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

Yeah...back in those days it seemed to happen all the time though.

Maybe it is because of my experience with glasses at a young sort of age - and then being able to see writing on the blackboard - that primed me for not being vain when I need help of that kind. Or maybe I just lived through a bunch of decades when a lot of us looked funny peculiar to others. I can only say that lack of availability of hearing aids to financially troubled seniors in the U.S. is quite sad.

Yep. Just wanted to make sure you knew that was NOT something you would have to put up with.

When do you think you might be able to start looking at them?

seeing the audiologist on Friday.

Not sure how much bumpf there is with my health fund before I can start trying stuff.

Ask Mr. Spock.

Well, that was all rather disappointing then.

Yes (as I knew) I need hearing aids.


All quite pleasant and enthusiastic until I named my price limit.

Once audiologist realised I wasn't spending no $7,000 we were rawther brusque and almost rude...barely interested in discussing much.

So, I have opted to spend $1,800 on one hearing aid...just in the automatic adjustment to background noise league...

I was trying to get a sense of, if I were to save up to get a better one, it would be able to work ok with the cheaper one (she says I need two ears) but she kept not understanding.

So, picking it up on Friday.

They claim they have no connection with any aid suppliers, but I have to say I was kind of suspicious about the change in attitude when she realised I din't have lots of money to spend.


We shall see! She thinks it will help but I need two.

Hmmmmm.

I really really had no particular problems with one. At the time, I had a "good" ear (the one with some hearing, though fluctuating) and one "bad" ear (very, very deaf), so there was no reason to have two. When my hearing cooperated, I did quite well with just the one hearing aid. (As in, the variable was how poopy my hearing was that day, not how many hearing aids I was wearing.)

Do you get the free trial thingie? (Trying out various aids before deciding which one to buy.)

I have a month trial.

I'll be in the outback a goodly lot of that time.

My hearing is just in the normal range from 0.25 to 0.5 Khz, and dives down on a regular gradient to 70 and 80 dbl at 4. For some reason it then goes up to 60 at 8.

Right is worse, but not much,

It's a Unitron, and like the one Eva pictured.

God, that experience with your hearing must have been so awful, Soz.

A month trial, yay!

70-80 db, OK, that's a bit lower than I expected. You probably are a dab hand at lipreading, even if you don't know it.

That's a pretty standard curve though, in terms of being at its lowest at 4 (4,000 hertz).

I had a Unitron!

Yeah, the whole experience of losing my hearing was decidedly un-fun. I maintain that if it had to happen, that was a good time, though. I was able to benefit from getting a good education (education for deaf kids is spotty, with some bright spots but most really bad) and get a social base (able to interact with kids in my neighborhood, etc.), but it was before I was locked in to my adult self, and it could just be sort of integrated.

Well, you've done well!


I know I can't hear if my concentration is off.

I was sending two packages by registered mail yesterday, one to the US, and the guy was stressed because there was a big line behind me.

He kept wanting me to fill out more and more forms and listen to him about what else I had to do at the same time.

Couldn't do it.

I ended up feeling really irritable and stressed myself.

Perhaps even one hearing aid will cut back on a bit of the stress?

I hadn't really let myself think a lot about how stressful deafness is...maybe I'll be a calmer, better Wabbit?

I laugh about it a lot, but it also makes one feel really stupid, and you KNOW, no matter how polite people are, that it's REALLY irritating for them when one is half deaf.

Yes, the concentration thing is a big tip-off. And not being able to understand without looking at the person. (I have been able to suss out when sozlet is having hearing problems several times by holding a book in front of my face when I talk to her -- she honestly doesn't realize she's having hearing problems until then. She just kind of automatically works at it and is tired and grumpy but doesn't really connect it to not hearing.) (This is mostly past tense, when she had ear infections, knock on wood. And her hearing issues were at the 30-40 range at their worst, if I remember right.)

The concentration thing will continue as you get used to hearing aids, as Eva said. There's definitely an adjustment period.

But then it should get much easier. You're in a very typical place, hearing-wise, that aids are made to maximize.

And yes I understand completely about the irritable/ stressed! It's VERY stressful! Once you're used to the hearing aid, I bet you'll find a weight lifted from your shoulders.

I used to kiss my hearing aid every night before I went to sleep. (Seriously.)

Good for you, Deb! A question. You said that for the first month (trial period) you will be out of town a lot. Will you be back at least a few days mid-month so they can be adjusted as needed? They usually want you to give it a couple of weeks, then come back in.

Kiss it? I do hope that's how I feel!

So my hearing's pretty bad, eh?

Yes....and fortunately I'll have a bit of time off to do that in.

Yeah, that's enough to put a real dent in your communication. Without a hearing aid anyway. WITH a hearing aid, might be a huge difference.

The speech banana is up higher, 20-45 range? Lemme check.

Here we are:



That yellow thing is where most human speech is on the audiogram. You have a fair amount of low tones but you miss the high tones that really differentiate words. That is, you may hear that a person is speaking, it's not that there is silence -- but it's all mumbly and muddled, without the detail provided by the high tones.

And you work with kids! Geesh, that must be incredibly exhausting. I really hope the hearing aid is a game-changer for you.

Yes...those damned high little voices!!!!


And working with Aboriginal people who swallow all the syllables except the first...at least in Pitjantjatjara and related languages and the accent resulting therefrom.

Yikes!

And it's rude to ask them to repeat something said very low...because that means it was shaming to say.

It''s a shame-based culture, so that's BIG.

Good grief. No wonder you've been stressed out.

I mean the hearing loss is stressful no matter what, but these are particularly stressful circumstances.