[mrs bouquet]

Difficult -  this was a gaff I made the other day.   I had some carpet sliper delivered and they were too small.
Rather than send them back, I rang the nearest shop and spoke to a helpful lady who said her name was Beverley, which I repeated.     A few days later I went in the shop and asked a man (the manager) if Beverley was there.  He replied that there was nobody working there by that name.   I came out puzzled and spent the night wondering where I had rung and who I had spoken to.     The next morning I looked back in my diary and found the number I had rung.   I dialled and got the man again.    Oh, he said we have got a lady called Emily!
So if you say Beverley and Emily to yourself and imagine on a 'phone with shop back ground noise .....
..... It is difficult, and generally we are regarded with no respect and treated like silly old morons.  Mrs Bouquet

[grinling]

I find it impossible when people talk to me behind  a screen with others talking nearby. Tinnitus has a lot to answer for and the last few years have been louder.

[Blewit]

Likewise Grinling, decreased hearing coupled with tinnitus doesn't make it easy, especially when there's background noise.
Mrs b I find it helps to an extent if I remind myself that some folk naively have sympathy for the blind but contempt for the deaf.

[mrs bouquet]

I have a plastic sign on my bag which states that I am profoundly deaf, and if they are behind screens, masks or whatever, I simple cannot hear them, I lift my bag and show the sign.   They mostly become quite helpful then.  I ask them not to shout or mumble and speak slowly.  (have you notice how many folk mumble)
Tinnitus is bad and all these clever specialists haven't got a cure.  My deafness has been caused by Menierres Disease.  Each time you have a "drop attack" some of the hearing goes with it.   I have had it progressing since I was 36.  My Dad had it as well.    I am truly sorry for you.  We shall have to have our own little Deafness Club, where we can have a moan, rant or whatever.