One or 2 hearing aids

Hearing Loss
#22

Balance.

I had the good fortune to work as a consulting engineer for a firm that employed my friend. He hadlost his hearing due to a prescription…what he told me is that the cochlear implant added on one side affected his balance. He would walk down the corridor with his right hand on the right wall so he wouldn’t fall.

So I was a ski instructor for 35 years. I went skiing for fun and used my one Widex hearing aid in my left ear.
I fell. I’ve turned left and right a billion times. I got up and looked down. My right foot was going backwards. Toes were pointed back, one ski was pointed back
Patrollers came.
Quick summary.
They took my skis off.
They explained.
They lay me down on the snow so they could prepare to splint my leg.
Then 4 men held me and they turned my right leg around, and splinted my leg. I had 5 morphine shots on the way to the hospital. I had had 5 fractures. That was all on March 23, 2003. It changed my life. Although I skied again in 11 months, I don’t ski now.
I lost a week’s work and a week’s pay.
When I got back he said one word to me. Proof.

One hearing aid affected my balance. I should never have bought one hearing aid. I should never have skied with one hearing aid in.

ENT’s and audiologists don’t know about this. In my test group of two people, both of us have had this problem.

I still have 2 plates and 14 screws in my right leg. Airport fun!

1 Like
#23

My hearing loss is way asymmetric without explanation (been through some MRIs to try and tell). The ENT/Audiologist pretty much said if both ears were like the left, they’d not consider me for hearing aids and if both were like the right, they definitely would. I got them anyway. The one thing is that many aids these days do some cross correlation for both sides which helps.

1 Like
#24

For my hearing loss one hearing aid is just about the same as not wearing aids at all. For me it takes both aids for me to understand what anyone says.

2 Likes
#25

First questions, I think:

Do I need hearing aids
Do I need two?
Where do I get them?

I’m glad that you know what works for you. Truly. And there’s a key there for me. “It takes both”. I have two. But I also have different size ear canals. So as I’m about to try closed domes for my Phonak Audeo Paradise P90R’s, I think I need to pay attention and mayb use a larger closed dome in my larger ear canal, than my smaller ear canal. Because up til now I’ve had trouble understanding what anyone says.

Thanks!

1 Like
#26

As I said in the beginning my audiologist told me I would benefit from 2 hearing aids, though my doctor said I would not. I consulted another doctor and she said I am definitely a candidate for a second one based on a speech-in-noise test (not based on audiometry). I have two in the meantime and I am happy with them. The use of 2 aids also ads the possibility of focussing in a certain direction and above all also the possibility of streaming music.

1 Like
#27

I think you may have answered your own question when you said the second aid helped balance out your hearing

1 Like