Throwing in the Towel

Hearing Aids
#1

It’s been 8 months since I bought my pair of Phonak P90 PRTs and am throwing in the towel. I live in an older home with wooden floors throughout the house. The sound I hear is similar to what I imagine would be like walking on egg shells but much, much louder. My brain has not adjusted to the sound and no matter what the audiologist does it won’t go away.

The hair cells in the cochlea of my left ear were severely damaged years ago when hunting with my friends. Standing next to the muzzle of a 12 gauge shotgun when it is discharged is not recommended. There is not much the audiologist can do about this ear.

I won’t be wearing them any longer with the exception of having Alexa read books to me streamed through the aids while sitting in my big comfortable chair; much nicer than sweaty headphones or those earbud thingys. I’ll stop by from time to time to see if there are any new developments that you all might be discussing.

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#2

Your aids need to be adjusted. Nobody buys aids gets them adjusted and lives happily ever after. It was not unusual, especially at the beginning to bring my new aids in 2 or 3 times for fine-tuning. There are a ton of people who just give up and throw their aids in a drawer. Unfortunately. Go talk to your audiologist. Or find a new one. And remember. Aids don’t fix your hearing. They help you hear better. It’s a compromise

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#3

Thanks for the advice. I’ve had 10 sessions with him over the 8 months and he has tried everything. Making these adjustments is a series of tradeoffs and one of them is this noise that cannot be suppressed.

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#4

You don’t have an unusual audiogram. But you most definitely need hearing aids. I might consider taking them to another audiologist. Maybe someone with more experience regarding programming will step in here with better advice

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#5

Might a different kind of house shoes or slippers help?

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#6

paulpuente, DON’T GIVE UP! Get a new audi. Tell that audi you’ve tried over many visits to get the frequencies tuned to reduce the “shatter-effect” of these aids. IT CAN BE DONE, cuz my audi did that for me a week ago.

I had an easier time of it! I had Phonak Marvel aids tuned over many visits with my previous audi. Phone streaming, TV Conenector and general speech/ambient sound were beautiful and just what I wanted in my aids.

My new audi did a new hearing test (which didn’t change from my last one in 2016!) and yet the settings she had for my new Phonak Life aids was HORRIFIC. I didn’t panic, but I made it real clear: these aids were going to need more fine-tuning for me to keep them. I posted a query here about transfering the Marvel set-up to the new Life aids? Got a lot of answers and indeed, that’s what was done a week ago.

My audi got on the phone with Phonak and they walked her through the copy’n paste to get my Marvel setup moved to the Life aids. Now, both aids are identical in frequency setup and program lineup. The Marvels are the perfect backup aids for my new Life ones - completely interchangeable even tho they are 3 yrs old.

Please … be persistent! The problem is in the settings. You can even add dedicated programs like “Comfort in Echo” which I have for use in my cavernous, high-ceilinged house. It can be done. Find a new audi and get it done.

9 Likes
#7

Its definately not plug and play. Also on those hard floors sound bounces around try a rug in your tv area

#8

I think you should stay focused on getting the aids adjusted and not trying to adjust everything in your environment. Just for the record you own top notch hearing aids. So don’t give up. Oh and I’ll keep your shotgun advice in mind

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#9

Seems it’s time for DIY, all you need is software, a Noahlink wireless programming device and “patience” there’s plenty of people from right here on hearingtracker to help you along, it’s not that hard, and as only you know what your hearing and how things “should” sound, DIY could well be the saving grace.

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#10

It has taken many adjustments over the 20 years I have been wearing aids to find the correct fitting for my head hearing loss. I never gave up, The right fittings didn’t happen for me until about 3 years ago. I moved had to go to a new clinic with a new audiologist to me anyway, it took another 14 appointments and 2 sets of aids to finally find the correct settings. I was raised to never give up.

#11

@paulpuente

Willie Nelson - Don’t Give Up (Official Video)

#12

3-1/2 years of adjustments.
Is it perfect nope, but it’s as good as it gonna get.
Try hearing what your hearing
mixed in with distortion.
I’ll take klickety klack without distortion anyday.
Oh, let’s throw in booming distortion of your own voice.
You can quit if you want to.
I did, at least for six months.
You have to ask your self if you hear better with the aids overall. Be honest. If the answer is yes than you stick with it. No matter how long it takes.
Not gonna be easy. Few things in life are.
Good luck.
Forgot to add I’m on my ninth
audiologist in 4-1/2 years.

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#13

Freezerman, you’re explanation doesn’t help the op and is not a normal experience. Plus your loss is not similar to the ops loss so his options are not the same. Check his audiogram

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#14

Just advising not to give up.

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#15

Ok. Maybe I misread what you said

#16

Do not give up, that’s the worst thing you could do…
You will find a lot of research papers around that state hearing loss and dementia go hand in hand. So that’s a very good reason to wear hearing aids.

The AuD’s office you go to, do they have other AuD’s practicing in that clinic? If so change to a different AuD… If not demand a Phonak audiologist attend your next adjustment. When you have profound loss it’s very hard to get your aids adjusted to how you want them. It really takes a very experienced AuD to be able to cope with adjusting your aids to how you want.

You can also ring Phonak and ask for help…
Good luck…

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#17

@paulpuente: Eight months is nothing, but if you’re not making forward progress, I’d suggest that someone isn’t doing their job. Could be the audiologist, could be you, could be both.

But if you throw in the towel before the job is taken to completion, whoever has slacked off never gets found out, and the results they obtain on their next tasking never get any better.

As my grandmother SpudGunner used to say: “Only quitters give up!”

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#18

I thank all of you for your advice and encouragement. I’ll try to respond to all of your comments with this one post.

I can’t change my environment - our house has 3 floors (ground, 1st, 2nd) and all of them including the very old staircase have very squeaky boards. Even walking barefoot causes the horrendous noise in my aids.

Changing audis - not a chance here in Switzerland. As some of you know I bought them online at Auzen because the cost in any audiologist’s office was CHF 9,300 and I couldn’t afford that. A pair at Auzen was CHF 2,780. No audi here will accept you unless you have purchased the aids from them. At least, I haven’t found one.

The audiologist that works for Auzen is Phonak trained. He and I have talked about some of the limitations of online tuning, such as, REM and he tells me about the things that Phonak is working on to improve online tuning. Therefore I believe he is very competent and knowledgeable.

@tenkan - I’m going to take you up on your suggestion to do DIY tuning. Thanks for the link to the Phonak software. I’ve already downloaded the files. I’ve searched for where to buy the Noahlilnk Wireless device and can’t seem to find a company. The HIMSA distributors appear to sell only to professionals as does Phonak. There are two listings on eBay.ch but they won’t be delivered direct from China until October and given the international supply chain disaster maybe not even then. Any suggestions?

@cvkemp - "It has taken many adjustments over the 20 years I have been wearing aids to find the correct fitting for my head hearing loss. " I appreciate your effort to convince me but I don’t have 20 years to work on this. I am 84 years old. But, I am going to give it another shot.

@Baltazard - I appreciate the message from Willie.

Thanks to the rest of you who have given me words of encouragement.

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#19

eBay.usa or uk is your friend for this.

#20

Many thanks tenkan. The eBay link you sent doesn’t ship to Switzerland but I found an eBay supplier in the UK. Should arrive by August 16. I’ll be in touch after that if I need some help.

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