I picked up my Charismo 2c hearing aid from Costco yesterday afternoon. Here are my first impressions:
Overall, it’s very VERY discreet. Neither my husband nor my mother-in-law could really see it until they looked directly at my ear from the side, but I had to tell them what they were looking for - the clear tube! As a relatively young mom with two young kids, I find it’s invisibility really reassuring!
Never having worn a hearing aid before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The initial fitting in the sound proof booth makes things difficult to discern, in my opinion. All I had to base sound on was the audiologist’s female voice. She first tried me with a custom ear mold; however, I felt as though sound was coming through several layers of blankets with that. So then she changed me to some sort of dome that’s supposedly better for people who also have low frequency hearing loss as I do (see my audiogram posted above). The dome she tried me with looks a bit like a lampshade with two slits down each side. In the sound booth, that seemed great. Even on the drive home it seemed great. But that’s where it ended. Once I got home and spoke with my husband, I felt that his voice wasn’t coming through the aid at all. So I plugged my “good” ear, and sure enough, his voice was barely audible through the aid. I then tried the aid on all three settings: 1 is the automatic setting; 2 was made a few decibels quieter to help me deal with my screaming toddlers, and 3 was made a few decibels louder for when I’m having a “bad hearing” day due to allergies. On all 3 settings, my husband’s voice was still barely audible and quite muffled. I then listened to a newscast and found the same thing. Female voices were fine at a much lower TV volume than I usually use, but the male voices were muffled and mostly incoherent. I’m not sure what this means, except that maybe I need to try a new dome? The audi did mention that I might need to try a few different ones. The next one will be a double dome, whatever that is.
The other thing I found is that the aid has shut itself off a few times already, at random intervals. The first thing I did was check to ensure the battery door wasn’t open. And it wasn’t. Then I took out and reinserted the battery. I tried that twice with no improvement. I finally resorted to opening a fresh battery. The aid is still shutting down at odd intervals. I don’t know why this is happening?! Any insight?
I have a follow up appointment booked for tomorrow, because basically, it’s voices that I need help with and so far the aid isn’t really doing the trick. I’m hopeful that the audiologist can tweak it a bit to improve things. I’m willing to give her a few months to get there. Honestly, I really want this aid to work for me, because if it does, I’ll get one for my “good” ear as well. The ENT said my “good” ear has normal hearing, but it doesn’t. It has a mild loss, and I suspect I would benefit from wearing an aid in it as well. But I can’t really afford 2 aids if they aren’t through Costco, because the other one I like a lot, the Starkey Xino 110 costs about $7,000 for the pair and we just don’t have that kind of money right now.
Anyway, I’ll update more as I gain more experience with the Charismo.