Vet Shona Maguire has never let hearing loss hold her back

Between spring calving, C-sections and lambing, it’s all go for vet, Shona Maguire these days.

And she does not let anything stand in her way when it comes to getting the job done – least of all that she has to wear hearing aids because of hearing loss in both ears due to a congenital condition.

“Most people don’t realise I have hearing aids until I take them out to use my stethoscope,” she says.

Shona, who practices with Barrowvale Veterinary Clinic in Co Carlow but is originally from Swords in north Dublin, was 18-months-old when she was diagnosed with congenital cholesteatoma: a benign over-growth of tissue, which left her with 55% hearing loss.

“It wasn’t discovered until I was a toddler and the damage was done at that stage because it got so big it crushed all the normal structures in the middle ear,” says Shona, who has had over 20 surgeries for the condition to date.

Although she received speech therapy and got hearing aids through the public health system before starting school, she still struggled.

“In the early days, hearing aids were pretty much just microphones because they amplified everything, so they really weren’t particularly great,” she explains.

“It was very hard to cope with background noise and amplified noise, so if we were watching a video in class or anything, I’d really struggle. And for doing my aural exams, I had someone reading me the tape script rather than listening to a tape recorder because I knew I’d really find that hard, particularly if I was in a hall with everybody else moving and rustling. I just knew I wouldn’t pick anything up.

Education

“Even when I started secondary school, that was around the time that everyone was getting mobiles and I could hear the signals in my hearing aid… it was just really, really annoying.”

Not that Shona let it hold her back, going on to study veterinary in UCD and even undergoing major surgery in her final year. Indeed, apart from her academic achievements, she has also competed in mixed martial arts, has a black belt in judo, is a competent horse rider and also plays the piano.

However, her life changed for the better three years ago when she made the switch to digital hearing aids after going for a consultation with Hidden Hearing, as she was no longer entitled to support on the public system after leaving college.

“It was only once I went private that I got all these options of different types of hearing aids and the more modern technology,” says Shona.

“I remember coming out after I got the new hearing aids and I turned on my car and it’s like ‘oh God, what’s wrong with my car?’ – the noise was so different from what I’d heard before. I went to the beach not long after and I kept jumping away from the tide crashing on the beach because I’d never heard that before.”

Shona also saw the benefit in terms of her professional life as a vet.

“In particular when I’m doing C sections, obviously you’re going to have your back to the farmer because you’re practically inside the cow, so having a conversation with somebody standing behind me with my old hearing aids just wouldn’t have been possible. I just wouldn’t have picked up anything they were saying,” she explains.“Whereas now, I have complete confidence that I know what they’re saying. I’m not just there going: ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’ And then worrying about what I’m agreeing to.”

Indeed, the benefits go far beyond even hearing as, looking back, Shona sees how she had started to isolate herself.

“You’d be trying so hard during the day to pick up what people are saying – even with the older hearing aids – that you were knackered by the time you got home. I’d go home and stick on the TV with subtitles on because I was too tired to concentrate that hard to actually watch TV, if you know what I mean. I certainly wasn’t in the mood to go and struggle again in the pub,” she explains.

“You don’t realise until you have hearing aids and you have proper hearing again, how much it was actually affecting you and isolating you.”

Indeed, as she is immersed in the farming community through her work, Shona sees how hearing loss affects so many people and would encourage anybody who is concerned to get checked out.

“It’s 20 minutes out of your day – it’s well worth getting checked,” she says. “I don’t think you realise how much it’s affecting you until you get it fixed.”

As part of Hearing Awareness Week from 6-10 March, Hidden Hearing, in partnership with Active Retirement Ireland, is offering a range of free health checks, including blood pressure, blood sugar, ear wax removal, foot examinations and hearing tests, in Dooley’s Hotel, Waterford City, on Thursday 9 March and in The Strand Hotel, Limerick, on Friday 10 March from 10am - 4pm.

Listen to "What do to if you're suffering from hearing loss" on Spreaker.