I am on day 10 with hearing aids. I have worn them every waking hour the entire time.
I saw my dad yesterday and he asked if I can hear better with them and I said I am not sure.
I am certainly hearing sounds I have not heard in a long time, and my tinnitus disappears when I am wearing hearing aids. I can hear the deafness creep in as soon as I take one out of my ear.
I didn’t say “what” to people that often before hearing aids and its the same after.
before hearing aids I have had a few times where I was unable to effectively communicate with someone because i could not hear them and understand them and everyone of those times were in a noisy area. To solve this problem I don’t go to noisy crowded places.
I love the bluetooth.
You can see my audiogram, I need hearing aids, and maybe I am in denial, but there has not been a tremendous difference.
I have not tested then out in noisy environments yet though.
I am not considering returning the hearing aids and getting my money back.
My Word Recognition Score was 96% @ 75 (55) dB HL right ear and 100% left ear during my hearing test before hearing aids.
what do I need to do to get the most out of my hearing aids?
What hearing aids do you have? With your hearing loss I would think that the best fitting will take some time to get right as well as you getting use to them.
I went with the rexton reaches. My understanding is I am not amplifying my lower frequencies 1.5K and below much if at all.
I dislike the way the rextons sit on my ears and I plan on switching to the Jabra pro 30’s if they sit better on my ear.
I’ve been wearing hearing aids for just over four years now, and I just switched from Oticon More 2 to Oticon Intent 1. My audiogram looks maybe a bit worse than yours. I feel like a get a huge benefit from hearing aids, but they don’t restore perfect hearing.
Since I got my new aids, I’ve stated a list of things I don’t like about them. I have a follow up soon, and my intention is to work with the audiologist until these give me what I paid for.
What I’d suggest for you, @2ball, is to think about what you don’t like. Can you explain what you don’t like? Write it down. Make a list. Talk to your service provider and have them work on it. It might not be “one and done.” To get the most from your aids, you may need several visits (if that’s feasible for you).
I’ve got a list for my new ones, and I plan on as many trips as it takes to tune these. I think you could get some benefit from aids that work for you.
I have been wearing aids for 20 years. I now wear Oticon INTENT1 aids. I find they do me as much good as they possibly can. I also keep a journal and have done so most of my life. About a week before my appointment I email my audiologist of 7 years my thoughts, complaints, what is really working, and anything that I am thinking about talking or asking a out or for. It speeds up the appointment as in a lot of cases my audiologist all ready has needed adjustments written down and ready to be programmed into my aids. I have an appointment in about a week and the topic is firmware updates, and possibly getting new aids. I am a veteran and my hearing loss is service related. I am classified as 50% disabled. I need new backup aids, and that will be my INTENT1. My backup aids now are out of warranty and the rechargeable batteries are dying.
If you don’t like the way the Rexton’s sit on your ears the wire may be a bit short. Ask the fitter for a longer wire to the speakers ( domes) that will allow the aids to sit lower ( behind) your ears
They initially gave me length 3 wires. I went in and got 4’s, I still didn’t like those, so I went in again and got the longest size 5 wires. The 5’s were too long. I figured out it was probably the bend in the wires, so i switched back to the 4’s and I re-bent them. I jacked up the bend on them, now they don’t say put on my ear, so I keep them in place with a small piece of body tape. It’s been nightmarish!
The fact that you are wearing them continuously daily will go a long way to help you become accustomed to them. Unfortunately, our sense of hearing isn’t like your eyesight where you read the letters on an eye chart and your doctor prescribes lenses to correct your vision. Hearing aids take awhile to become accustomed, and then may require further adjustments to where you can understand speech easily, especially in noisy background noisy environments. I have the Jabra Enhanced Pro 30s and I have been very happy with them. I bought the Enhanced Pro 20s in December last year and then traded them in for the 30s in May. They are a big improvement in hearing speech in very noisy places.
The Enhanced Pro 30s use GN’s deep neural network and AI technology through a separate chip to accomplish the noise reduction. The only drawback is that when using the, “Hear in Noise”, function on the app, you have to remember to switch it back to the, “Hear all around”, function manually, or the hearing aid batteries will not last throughout the entire day. The deep neural network uses a different chip which drains the batteries faster than the normal chip. I do like the extreamly small size of the hearing aids and they have felt perfectly normal from the first day. Sometimes, during the day I will check that they are still on my ears.
Just wear them consistently. It may help keep your cognition sharp by taking some of the auditory processing load off your frontal cortex, allowing it to do what it was meant to do. It may help preserve word recognition, as some pathways may atrophy without being stimulated. Your loss is mainly in the word recognition hot zone.
That tinnitus, which fades when they are on, and that tunnel you go into when they are off, shows that they are working.
I have Jabra EP 20’s and I absolutely hated to listen to those programs on the TV (via TV Streamer 2) that raised the level of audience noises to equal foreground, like America’s Got Talent. One day, I thought to try the Hear In Noise program…poof, audience noise significantly subdued. Further experimentation revealed that the Sound Enhancer controls can be tweaked (first notches for both Noise and Wind Noise) do the same thing for the All Around program as well. I can even create a Favorites program (called No Audience) that eases switching it on and off. I can also boost or lower surrounding area sounds at the same time using other adjustments of the new Favorite. I would expect the EP 30’s to be better, but missed the chance to exchange my 20’s.