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

Wow!!! It'd be great if this makes life less stressful and exhausting.

I really, really hope so. I can't promise anything because it depends on too many variables, but just in terms of your audiogram that's pretty much miracle-working territory. (If you're hearing's much better there's not as dramatic of a change, if it's much worse there's less that hearing aids can do for it.)

Well, it'll continue to get worse...but if it helps me for a few years, that is cool.

It seems to be happening reasonably slowly.

Last time I had it checked I was sixteen...it'd be funny to compare the audiograms if I had the original.

I guess I am lucky that school-based testing found it then, because I appeared to have perfect hearing (it was bad enough then that they told me to sit in the front row at school...advice I happily ignored...I sat in the back corner and had no trouble at all hearing) and I actually acted on the advice to eschew loud music. (I hated it anyway....it hurts my ears, and I hated the temporary deafness that resulted when I was forced to be near it...I used to stuff my ears with cotton wool. Still do)

I'd be deaf as a post, like most of the musos I know.

Lurking and listening here.
Lipreading, too~

Awaiting report of outcomes.

Have hearing aid and wore it back to work.

Audiologist said to wear it only at home for the first few days.

Damn that, said I.

Let's dive in!

Man, those sandwiches being bitten into at lunch sure were noisy.

These keys make a lot of noise being typed on.

What I am hearing sounds kind of weird, but she said I am so used to not hearing the higher tones that it will just take my brain a while to get used to it.

i can certainly hear WAAY better.


I hope the weirdness factor goes down, but even if it doesn't, I can tell this is going to make work WAY easier.

She's suggesting that, if I save up for a second one (which I will try to do...no more benefits available for five years) I get the same one for the other ear, not a better one.

So..so far so good.

Oh, good!
Need to think about this myself.

Yep.

Deafness sucketh.

At least it does for me....especially at work and all.

I heard what the guy was charging me for a coffee today first time!


Type-writer keys are driving me bats...and oh, the shrieking of the birds!!!!!

Still, I can turn them all off again whenever I want.

Just took it out...making the top of my ear sore.

Still, five hours, in traffic, in shops, at lunch table, in a conference call...and all's well.

Excellent for a first go, Deb!

Yep, that's part of the adjustment.

I remember the cacaphony!

And the relief of being able to turn it OFF.

There's a point in hearing loss -- when hearing aids work really well, but when your hearing is bad enough that without them you don't hear much -- that can be rather nice in some ways. Nobody else gets to turn off their ears (as much as they may want to -- mockingbirds come to mind).



It's really promising if things are going this well already!!

I yearn for the silence of the birds......












Just kidding...but I passed a tree FULL of little parrot things on my way to the car tonight, and it was deafening.

I would have heard some of it before, but this was insane.

I'm not totally deaf, so i don't suffer from that. By and large, i like being hearing impaired--it makes the world easier to get along in.

All good news, glad to hear it. Mm, see it.

Oh! I'm so happy to hear you've got it, and it's working!

Yes, all the sound is overwhelming at first, but you'll adjust to it. Your brain will make new connections.

One of the happy surprises for me was how much better I sleep now. It used to take me 30 minutes or more to fall asleep at night. Now I take the hearing aids off when I get into bed, and the quietness puts me right to sleep.

Well, proceeding with aids.

I think my brain is in a kind of in between stage where it's getting used to processing different sounds and isn't quite sure what to do.

I am having the experience of asking someone to repeat themselves because I have heard what they said, but it doesn't make sense, and I implicitly assume I heard wrong....only to find i heard right.

I am a bit bewildered, I think.

Getting used to the shrieking of the birds and the thunder of people eating and the crashing deluge of the loo flushing.

Just came in from going out for lunch and coffee with friends...but I was in a rush and forgot the aid! Pity, because it would have been good practice for the Outback next week...ie talking with groups of people.

was just wondering how you (and it) were going!

Lol!

I can see why people give up, but I am not going to!


And it really is helping.

I'm so happy to hear it's helping!

Your brain will be making new neural connections for some time as it adjusts to the aids.

One unusual thing that happened to me involved music. My hearing loss happened suddenly, and at first music was just sonic chaos to me. Then, after a few months, it began to sound like a radio station when the dial isn't quite on the right number yet. (That's the best way I can describe it.) Finally, after 2-3 years, it began to sound the way I remembered it. My audiologist said it took my brain that long to make the neural connections it needed to process sound coming from multiple instruments/sources simultaneously.

Now, that's the oddest thing. I enjoy music exactly as much with or with the hearing aid. Yet, sound from television and movie theaters is usually incomprehensible. On the other hand, I do quite well with telephones and headsets, even without a hearing aid. I haven't been to a movie in over five years, and hearing is a big part of the reason. I am aware that my aid can be programed to receive some sort of signal from some theaters and phones, but haven't bothered to have it programed.

Take it for a spin before buying, if that's allowed.