How Gloria Found Her Way Back to the Conversation with Fortell

Gloria is a woman of words. Between her background in research and her work writing for three different Substack publications, her life is defined by communication. But for years, despite building a career built on inquiry, Gloria found herself facing a problem she couldn’t solve: a genetic hearing disorder that was slowly turning her world silent.

"I was a non-participant in 97% of everything that went on around me," Gloria recalls. "People knew that if they wanted to talk to me, they had to email or text. Even at the dinner table or in the family room, I was the quiet person. I was so isolated from the conversation."

Avoiding the empty promises of hearing tech

Gloria’s opinion of hearing aids wasn't positive. She had visited specialists from Dallas to Los Angeles, only to be told that while hearing aids might help "some," for her genetic hearing loss, they likely wouldn't solve the core of her struggle. 

Meanwhile, several of her friends had struggled with hearing aids. One friend even went through eight different sets of hearing aids trying to find a solution. 

When she heard about Fortell, she was skeptical. "Disbelief is rampant in my world," Gloria said. "Everyone is trying to sell you something and tell you it’s the best. You hear 'life-changing' in ads so often you become numb to it.” 

It was a friend who finally convinced Gloria to visit the Fortell office during a holiday trip to New York City with her wife, Crystal. “I went into my first appointment at Fortell hoping for the best, but honestly, I was expecting the worst,” she said. 

"The minute I put them in, I started to cry," she said. "It was like being in a room that was totally silent, and then suddenly, the world was just... open to me."

Finding Fortell, and the return to sound

The skepticism Gloria felt vanished the moment she was fitted with her hearing aids. "The minute I put them in, I started to cry," she said. "It was like being in a room that was totally silent, and then suddenly, the world was just... open to me."

After 22 years of navigating the world through lip-reading and guesswork, Gloria felt in control. “I had to adjust to the fact that I could actually hear people. I don’t even know how to verbalize that change,” Gloria said. 

One of her biggest joys now is attending the theater. Before, she couldn’t follow the plot of a play or musical due to her inability to read the actors’ lips from afar. “Now I can understand everything. It’s a miracle,” she said. 

“I can’t stress enough how much it changed my life. I’m finally a participant again.”

Rediscovering the joys of a noisy home

Back home in Las Vegas, the change has transformed the sanctuary Gloria shares with her wife and their many animals. The woman who used to require people to look directly at her just to understand a sentence can now hear Crystal calling to her from another room and even the cats meowing nearby. It’s a small but profound aspect of her new reality.

“I can’t stress enough how much it changed my life. I’m finally a participant again.”

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