Hey guys,
Introducing myself for the first time as this forum has been a huge resource for me but I’ve yet to join the conversation.
In March of 2020, I experienced sudden sensorineural hearing loss in my left ear just as the world was shutting down because of COVID. Before this, I’d never had any hearing problems, and trying to navigate a whole new world when most of it was shuttered was quite the experience. At that point, I didn’t fully grasp how much my single sided, high frequency loss would affect me. I could function almost fine in the COVID world given that there really wasn’t anything to do where “background” noise was a factor. My main reason for getting a hearing aid was to help control my tinnitus which was debilitating at the time. My insurance had decent coverage and my ENT had an audi associated with his office, so I used her and ended up with a Resound Quattro. As things has started to open up, I realized just how difficult it was to understand people in environments where there is any background noise whatsoever. I started doing some reading and found the Resound One. The literature on the M&RIE was interesting. Emailed my audi and she brushed me off and suggested I come in to tune up my current aid instead of buying something new. BTW, insurance over covers a new aid every 5 years, so whatever I bought would be out of pocket… but given the dramatic quality of life impact, I was perfectly fine with parting with some cash. I realize I’m lucky to be able to have this option.
Then I found you guys and the Jabra Enhanced Pro at Costco. I was skeptical, but figured, what can it hurt? The cost looked to be around 1/4 of what I’d pay for the Resound One and I had 6 months to return it.
Went to my local Costco with super low expectations for the fitter/experience - but it ended up exceeding my expectations. She did her own test on me, programmed the aids, and we walked around the store with her on my bad side AND I COULD ACTUALLY HEAR HER. So I handed over my credit card and ordered it.
I picked it up last week. She went through the normal fitting process, made some tweaks, and things sounded amazing. I actually heard a woman asking questions at the pharmacy about 50 ft away through my aid, which was insane to me. My voice sounded strange in my own head, but I’d had that experience before and knew there would be an adjustment period which I was fine with.
She fitted me with a tulip dome. I’m used to an open dome on my old aid, so this was a bit weird. By that night, I couldn’t take it anymore. My ear felt blocked to the point of being painful, I could hearing my jaw move when I chewed, and the sound of my own voice was torture. So I switched to one of my back up domes from my old aid and things are way better.
Anyway, I have a follow up next week with her to make some tweaks. During my initial fitting, I asked a lot of questions about the M&RIE- when it turns on, when it turns off, etc- but while she was super nice, she didn’t really have a ton of knowledge about this. So my plan is to try to figure out exactly what I want her to program and go back with a list. I’m trying my best to figure all this out, but hoping some experienced M&RIE users can help.
I’ve heard that people really like the sound when the in ear mic is on, but I can’t seem to figure out what setting needs to be changed to get that. It doesn’t seem to be on in my all around program- I’ve put my figure in my ear and don’t hear any feedback. Also, is there a dome that is something between the open dome and the tulip dome I can try? Lastly, I still find some higher pitched sounds a little painful. My boss’s voice, for example, my boyfriend scraping his spoon on the ceramic bowl when eating his cereal, etc. Any guidance you guys could share on how to tell this woman to program my aid would be appreciated. So far, I’m super happy with the improvements to my hearing. I even tested it out in a super noisy restaurant with noise reduction on and could easily hear my friend. Wondering if maybe I’ll end up a DIY’er at some point, but I’m a Mac user, so I’d have to buy a windows machine for just this purpose!