New hearing aid

[Dan McCosh]

Acquired a set of hearing aids a week ago, mainly because high-frequency loss was making it difficult to understand high-pitched voices, mainly SWMBO's. They work quite well. Now I not only have a volume control, but an on-off switch.

[ron ll]

Congratulations! If they are Bluetooth, you now have youtube, music, streaming audio for movies etc without the white plastic pigtails hanging out of your ears. I love mine, only take them out for sleeping.

[Hugh MacD]

Mine are bluetooth capable so I can change programs with my phone. Works OK and much better than nothing as I have a pretty profound hearing loss. You'll like 'em!

[Jim Bow]

When I got mine, and walked out to the car, I HEARD BIRDS!!!

My only constant issue is freeway speeds in my 7 year old Honda Fit. I know it’s the cars road/wind noise, but the aids amplify it.

[jpatrick]

I'm currently trialing a pair of the newest Oticons. They are marginally better than my four year old pair. But I still can't hear worth a hoot. Well... I can hear owls hoot. Songbirds have been gone for decades and won't be coming back.

Dan, I'm happy that yours are helping. Not hearing is the pits.

Jeff

[Jim Mahan]

I've gotten in the habit of taking mine off and stashing them in my shirt pocket. I've gotten out of the habit of listening to music over the bluetooth, but only because I'm so done with dicking with Apple or Amazon music. And don't start with me about Spotify.

I have to remember to be careful as I work, especially out in the yard, when I bend down, that the damn things don't fall off in the ditch when I'm unaware. To new HA wearers: especially if you got them on your own, as opposed to being fitted by an audiologist—be warned that they have little legs, and will run off when your guard is down. When the VA audiologist told me without prompting that they would fix mine for free and would replace them for free if they got lost, but just one time, I remember thinking, 'I'm an adult, I don't lose things.' And then the very first day, within an hour of being home with them, I realized one of them was not still in my ear. And I searched for days, literally, all over the premises, inside and out, without joy. I concluded it must've fallen out and into the yard waste bin while I was doing the yard work. Thankfully the VA picked mine out for me and paid for them, because I couldn't afford to replace even one of them on my dime.

I do remember when I first got them, the surprising noise was when I went for a walk by myself in the quiet neighborhood, and I kept hearing a ticking sound, faint but distinct. After a short while I realized I was becoming slightly obsessed with it, so I had to stop to listen more carefully, and the sound stopped, too. Walk a bit, ticking. Faint. Stop, no ticking. Hmm. Then I figured out it were the aglets on my shoes. The plastic coated tips of my shoelaces were 'banging' on the tops of my shoes, rhthmically as I strode along the boulevard.

But now the charm has worn off, and as long as I pay enough attention to the Wife when She speaks, it's all good. Sometimes I realize I'm missing the dialogue during a TV show. And sometimes it helps to put them back in, but it's mostly Hollywood actors and the sound crew being too arty to enunciate clearly like stage actors. More dramatic to mumble, I guess.

WE'RE DOING A ROPE TRICK.

Communication hygiene, looking at someone when they speak, getting them to look at you when they speak and to not start conversing when She's in the kitchen and you're in the garage—hard won lessons that serve whether you've got hearing aids or no.

"Sure is windy"

"No, it's Thursday."

"So am I, let's head in."

[LOKI]

I'm going in next week for testing for hearing aids. My career as a millwright was not kind to my hearing. Low tones are not heard at all anymore. Good thing I'm retired as a lot of my work required hearing differences of normal machine noise and abnormal. My youngest grandson has developmental problems and speaks in a strange language that up until now I have been able to translate. He came around for spring break and I found I couldn't make out most of what he was saying...I hope that hearing aids will enable me to regain communication with him . He's on the autism spectrum but extremely intelligent and I want to be there for him as he grows older.

[Canoeyawl]

If hearing loss is uncorrected for an extended length of time the ability to "understand" speech is affected, sometimes seriously.
With continued use of hearing aids the understanding of speech can be rehabilitated, but part time use will take much longer if ever.
This is a brain plasticity issue and some people will adapt more quickly than others. Age plays a big part in this with elderly first time wearers noting that it is all just "noise" rather than "understanding" what is being heard.

See: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/he...tia-connection

[robm]

Low tones are not heard at all anymore.

Losing low frequencies is pretty unusual! Most industrial hearing protection concentrates on high frequencies, which are supposed to be more damaging - although the lows are also harder to filter out, so it might just be convenient.

[LOKI]

Not quite sure what to make of your post#9. It is the low tones I have lost and it's not convenient at all....

[Dan McCosh]

Hearing damage from exposure to noise is frequency-specific. A friend who did a lot of skeet shooting years ago lost hearing in the mid-range. Loss at high-frequencies is often age-related. The aid itself can be programmed to specific frequency ranges, which seems quite effective, although some background sound tend to stand-out. Wierd one is the backup warning tone on the Prius, which sounds like a trumpet call. Actually, I thought the notion of a volume control on SWMBO was pretty funny. The aid has greatly improved her voice, I notice.

[AndyG]

It's a legal requirement here to fit in a beeper when wiring up a towbar. It beeps when indicating if you're towing anything, to tell you that the indicators on the trailer are functional.

It's also bloody irritating.

I've always wrapped my beeper boxes in masses of foam tucked into the c-pillar, so I can't hear it. And, a few years ago, I didn't hear it, ever. Which was good. But my wife could, and said, "That's bloody irritating".

Now, with my hearing aids, I hear it too.

So I take 'em out when towing.

Andy

How about a beeper that beeps when the indicators don't work?

[AndyG]

Dang. Double post and unremovable.

Andy

[hawkeye54]

I'm going in next week for testing for hearing aids. My career as a millwright was not kind to my hearing. Low tones are not heard at all anymore. Good thing I'm retired as a lot of my work required hearing differences of normal machine noise and abnormal. My youngest grandson has developmental problems and speaks in a strange language that up until now I have been able to translate. He came around for spring break and I found I couldn't make out most of what he was saying...I hope that hearing aids will enable me to regain communication with him . He's on the autism spectrum but extremely intelligent and I want to be there for him as he grows older.

LOKI, when he was younger, my now-30 something nephew spoke in a language all his own. My wife recommended to his parents that he have his hearing tested. It turned out that he had had a childhood illness, and had a profound hearing loss. After further checking, he was fitted with a cochlear implant, and can now hear, and speak much better. Worth a check in your grandson's situation (?)


Rick

[robm]

Not quite sure what to make of your post#9. It is the low tones I have lost and it's not convenient at all....

Just what I said. High frequencies tend to go first. Losing the lows is less common. Industrial hearing protection may not have helped much back when you were working, as it works better on high frequencies, partly by design, and partly because low frequencies are harder to block out.

[mike9199]

Congrats! Great time for getting hearing aids. Enjoy listening birds in the morning. I have mine for about 4 years now and they still work like new. Ordered couple of accessories from medical supply store staten island (domes and batteries mostly) but that is already a joke, considering how much my hearing aids actually cost. Curious how often do you guys change your hearing aids?

[WX]

I find in a crowd I can now separate out a conversation, but the volume of background noise can still make it difficult hear a conversation.

[wizbang 13]

I started last summer .
The Bluetooth directional control is fantastic.

[LOKI]

Went for the hearing exam last Tuesday. I have two frequency ranges that are in acceptable levels and all the rest are from poor to profoundly poor. No wonder I've been having trouble hearing the grandson. Get rechargable aids in a few weeks, hope they help at least a bit!