Hard of Hearing? What helps you? (Other than going to a hearing aid dealer and spending a lot of money there)
A lot of of hearing is via phone, TV… Anything in particular for those? (Other than turning up the volume)
Thanks.
Huh? What?
If I had a hearing issue I would use the volume control on the phone but for TV I would consider headphones/ear buds so as to not irritate others by increasing overall volume…
I wear hearing aids and love them. Brand: Oticon. I got the mid-range pricewise and the pair was $3,600. The best thing is being able to hear birds! When I walk in the morning, even though I’ve had them for several years, I’m still thrilled and delighted at all the birdsong. The second best thing is taking them out when I want the myriad obnoxious sounds of this noisy world to fade away slightly. When I first put them in, I was stunned at how goddam NOISY the world is! I’m not deaf, but my hearing loss had been mercifully filtering out the mechanical, electronic, and natural sounds that we are bombarded with. My first thought was, “Geez, no wonder people are so cranky all the time! The noise is driving them crazy!”
The other thing is I always put the captioning on TV shows and movies.
I’ve been severely hearing impaired for most of my life. hearing aids are an obvious must, but that is hugely supplemented by an almost uncanny lip-reading ability. That’s a skill that takes a lot of practice, though.
TV - , turn on the Closed Captioning. Soon you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it, and so will your normally-hearing family and friends.
Telephones - Hearing aids these days work well with phones, and that may be enough for you, since you appear to losing your hearing later in life. You probably have a good mental association with word sounds. Unfortunately for me, My brain is so used to lip-reading as compensation for my hearing loss that I have a difficult time understanding voices that I cannot “see”. Telephone conversations are difficult with most people. I can hear the sounds just fine, but unless I can see their lips as well, a lot of it sounds like Charlie Brown’s teacher. Understanding the lyrics in songs, listening to audiobooks, radio interviews, etc? At worst, forget it. At best, it requires and immense amount of concentration. But I’m going off tangent - I have a Captel Closed Captioned phone that’s awesome. The only limitation is that it requires a landline. Captel has a smartphone app, but it does not work well.
I always use captioning for movies on TV. For music/podcasts I have some excellent wireless headphones.
But I couldn’t get by without my hearing aid. Best three grand I ever spent. The only downside is when it needs service and I’m without it for 5 days or so.
Hearing aid.
No, really.
I finally got my SO to go recently, after a decade of refusing to be tested (for various reasons).
She loves being able to hear again.
She did only get one rather than a pair, just to try it out. I expect she’ll complete the set next year.
Use headphones for the TV. In headphones, you don’t have to contend with the sound bouncing off the walls, floors, and ceiling, muddying the quality of the sounds. In headphones the sound (for me) just sounds more “present” and a lot easier to hear. Also, the headphones reduce the ambient noise from the room. I recommend an over-the-ear model of headphones. I’ve found these block out the room noises much better than others, and are more comfortable to wear for long periods of time.
J.
This!
The 2nd thing I ever heard was bird songs and it blew my mind! (The first was the shuffling of my feet on those plastic carpet savers- one of the reasons I shuffle my feet when i walk, it’s soothing).
That said, yeah Hearing Aids are very useful and come in a variety of prices. I myself go Digital and yeah it sets me back a few grand, but I’m in my 20s and have been needing it since I was like 5.
But other ideas are good to- closed captioning, explain to your friends you’re losing your hearing, and to forgive you for repeatedly saying “What?” over and over (that’s FAR easier said than done, I still get embarrassed with that).
Lip reading is tough but doable as well- I never picked up on how to do it. Instead I tend to use context clues, basically try to get 70-80% of a sentence and guess the rest of it by what they’ve said, that and Repeating what people say back to them to confirm it for yourself.
Really, HA are the ways to go though to make life easier.
When I am not wearing my hearing aids, I tell people, “If I can’t see your face, I probably can’t hear you.” IMHO, it is far more effective than asking people to repeat themselves over and over again.
From what I have been told by audiologists and EENTs, they figure I learned lip reading/context at an early age and it has supported me to the point where have been in huge denial for years about the extent of my hearing loss. I was fairly hearing impaired up until age 6 and then improved, and lost more hearing in my 20’s onward.
Hearing aids are worth every penny. There are a huge range of options. Mine work with my iphone in amazing ways, and I have a blue tooth type thing … I can listen to the tv even if it is off; it streams to my hearing aids, making them custom-fitted wireless earbuds.
Yes, hearing aids rock. I’m HOH, and have been since conception (genetic) You can get them in cool colors.
Re: talking on the phone…I am now a texter, and will be for LIFE…So much easier then speaking on the phone.
What about batteries? I have a friend (and collaborator) who wears a hearing aid, at least some of the time. He constantly fiddles with the batteries, which seem to be always wearing out. They are also expensive, so he turns it off when we are not in conversation.
If I wore a hearing aid (and the day will come, although I have no problem with ordinary conversation in a quiet room, in a noisy space I do) I would be perfectly happy to have a battery of a decent size in my pocket with a wire leading to the aid. But I don’t think they exist since the most important consideration in hearing aid design seems to be invisibility. Why? If I used an aid, I would want people to know it. They might speak more clearly and more slowly. Not everyone who needs a seeing aid wears contacts (I never would); why does everyone insist that hearing aids be invisible?
My HA uses #10 hearing aid batteries. A battery lasts about 2 1/2 days, but they are pretty cheap. Here’s a gross for thirty bucks.
I use these. They last 7-10 days. They are the best. German engineering. And there are never any dead ones. When I bought them at the drugstore, there were always several that were DOA.
There are things called pocket talkers, that look like a smaller walkman type thing with a microphone and headphones. They amplify everything around you though, where most modern hearing aids tend to amplify human vocal range.
Someone else can explain this more clearly and accurately than I just did.
How long a battery lasts is dependent upon a LOT of factors: the size of the battery, the power consumption of the hearing aids, how often you use the hearing aids, etc.
I have 2 quite small “bi-cross” hearing aids by Phonak. They take the 312 size battery, which lasts about 2 days in the hearing aid. So on average, I change 1 battery a day. I buy the batteries in bulk from Amazon at about $.50 each, so I spend about $15 a month on batteries. Not too bad, overall.
My first “loaner” pair of bi-cross hearing aids were much bigger, took a #10 battery, but this battery lasted 5 - 7 days. So it’s very much a YMMV situation.
J.
Oooh. That was awful.
I’ve worked in captions and subtitles for about 15 years. Use them on prerecord shows, but be wary of live, or online captions. These are done by weekend warriors who are nutty stenographers during the week and, as they might type, “he nose what I’m talking about.” 
:eek: THESE TWO POSTS JUST CHANGED MY LIFE!
Wow. I never thought of buying my Batteries in bulk on Amazon… Normally right now it’s costing me about 50 cents a day to hear in each ear (Digital with battery shelf life of about 3 days)… Holy crap this is why I love the Dope; this just changed my LIFE.