Hello

My name is Edward, and I’m a teacher for a local school, working with teaching Math to students. I have a wife and 3 children that I enjoy very much.

I was born with a bilateral high-frequency hearing loss. I have adapted throughout my life to be able to hear what people are saying through lip reading and talking face to face. I’m able to hear the deep sounds and some mid-tones in conversation. For example, I can’t hear whispers and being in the classroom, it can be a struggle for me. For context, I have included my audiogram, and you can see how the level goes down after 1200 hertz. Humans can typically hear up to 18,000 hertz, but human speech is typically 500 - 6000 hertz.

I have been fortunate to be able to obtain insurance through Blue Cross Blue Shield from my previous employer to help pay for a pair of hearing aids. However, the allowance given by the insurance was at $3200, and I was only able to obtain a general tier 1 pair of hearing aids that provide a basic function to assist my hearing. The reason for asking for funds on GoFundMe is to be able to upgrade to a higher tier set of hearing aids.

I have recently been able to try a trial pair that is by the Resound brand that has been tremendously successful in helping me hear the sounds. However, these hearing aids have an upcharge of $1000 for a mid tier aid and $2000 for the top tier with AI intelligence in them to block background noise, separate speech from multiple conversations and more.

I have been told I have 60 days to upgrade my hearing aids if I choose. This puts the date to upgrade at April 2, 2025.

I want to thank anyone that shares this story and decides to donate. You can donate as much as $10 which can help me. Thank you for reading my story.