The only people who walk around staring at everyone’s ears are audiologists. Even sometimes watching movies I catch myself thinking, “That’s a good ear for a hearing aid.”
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I’m lucky enough that my HA’s, even with a “Sports Lock” springy, pointy thingy poking me if I try to lodge it in my ear, don’t cause any real sensation and I often catch myself reflexively about to scratch an ear and snag a wire forgetting that I am wearing HA’s.
But my theory of life is when young, everyone should run cross-country to learn about living with discomfort, sometimes even pain, and endurance. Then when old (where we’re all headed, hopefully!), we’re going to most likely have a bit of that to look forward to. My father lived to be 91 and was relatively healthy 'til the end. When I asked him what it was like (he was an M.D.), he said it was a progressive accumulation of small discomforts and to deal with the accumulated panoply every day took a bit of fortitude. I am starting to follow his route although I’d be amazed if I live anywhere near as long as he did. In discussing aches and pains with the wife (also an M.D.), she said in the midst of the opiod epidemic, an actual MD-recommended strategy for managing pain and discomfort is for the mind to say to itself, “Yes. A part of my body is telling me it aches or it is in pain but that’s just a generated sensation. I can learn to ignore it if I want to.”
I don’t mean to minimize anyone’s discomfort with HA’s. Everyone should fix or avoid any discomfort or pain that they can. Russ’s remark is just an excuse to bring up the idea of trying to psychologically manage pain and discomfort in your mind, and it may be something many of us have to deal with, stuff more serious than HA discomfort, if we live to ripe old ages.
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How wonderfully captured.
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My dad was a pretty laconic guy who kept his thoughts mostly to himself, dispensing words of advice only occasionally-but it’s his words that I’m ~quoting. As kids are, I didn’t really appreciate the wisdom of anything he had to say as much as I should have at the time. But as those little small discomforts begin to add up for myself now, I am more appreciative of the advice that he had to offer on a number of things, aging included!
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Day #6
So I didn’t keep to my plan of wearing the aids all weekend, as I was working in the yard, so had them off Saturday afternoon & Sunday. Back to work today though.
First problem was my partner in the office was away today. This meant I was left answering all the phone calls. I lasted about 3 hours before finally calling it quits and taking out my aids for the rest of the day. The right (mic only) side was just too quiet, and kept bing-bonging in and out of Autophone mode. The left side telecoil pickup was good volume, but the background static just drowned out the conversation (plus it also kept bing-bonging that side too).
The other thing that was annoying me today was the constant background hiss from the airconditioner in front of me. I don’t know what I’m going to do about that one. Maybe I’ll learn to ignore it. I don’t think I have another option. When I muted my aids, the hiss blissfully disappeared, but that sort of defeats the purpose.
It feels like two steps backwards today. At least I managed to order all the bluetooth gear for the phone, but it’ll probably be a week before it arrives.
We’ve moved into a mini heatwave too, with the temperature today at 35C (95F) and predicted to be higher for the rest of the week. I’m in a/c at work, but none at home, so could be a stress test for the aides too when I get back to wearing them.
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I hope you ran cross-country when you were young! 
- or maybe playing rugby would do it!
Can you get a partition to put between you and the AC that at least blocks some of the sound coming directly at you but still allows room air circulation, such as if you were sitting below an open-top cubicle wall covered with absorbent material? Or otherwise rearrange your desk wrt to AC? Maybe it won’t be as loud if you were facing in a different direction, etc., ? Or if it’s a particularly noisy air conditioner to begin with, maybe the school would replace it. The cost in lost productivity must far exceed the cost of an air conditioning unit if it’s a wall unit.
I’m thinking your audi should be able to tune out the AC noise.
No option to re-arrange or block the noise really, as I face the front counter to greet people coming in. It’s a fairly small area too.
I’d have thought the constant fixed hiss would be something that noise reduction would minimise. Maybe it’s because I’m in beginner-mode still? Also the Opn 3 has max 3DB NR anyway, so maybe it’s not enough? Possibly the nosie management needs to be set to agressive mode as when it’s quiet, the a/c is the main noise, so may not be detected enough to be considered a complex environment. So maybe a tweak by the audi will help.
Ah, you might have a point about it being the Opn 3.
It may be too soft for the hearing aid to register as something that should be reduced. You can program it down (at the cost of some softer speech sounds).
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Yes, it may take several tweaks to find a good compromise.
Dear Russ,
Thank you for your post. Like you I am a newbie (11 days) and appreciate any shared experience. Hearing loss is at the wrong end of moderate in my case. Really wanted to try the OPN, but difficult finding any audiologist in my home town to do so. Hence, interested in your experience as I bought the gn Resound Quattro. My ears ache, and the right feels very sore, and find myself very tired. Past view days, there is some sort of reverb, so any ideas for this would be appreciated. And again, ended up in bed by 8 just plain wiped out. Are you sufferening from sound overload ? I have been wearing mine for 12 to 14 hours per day.
Again, great post and would love to hear ( not pun intended) on how things progress. All the very best to you.
Ps at times the sound stage on the Rq is pretty amazing, with everything sounding very good. Almost like normal !?
Eva,
Hi Eva,
Not sure on the reverb. What domes are you using?
Since I’ve had several days now without my aids while I awaiting a solution for my office phone, I’ll probably be back to square #1 in getting accustomed to them. The extra sounds while I was wearing them were noticeable, but not necessarily overwhelming, apart from the issue with the air conditioning hiss at work. My audiologist may have helped this by starting me at a low gain level though. I got my ConnectClip today, just one more item needed before I’m back in action with the office phone. Hopefully it might arrive tomorrow.
Russell.
I, too, have the Quattro. I have moderate to severe loss. I have trialed the OPN also. The Quattro matches the OPN and has a better accessory line.
The Quattro should do a good job for you. Did your audiologist do real ear measurements? Also enable the Muic program if it isn’t already. That offers a more…ahem…open sound. Shouldn’t be reverb. Also, I recommend custom embedded receivers. Resound does a nice job of this.
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Thank you enormously for your mail. It means a great deal.
Yes to REM, and yesterday the audiologist increased my range and changed my domes to tulip fitting.
Still suffering from reverb and hope that will improve over the coming days. The key difference today, is that I can hear so much more finer detail. Especially bird corus whilst walking my dog. However, feel as though I have experienced issue with with comprehension. Having worn hearing aids for almost 2 weeks straight for 12 hours per day. I wonder if I an just over tired.?
I do agree with you, the range with the Resound Quattro at times is amazingly good. Listening to the stereo in the car on the way home from work was brilliant.
Will test our your app suggestions .
All the very best.
Eva
It took me almost 3 months to feel comfortable with my first set of hearing aids. And yes wearing them as long as you are is very tiring. I had to,take some time off during the day. I have been wearing aids for more than 13 years and I still need some time during the day to rest from my aids, but now I just mute them for a few minutes every few hours.
Russ: I’m definitely enjoying the daily journal you’re sharing here - and can relate to several of your experiences! Just a few questions/observations:
- You don’t SLEEP with these on do you? Cuz you really need to let your ears breathe for a few hours at night. I realize that puts the onus on your wife to hear for both of you, but get those aids OFF every day.
- I have the exact same issue of my double domes slipping out all day long as I articulate my face (to talk, eat, smile, etc.,) I’d had the leash on initially, but the extra bulk of that attaching to my receivers irritated my canals more than helped.
- SO glad you got the ConnectClip for streaming phone calls at work. Streaming is a WORLD of difference to holding up the phone to find that sweet spot on the aids.
- You mention the ambient noise being kind of overwhelming. That is why I exchanged my OPn aids for the Phonak Audeo B-Direct aids. With my particular hearing loss (or brain/ear combo) I simply could not make sense of SPEECH in the same environment as ambient noise.
Keep posting here! We are all learning from your experience.
A quick question to those on the link. After 2 weeks of 12 hours per day. My right ear is feeling very sore and painful to the point of wanting to cry. I am panicked thinking more hearing loss, as it does feel duller. Audio commented on it being red and sore at the bottom of the canal. Do you occasionally get this with domes etc…and the body / ear not liking a foreign object being there. Not really sure what to expect ?
Also, what experience have you all had adapting to comprehension of language with hearing aids. ??
Sometimes it is very good, days 12 to 14 mine seams to have gone backwards. Or is it just fatigue. .
Hugs to all.
Eva
I have conventional batteries in my Resound Quattro and they lasted 10 x 12 hours days. I only changed them As I was worried battery would run out during a concert I was attending.
Interesting to hear about your phone experience, as I am finding it a hard using phones. A few days go started streaming calls to my ears from I phone, Sometimes works well, yesterday, like you had lots of interference when e mails messages came in. Lots of clicking and fading in and out on occasions with some strange interevence like buzzing noice.
Any suggestions. ?