It’s been very interesting, to say the least. Being new to hearing aids I was unsure what my experience would be. Some expectations came to fruition, while others did not. I was expecting to potentially be overwhelmed with the sound and experience the hearing fatigue many have noted. My first day I wore the hearing aids for about 11 hours, next two days have been over 14 hours each. As I expected, I could hear a lot of things that I hadn’t heard in years or had issues with; birds chirping, being able to hear a neighbor talking to her dog across the street (relatively soft spoken), definitely catch more of what my wife is saying, but occasionally still miss a few things. A few things I’m a little unsure of being new to the experience. When I put the hearing aids on in the morning I hear a little what I think of as white noise in my left ear. Chewing crunchy food was a surprise! In my right ear it sort of sounds like the snares on a snare drum. Not sure if this is something I will get used to or not, or if it is an issue with programming. I’ve had high frequency loss in my right ear (75db at 6000) since 1985, so it may take longer for me to adjust to the change of hearing on this side.
They started me off with 4 programs: General, Speech in Noise, Automobile, and HiFi Music. I did not need the Automobile setting on the 45 minute drive home. Went to an HOA meeting yesterday and checked out the Speech in Noise, and could tell the difference, but it wasn’t that noisy so I reverted back to General. Haven’t had the opportunity to use the HiFi Music yet, but music on the TV sounds OK. Overall I’m very pleased.