I have to admit I’m pretty much stuck with the sensation of “going nowhere while months pass by” regarding HAs. This happen regarding both their regulation plus occasional glitches and the near future. I ask myself “what’s next to do in my situation”?
The context regarding HAs and regulation is the following:
•) I have some 7 years old HAs, from Starkey, with custom ear-molds, working with 13size batteries, specific model : Starkey Halo2 2400
•) I have a similar loss in both ears, most of the times they work fine together. Sometimes for months-long periods I experience some difference between sides. My right side “to me” sounds weaker even if tests made did not show any difference in HAs between sides. To note, the left side is way more prone to tinnitus and I assume it to be more sensitive (not accurate) to sounds.
•) technically every now and then I do experience glitches in my HAs, in no specific order I had some problems with the streaming Bluetooth (and now is ok), I had recent problems with the batteries (the HA read them as dead, the accessory measure them with residual charge). I have a problem with wax meaning I produce a lot of it in small amount of time and so the HA struggles to convey sound because of the blockage (it should get better at the end of the summer)
However - to me - the most important highlights to me is how much I struggles with
- sounds from the surroundings versus speech sounds
I do pick up enviromental sounds pretty well, except for bikes or sometimes I hear something and I don’t know what is it. I admit : at times it seems like there are too many informations to process, I end up with headaches because almost everything make a decent amount of sounds (even the fridge). I think I’m not good at give priorities to sounds, meaning all of them are in the front line and not in the background if I want them to.On the other hand I struggle with speech, a lot.
Example from yesterday, at the hospital, I could hear the printer making a lot of sounds and that totally overshadowed the receptionist talking and I did not understood any of that. I have little choice in directing the HAs microphone and to me it seems like they pick up the loudest sounds.
They sure gives me more context and without I experience everything more quiet and I miss a lot of informations. The “bittersweet” confirmation I had in these weeks is how much I rely on lipreading for understanding speech, even if I’m nearly 16 years with HAs. It’s like I’ve reached the peak of my understanding speech in 1-to-1 or more noisy situations, despite any change in regulation or any best effort I make. With this level of speech understanding I’m not independent and I struggle in many contexts, with the exception of streaming phone-calls or something else.
- also “I’m stuck” in fact I had no real change of trying new HAs, despite my request and 2 years has passed since I got told I needed to change my current HAs. Also, I’m not informed about what improvements has been made in these 7 years and in the meantime the prices has skyrocket.
In any case, I know the regulation is the key to get a good result, but I still need the piece of tech to try out new solutions. For example, Starkey did not released in Italy any of the more recent yet powerful options (the BTE line never got to arrive). I’m ok with trying out other brands, like Phonak or Otincon and still my fitter is not convinced for whatever reason. So, it’s a difficult move to make. Changing fitter is difficult, bc in my experience not everyone is professional in their job or I got told I have a too much difficult hearing loss to fit. Right now I’m not sure if it’s ok to wait for my current HAs to stop working.
Any suggestion is welcomed. Thanks