Thanks so much for this.  We have a lot in common.  
You didn't mention lip-reading; I became a master.  Like millions of others.
Started wearing hearing aids about 2001, at age 57.  Still do, of course.  I watch TV with subtitles.  If I pop in a DVD and there is no subtitle option under Set Up, I know I am in for a challenging time.  I can’t just turn up the volume...live in a townhouse, the neighbours...etc. 

Music is still great--with hearing aids out. They distort.  Use headphones --hear everything --but  I can’t share the music with my wife.  Can’t have music softly wafting through the room at dinnertime.  I can’t hear it, or, at levels so low it becomes an irritant to me, like loud music is for others.

Conversations with little grandchildren...dead loss.  I show them the hearing aids, so they understand.  Conversations with high pitched, fast-talking young females...close to dead loss.  

And some days I repeat this mantra: I am still intelligent...still intelligent...still...