Kia ora to all new and existing customers of Hobsonville Hearing! We are excited to bring you our Winter Newsletter for 2022. It has been a busy few months here at Hobsonville Hearing, filled with consultations, content creation, presentations and, of course, lots of wax removal! This newsletter includes the following:

• Shining the spotlight on our patients - Mel Nicholson
• Our student audiologist, Advaita
• Joining the Independent Audiologists New Zealand (IANZ)
• Our Hobsonville Probus Presentation
• Still the top-rated audiology clinic in Auckland

With each newsletter we hope to bring you a different patient perspective on their experience at Hobsonville Hearing. This month we have the pleasure of introducing Melanie Nicholson, a local midwife, wife and mother who tells us about her experience with hearing impairment.

Mel Nicholson

Tell us about yourself:

My name is Mel and I am a midwife, mum of two adult sons and a gorgeous fur baby called Ruby. I love socialising, attending concerts and spending time with my family.

Tell us about your hearing loss and when you first noticed it:

I noticed a decline in my hearing in my 20’s, initially it was slow loss over time so I think I managed to ignore for quite a substantial period of time. 

Prior to getting hearing aids, how did your hearing loss impact your life?

I struggled in social settings, unable to hear conversations properly. Initially, it was slightly funny when I misheard things! Then I started to need subtitles for all tv shows, which was disappointing if there was a show that didn’t have subtitles. I would often miss critical parts of a show’s storyline. The biggest impact for my hearing was when I was in environments with competing sounds (restaurants, social settings, family home).

At what point did you realise you needed to do something about your hearing?

As a health care professional, it is very important to me that I didn’t let my hearing impairment impact on my ability to provide safe care. When the pandemic hit, and everyone started wearing face masks, it was then I realised how much I had been lip reading. My family were struggling with the increased volume I needed the TV on to be able to hear properly as well.

Did you do any research about hearing solutions before coming to Hobsonville Hearing?

Yes, I did – I knew that I needed to have something that would suit my work environment. Over ear (replace with whatever the correct term is haha) hearing aids weren’t an option for me due to the amount of mask changes I was doing with PPE each day. I also knew that I wanted to support a local small business and have individualised treatment. 

Tell us about your hearing aid journey and how it has impacted your day-to-day life:

Initially it was quite a shock to hear new sounds, and the adjustment took a wee while. I remember emailing Abby and telling her I could hear the indicator noise on my car for the first time in a decade. Hearing my own footsteps was also a big surprise to me! Being able to confidently hold a conversation without asking people to repeat themselves is such a wonderful part of my hearing aid journey. Abby patiently worked with me throughout my journey and I am so grateful for her expertise and care. I was nervous to be navigating the hearing aid process and she made it as seamless as possible. The ability to hear again clearly has been such a gift!

We were fortunate enough to have our first student audiologist with us in the clinic for the last two months. Advaita, a second year Master of Audiology student at the University of Auckland, has been a valuable asset to the clinic, supporting Abby during her recovery from major shoulder surgery in April. She has been a wonderful addition to the clinic and we wish her all the best with her studies!

Abby has recently become member of the Independent Audiologists New Zealand (IANZ). The IANZ is a nationwide network of independent audiologists whose focus is to provide transparent and personalised care. At Hobsonville Hearing, we take great pride in providing our customers with high quality, professional and patient-centred care. Our goal is to keep the entire process - from fitting to finalising - completely transparent, and to build trusted and long-standing relationships with our customers. We recognise and understand every person is unique and may require a different approach to their appointment, which allows us to change the way we operate to ensure you feel comfortable from the moment you walk into our clinic.

On the 16th of May, Abby was invited to present at the weekly Hobsonville Probus meeting, down the road at the Hobsonville Bowling Club. It was a great opportunity to meet people from our community and introduce Hobsonville Hearing as a local audiology provider. The presentation allowed Abby to share her career journey, talk about the establishment of  the business, and explain the importance of hearing and healthy ageing. Abby's presentation was entertaining, interactive, and received, encouraging some new faces into the clinic. As you can see, Abby was pretty stoked that Probus mascot, JR, attended the presentation!

We still proudly hold the title of Auckland's top rated Audiology clinic on Google, now with over 250 reviews! As a small business, reviews are a big part of why customers choose our clinic! We work hard to keep our customers happy and get so excited when reviews come through. If you have not had the chance to leave a review for us, please consider doing so using this link: https://g.page/r/CdJa297NENoyEAg/review

As always, we are here to help you with all of your ear-related needs:

Visit our website at www.hobsonvillehearing.co.nz

Email us on [email protected]

Call us on 09-930-9880

Or visit our clinic during opening hours 8:30am - 5pm Monday to Friday,

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