What to look for...and avoid...in a hearing aid.

Mine...which is a cheapie...changes programs itself.

If I had two they would apparently let each other know what was going on. Ask your supplier.

Did you say which kind you got, Dlowan? I don't remember. Maybe the aids differ on diff continents.
I can't spring for hearing aids any time soon, but you never know. If you don't mind, would you PM me if you don't want to say in the thread?

I have three settings and 2 programs (so far). I figured out the distinction between the settings - there are different tones when I switch between like Roger said. (Don't you go away Roger!) It is definitely harder for me to hear Dasha with the hearing aids in on either setting. I'm not sure what that tells me since she has a relatively deep voice for a woman, but not anywhere near as deep as a man's.

They're pretty international......I said somewhere early in the thread.....I'll try and look it up later.

There are much better and more expensive ones now.

It might be Acoustricon?

No hurry. In fact I can do the looking up back in the thread. Thanks.

I am frustrated. I met with the audiologist at MA to tinker. She turned up the low end. We also made some other changes and I ended up with a warble in the closed vowel like bOARD, wAtERmelon, brOAD, hERe (warble in caps). We brought down the middle range settings and this seemed to help, but the effect was still there. So, we brought down the low end settings a tiny bit. If we bring them down too far, the aids will be useless. I looked these up on a speech frequency chart and the worst syllables are in the 500-800 HZ range.

I also found a name for my type of hearing loss. It's a reverse slope hearing loss. There is not much online about it and how to make hearing aids work. I did join one group which is made up of people with issues like mine.

Dammit.

If you can't get past this, maybe you should mark your calendar so as not to miss the 30 day option. Everyone goes through a trial while adapting, but this doesn't sound normal.

My ancient hearing aid (purchased almost 25 years ago) had several mini-audiogram curves as settings. Steep regular slope, gradual regular slope, straight line, reverse slope, etc. Anyway the point is that reverse slope seemed to be an option there.

What is your db loss? (At 250, 2000, and 8000 hz, to give me an idea of the slope.)

Thanks!

Argh! Just deleted everything! Hmph.

Here's the curve, Soz. These are from last Feb.

Hz/fq: 250....500....1000....1500....2000....3000....4000....6000....8000
dB-R:...55.......60.......50........20.........10.........5...........15...........10.........5
dB-L:...75.......70........60........35.........25........15..........20...........15.........5

Perfect, thanks.

Wow, the 55-75 db range is definitely serious. That's going to be tricky to address with a hearing aid, I see that.

I had a pretty "normal" slope audiogram, that is, exactly reversed from yours though the variations weren't quite so wide. (5 to 75, wow! 5 is barely anything, really normal hearing -- all the way to 20 is not that big of a deal.)

I wish I knew more about current hearing aids so I could give you more specific advice. I guess keep fiddling and see how it goes.

There probably are two separate issues: 1.) getting the optimal setting and 2.) getting used to using the hearing aid for sounds you haven't been hearing (the 35-75 range ones). If you had a perfectly typical slope with losses in the 35-75 range there would definitely be an adjustment period. So that's an element. But complicated by the fact that you have an unusual slope.

Keep us posted...

(worrying with Roger about the time limit. 30 days seems too little..)

I had weird sounds (to my perception)...almost like a feedback thing...in the higher ranges that disappeared with time,...was apparently just my brain adjusting.

Don't know about warbles though....

I wonder if that's negotiable if they are faced with a return. Best if they end up working out okay, though.

Soz - everything I am reading says that my type of hearing loss is 1) atypical, 2) hard to get right on an aid, and 3) possibly not conducive to working with an aid.

Deb- I think some of what I am having issue with is expected and will go away over time. Some things are definitely not ok.

I wore the aids in school today. I hadn't yet because I was concerned my high range would be blasted by the shrill screaming of the children (trust me, they're all ok, they just scream). The high ends were fine. I still have the warble (sounds like someone talking under water). I would love one of the old equalizers to use with my aids on. I envision sitting in front of an equalizer hooked up to NPR, or some such, and eyeballing exact frequencies and dBs where the warble happens. But, unless I go back to Georgia, I'm not sure how I'd be able to do that.

I found an article from 2003 which discussed low frequency hearing loss. Digital aids are good because they can set different dBs for individual frequency ranges. I think that on Friday my audiologist and I should drop the low end a smidgeon and re-boost the mid-ranges which we dropped on Tuesday. My brother is coming with me so I can use his voice.

All in all it hasn't been making a $5000 difference in my hearing.

Damn.

I'm really sorry to hear that.

I hope you can tinker enough to make it good.

If not....I guess it's leave em at the clinic coming up.

Damn.

One the flipside, the audiologist at miracle ear seems quite willing to work with me. I have another appt on Friday.

The visit on Friday left me feeling better about the aids. My brother came and commented that they aids helped me hear better (he could tell a difference). The weird warble is pretty much gone. I wore them to work all day on Thursday and the shrills notes the kids emit didn't bother me any more than they do without aids.

Today: family gathering.......

Looks like your brain is starting to adjust! That's awesome.

Yay!!!!!

Are YOU able to tell the difference?

I don't really notice a big difference. I do notice little things. But, my family notices that I am hearing better, and that's pretty much what I was aiming for.