I haven’t read all of the replies, but I’ll give you my experience with hearing aids. After going deaf (suddenly) in one ear, I eventually got 2 hearing aids. (The one in the bad ear actually transmits sound on that side via radio to the hearing aid in my good ear. But that isn’t your case so let’s move on.)
The first thing I noticed when I got hearing aids is how much of the high frequency sound I had been missing. This was a pleasant revelation for me. Note that I have hearing aids that the audiologist “tunes” to my specific audiogram. Only the frequencies I’m weak in are amplified. So this is a plus.
I did go back to the audiologist frequently when I first got them, and this was helpful to let me try out different programs. So the advice above to get a good audiologist and abuse their free sessions is a good one.
I have behind the ear aids, and they are virtually invisible unless someone is looking for them.
Regarding your stethoscope: I actually listen to podcasts all the time using ear buds RIGHT OVER the hearing aids and this works fine. Assuming you don’t get in-the-ear aids, using a stethoscope should be fine.
Now, in my particular situation, noisy environments are difficult for me. But I think that is because of my one-sided deafness. Since I no longer have binaural hearing, I can’t as easily pick out the “signal” from the noise. All sound goes into one ear and my brain can’t locate sounds anymore, nor can it pick out sounds coming from a particular direction. If you still have 2 sided hearing, this shouldn’t be as big of a problem for you.
In summary, I say jump in feet first. You’ll be surprised how big of a help hearing aids can be.
J.
Anyway to find out which phones are HAC? This would be really helpful.
It should be listed in the device specifications. Some carriers have lists, as well.
Verizon, for instance, provides this list.
You could also go into a store and ask. If the person says “What does that mean?” ask to speak to someone else.
If you have a phone you’re particularly interested in but can’t find out details for, PM me. I can do some research and let you know.
-D/a
I don’t understand why the most important selling point to hearing aids is that they are invisible. My eyeglasses aren’t invisible, nor do they aspire to be. I have a couple friends who have fairly severe hearing loss. One of them I happened to visit last week. He won’t wear a hearing aid and I find it wearing to be with him. I have to shout and he doesn’t always get it. The other has a pair, but he always turns them off because they eat batteries and the batteries are tiny (=awkward to install), expensive, and short lived. My idea is that I would prefer to wear a battery pack on my chest with an AA battery, maybe rechargeable, that would connect by wire to the aids and so what if they are visible. I would even see that as slight advantage, so that others would know that I might not be hearing perfectly. I am starting to have some problems, so there may be an aid in my future. As far as I am aware, my perfect aid doesn’t exist. Crazy.
The big reason Lasik is so popular is that it’s invisible. The big reason contacts are so popular is that they are invisible. If you have enough money to throw at the “problem” of having visible glasses, you can make them disappear, and millions of people have done just that. I suspect the rationale for tiny hearing aids is just about the same.
I was once in an optic shop getting new glasses and the lady “helping” me choose new frames seemed frantic to find a pair that would “disguise” my thick lenses. I kept picking out styles I liked and she’d take them out of my hands saying they were too heavy or thick or whatever.
I finally had to stop her and say look, I wear very thick lenses. I’m OK with that. It’s doesn’t bother me. I don’t need a pair of frames to “disguise” that, and let’s face it, none of them will. I need a pair that are strong enough to hold those lenses without breaking or distorting.
I think I’d be the same way about hearing aids, should I ever get them. I don’t need batwings hanging off my head, but at a certain point I’ll choose practical over tiny.
I contrast the “hide the bad vision” and the “hide the bad hearing” people with the folks I see walking around on obviously prosthetic legs that make no attempt to look “natural”, no attempt to cover them, wearing sandals, etc. At a certain point attempting to hide something just gets silly at best.
You may be willing to use visible hearing aids, but you won’t find them. I have a friend who has been seriously hard of hearing all his life. He used to have the kind of aid that sat in his shirt pocket and ran wires to his ears. He was okay with that, but the little hearing he has is deteriorating in his 80s and he needs a new one. He cannot find a replacement in the same style.
Did I mention that he was a professor of audiology? And presumably knows all about hearing aids.
Not with me or any of my friends and relatives who had it. The reason it’s so popular is that it’s weightless and you can’t forget it, nor do you find yourself unable to find your Lasik without your Lasik… also, those of us who had it ran some accounting and discovered that, given how long we could expect our visual scripts to stay stable, the operation was cheaper than glasses.
Other people’s mileage will, of course, vary.
Those old-fashioned jobs that looked like a transistor radio have been superseded by miniaturization. The behind-the-ear hearing aid is the most powerful one on the market now, and the digital type probably delivers much more amplification and customized range for the user.
~VOW
Damn long long reply eaten by hamsters.
Condensed version:
Thanks, I thought this thread had whithered and died.
Some hearing came back and I am back to work. That in itself could have been a pit post.
I have an appointment on August 2nd. I am not happy but am making my peace with it.
Being deaf, or hard of hearing sucks. I am exhausted with dealing with the world. It is so isolating, but when I come home all I want is my books. They make no demands on me.
Thanks again.
Right, but those old-fashioned jobbies didn’t eat you out of house and home in batteries. That’s my real gripe. At least two people I know who have serious hearing loss are turning them off all the time to save batteries.
Ah, a 1920s style “hearing-aid”.
Ah, a 1920s style “hearing-aid”.
So, I had my appointment on Thursday for my hearing aids. Decided on two BTEs, from Phonak, Naidia. I forget the model number but it is water resistant, bluetooth enabled, has a few more bells and whistles than I thought I needed but they make sense. I decided to get one in zebra print and one in giraffe print to rock the whole middle age cougar thing I (don’t) have going on.
I am still not happy, especially the part about 4000 dollars, and 600 is covered by my benefit plan. I think in the future I will try to get them 48 months apart (I get 600 covered every 48months) but what really sucks is it is cutting into my son’s Disneyland trip fund. Good thing I hadn’t set a date or told him about the trip yet.
My mother got hearing aids about two years ago. She spends winters in Florida and bought them there. She was never happy with them and wouldn’t wear them most of the time – caused a lot of friction between her and dad (and others.) She went back to the place she got them time after time and nothing ever improved.
A few weeks ago my father decided that they were going to blow off the cost and buy her new ones. I was somewhat concerned that he set her up with an appointment with a place that does a lot of advertising on local TV … very insincere looking audiologist making huge claims.
The guy made some adjustments, got them working perfectly, and wouldn’t take any money so she bought a box of batteries from him.