people. 690 00:32:52,870 --> 00:32:55,606 Dave listens to things a lot different than you and I do 691 00:32:55,606 --> 00:32:59,310 because he produces all of these shows he and Garner together 692 00:33:00,311 --> 00:33:05,216 produce all these shows and understanding the levels, how they sound, everything. 693 00:33:05,416 --> 00:33:06,351 How long you've been doing this? 694 00:33:06,351 --> 00:33:09,354 At 14, I was a DJ. 695 00:33:09,954 --> 00:33:13,891 I worked continuously in radio for 35 years. 696 00:33:14,292 --> 00:33:19,831 And during that time I’ve mixed, many commercials for radio, even national ones. 697 00:33:19,831 --> 00:33:23,401 And then I've done, audio for film. 698 00:33:23,568 --> 00:33:27,405 I mean, I've always been able to listen through deeper 699 00:33:27,772 --> 00:33:29,941 into music mixes and that sort of thing. 700 00:33:29,941 --> 00:33:35,480 So when I started noticing issues, it was like, oh, this is bad, 701 00:33:35,847 --> 00:33:38,583 and I don't think I will be anywhere 702 00:33:38,583 --> 00:33:41,886 near satisfied unless I think I'm getting. 703 00:33:42,286 --> 00:33:44,655 I mean, I already know what it's supposed to sound like. 704 00:33:44,655 --> 00:33:47,692 A lot of people really don't pay attention to that, but I do. 705 00:33:47,692 --> 00:33:52,163 I know that the timbre, I know the various, depths of sound 706 00:33:52,163 --> 00:33:55,166 and placement of where voices are and that stuff is 707 00:33:55,366 --> 00:33:58,569 it's always been aware to me much deeper than the average person. 708 00:33:58,569 --> 00:34:03,508 So, I'm kind of, you know, thinking that I want something is going 709 00:34:03,508 --> 00:34:07,412 to solve as many of those problems as, as possible as it can do. 710 00:34:07,645 --> 00:34:09,781 I just, I just remember you coming in and, 711 00:34:11,549 --> 00:34:13,217 our conversation, I could tell. 712 00:34:13,217 --> 00:34:17,121 And I just hope everyone understands that I'm not just. 713 00:34:17,255 --> 00:34:19,023 I'm not a pressure person. 714 00:34:19,023 --> 00:34:20,792 Like, this is where we're at. 715 00:34:20,792 --> 00:34:23,161 You're telling me what issues you're noticing. 716 00:34:23,161 --> 00:34:26,831 They probably all correlate to where you're hearing loss is, 717 00:34:28,666 --> 00:34:30,968 you know, tell me about the impact that has. 718 00:34:30,968 --> 00:34:32,770 Are you ready? 719 00:34:32,770 --> 00:34:34,972 And if you're not, we have that conversation too. 720 00:34:34,972 --> 00:34:38,643 Yes. There are risks to not proceeding, but I'm not going to beat you down. 721 00:34:39,143 --> 00:34:41,712 You know, a reluctant patient doesn't make a good patient. 722 00:34:41,712 --> 00:34:42,680 So, I. 723 00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:46,250 Remember the first show you did with us, like, a year or two back. 724 00:34:47,752 --> 00:34:50,755 And some of the things you were saying at that time, 725 00:34:50,888 --> 00:34:52,790 I was thinking to myself, 726 00:34:52,790 --> 00:34:57,061 when I'm facing forward, if my wife turns her head and faces back, 727 00:34:57,061 --> 00:35:00,264 I can't hear a word she says, and she thinks I'm ignoring her. 728 00:35:00,298 --> 00:35:00,865 Of course. 729 00:35:00,865 --> 00:35:02,967 And you had pretty much laid that out. 730 00:35:02,967 --> 00:35:05,837 And I'm like, wow, that's validation for what's going on. 731 00:35:05,837 --> 00:35:08,072 So very helpful in that area. 732 00:35:08,072 --> 00:35:09,907 You know just the practical 733 00:35:09,907 --> 00:35:13,044 condition that you're in when you've got a hearing issue. 734 00:35:13,311 --> 00:35:14,679 You're in the sound and mixing. 735 00:35:14,679 --> 00:35:19,183 So when I have a patient, you give me what their issues are in my mind. 736 00:35:19,183 --> 00:35:21,185 I can usually tell what we're going to be dealing with 737 00:35:21,185 --> 00:35:23,087 just because I know where all those sounds occur. 738 00:35:23,087 --> 00:35:24,255 Yeah. Similar to you. 739 00:35:24,255 --> 00:35:26,891 And I had family members that my wife's 740 00:35:27,892 --> 00:35:28,392 got many 741 00:35:28,392 --> 00:35:31,395 aunts, uncles and her mother, they're in their 80s 742 00:35:31,496 --> 00:35:35,666 and they're all in different places, but they've all got some issue to deal with. 743 00:35:35,666 --> 00:35:39,170 And you hear it from that side of it. 744 00:35:39,170 --> 00:35:40,738 And they don't have a good experience. 745 00:35:40,738 --> 00:35:43,040 They don't live here locally, 746 00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:45,743 but they don't have a good experience finding the right solution. 747 00:35:45,743 --> 00:35:49,680 They have many complaints about devices, about people in that situation. 748 00:35:49,847 --> 00:35:51,949 Firts of all they bought them off television, some of them pretty much okay. 749 00:35:51,949 --> 00:35:53,351 And that's that's one of the dumbest. 750 00:35:53,351 --> 00:35:56,354 I'm sorry, folks, that's one of the dumbest damn things you can do. 751 00:35:56,387 --> 00:35:58,256 I tell you the same thing about Medicare. 752 00:35:58,256 --> 00:35:59,290 I'll tell you the same thing 753 00:35:59,290 --> 00:36:03,194 about these about hearing devices at that one size does not fit all. 754 00:36:03,361 --> 00:36:06,664 And you've heard two examples of that today and I'm the 3rd example. 755 00:36:06,697 --> 00:36:11,302 Am I right now that you can't get a size 44 overcoat to fit everybody? 756 00:36:11,435 --> 00:36:12,837 Okay. It's just that simple. 757 00:36:12,837 --> 00:36:15,840 And these things are tailored to the individual. 758 00:36:16,340 --> 00:36:18,643 Dave’s got a much different sense of what hearing 759 00:36:18,643 --> 00:36:21,646 should be then what Len had, than what I had. 760 00:36:21,879 --> 00:36:27,652 All of us went to Shannon, she recognizes each of us as different, and each of us 761 00:36:27,652 --> 00:36:30,788 is being treated differently, and that is what's important. 762 00:36:30,888 --> 00:36:34,825 Well, behind what I do, you have to balance the science and the art. Yes. 763 00:36:34,825 --> 00:36:37,195 You have you hearing loss, is where we're at, these are our targets. 764 00:36:37,195 --> 00:36:38,996 This is where I want you to be. 765 00:36:38,996 --> 00:36:41,699 But, can you walk around every day wearing it like that. 766 00:36:41,699 --> 00:36:44,702 Probably not the first 30 to 60 days. 767 00:36:44,802 --> 00:36:46,170 I'm just not going to do that to you. 768 00:36:46,170 --> 00:36:48,206 I want you to be successful in the long term, 769 00:36:48,206 --> 00:36:51,142 and that's going to be comfort while you adjust. 770 00:36:51,142 --> 00:36:52,977 And everybody's pace is different. 771 00:36:52,977 --> 00:36:56,180 But I just want to keep maximizing as we can as you tolerate. 772 00:36:56,180 --> 00:36:57,782 And everybody is very different. 773 00:36:57,782 --> 00:36:59,250 It's just like when you're watching TV, 774 00:36:59,250 --> 00:37:01,452 some people just really play with the volume a lot, 775 00:37:01,452 --> 00:37:03,688 and some people just sit there and watch it. 776 00:37:03,688 --> 00:37:07,458 And so it's part of what I do is just listen to the patient. 777 00:37:07,458 --> 00:37:09,193 They'll tell you what they need. Yeah. 778 00:37:09,193 --> 00:37:11,095 So we run these shows nationally 779 00:37:11,095 --> 00:37:14,532 and I run Shannon’s shows nationally, even though she's here in Overland Park. 780 00:37:14,532 --> 00:37:17,802 The reason I do that is because she educates people. 781 00:37:18,102 --> 00:37:21,105 You listen to what she's saying, she's educating you. 782 00:37:21,305 --> 00:37:22,440 What I'm going to say to you 783 00:37:22,440 --> 00:37:26,244 if you're not here in the KC Metro, if you're in Lawrence or you're in Topeka 784 00:37:26,244 --> 00:37:30,214 or whatever, take the time and drive down here, go see them, okay? 785 00:37:30,214 --> 00:37:33,918 And and get the proper care you need rather than spinning your wheels 786 00:37:33,918 --> 00:37:35,586 doing something. It's not going to work. 787 00:37:35,586 --> 00:37:39,223 But if you know you're listening to us, you know, whether Bedford, Pennsylvania, 788 00:37:39,223 --> 00:37:42,693 or you're in Alaska or you're in Redlands, California, 789 00:37:42,960 --> 00:37:46,497 find a local, provider that does this. 790 00:37:46,497 --> 00:37:49,500 Look and find out what they're all about, okay? 791 00:37:49,734 --> 00:37:53,671 And do not use these conglom-o franchise outfits. 792 00:37:53,671 --> 00:37:55,273 You heard Len say it. 793 00:37:55,273 --> 00:37:57,775 It's like a factory. You're in there and you're out of there. 794 00:37:57,775 --> 00:37:59,076 You're in there and you're out of there. 795 00:37:59,076 --> 00:38:01,779 And then when you try to get help, you can't get the help. 796 00:38:01,779 --> 00:38:03,481 And that's half the battle right there. 797 00:38:03,481 --> 00:38:05,049 So it's critically important. 798 00:38:05,049 --> 00:38:07,318 Thank you for coming in here again and doing this. 799 00:38:07,318 --> 00:38:08,953 You did a great job. Once again. 800 00:38:08,953 --> 00:38:12,923 If you want their phone number is (913) 801 00:38:13,224 --> 00:38:16,227 754 2144. 802 00:38:16,427 --> 00:38:19,297 The website myfocushearing.com. 803 00:38:19,297 --> 00:38:22,300 And now I leave you with this thought from Albert Einstein, 804 00:38:22,333 --> 00:38:25,569 the one who follows the crowd, they usually get no further than the crowd. 805 00:38:25,803 --> 00:38:30,241 The one who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been. 806 00:38:30,574 --> 00:38:32,777 Remember, friends, it's a funny thing about life. 807 00:38:32,777 --> 00:38:37,214 If you refuse to accept anything but the very best, you most often get it. 808 00:38:37,481 --> 00:38:40,451 Thank you for listening to America's Healthcare Advocate Show. 809 00:38:40,451 --> 00:38:43,454 Broadcasting coast to coast across the USA. 810 00:38:43,688 --> 00:38:45,089 Goodbye America.