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

Please give us a blow by blow account, if you can bear to.....I am fascinated. I do hope it's a great thing for you. In your job hearing is such a big deal.

What lil'k is saying is that they told her the longer she put off getting a hearing aid, the harder it would be to adapt to it. Certainly not that wearing one would make the hearing worse.

Right, my point was more the "if anything" than that wearing hearing aids actually damage your hearing.

To put it another way:

Purely in terms of how much you can hear, wearing hearing aids won't change anything (failing to wear hearing aids won't make your hearing worse).

However, as roger says, the longer you wait to use hearing aids once your hearing starts to decline, the bigger the adjustment it will be.

How far back should I go?

It's ironic that some of us who are hard of hearing also sometimes murmur, and I don't say that accusingly as I do too. Murmur or have soft voices. I was a little too far away in number of feet from Dlowan over the sequence of times that I met her, and had to inch up my chair and stare at her (poor thing!), at the same time that when I did just get it, I loved/love her voice. Brilliant, as in crystalline in a good way, alert, witty, lilty. But not hard toned. My own is drone-ish, another whole subject.

Diane and I often give each other the what-question - she has one of the lovelier voices I've ever heard but, yunno, can murmur. But, as I said, so can I.
Roger, same thing. And it matters for him which ear is near you.
It's not that we all need to yell, as, as far as I see/hear, that's not the problem. It's more that we go back to our earlier selves with different vocal volumes relative to a conversation.

So, that's another thing that happens. A clerk will murmur, you will ask her (usually a her but not always) to repeat it, saying you are hard of hearing, and then they will near shout.

I suppose it has been ever thus. Murmuring has a natural and useful place in the way people speak to each other. I remember my grandmother telling not to murmur.

My next fear is that I'll become one of those loud folks in restaurants. So far so good, I think.

Well. I was especially meaning your experience of the hearing aid, but heck, I'm always interested in anything you have to say!

I have long had issues with the low end of my range. I have similar issues in both ears, but the left has been worse. The low end of my left ear is in the severe range. Means it sounds like people are mumbling even if they aren't. I can't hear dogs growling well. I have the bass turned up and the treble turned down in my car which drives people nuts. It's been decades and it gets slowly worse over time. Doctors have recommended yearly hearing tests, other hearing tests, MRIs and hearing aids for years now.

Fast forward to last month. One of my brothers in law said my hearing was worse (it's not) and handed me an ad for a new miracle ear aid. I went in and ended up ordering it. It'll be in next week. I'll get fitted and have a trial period.

Oops! I just looked at the paperwork. I'm actually getting two aids. Makes me feel a bit better about the price!

Oh good.

Roger....I don't know that my brain took long to get used to hearing better....and I've been going deaf since birth....interesting to know if it was harder.

I'll be fascinated to hear how it goes lil k.....I wish you well.

We have the opposite problem.

I recall mine took several months to adapt to just the sound of paper rustling across the desk. I've known people to imply that it can be a little slow.

Glad to hear you're getting your money's worth littlek, but it seems a little odd that it took this long to find out.

Oh...that was a couple of days for me. But I think you are deafer than I am as yet.

I've heard the same thing, Roger. I'm worried that I may have difficulty since some sounds can really grate on my nerves, especially when they are loud.

Yeah. I definitely had a period of best-of-both worlds with my hearing aid -- wear it when I wanted to hear, turn it off/ take it out when all that sound was annoying me.

Picking up aids tomorrow!

Let us know.

You sound excited.

I guess I am. It's been a long time coming (it was bound to happen sooner or later).

Is the sound of any quality with the aids in? I have an uppwer register hearing loss , prolly from blowin **** up real good.
My wife is bugging me to get a hearing aid.

Fman - I'll let you know. Your hearing loss is more typical than mine. My loss is in the low end.

Depends on the severity (any idea what decibel loss you have?) but generally that's exactly what most hearing aids can help with the most.

Yes. It takes time to get used to the new sound because your brain has to adjust....it's cacophony at first.

They can be annoying, but I promise, when you first get them in the ear and turned on, the whole world is going to seem just a little bit brighter.