The hearing aid conundrum-----this group ought to have info!

[wellington]

Yay, so glad you took that step. Keep going until you find what is more comfortable for you but then you do have to give it time to get used to them. Just don't get discouraged. Everyone I know that has gotten them, has had the adjustment period of playing around with the ones they had chosen to get that right level and getting used to hearing things they hadn't heard in a long time. You'll get there and when you do, you will be very happy you took that step.
Don't forget the fun part of having them. You can turn them way down or off when someone is bitching at you and you don't want to hear it lol.

 

[Maggie3fan]

Yay, so glad you took that step. Keep going until you find what is more comfortable for you but then you do have to give it time to get used to them. Just don't get discouraged. Everyone I know that has gotten them, has had the adjustment period of playing around with the ones they had chosen to get that right level and getting used to hearing things they hadn't heard in a long time. You'll get there and when you do, you will be very happy you took that step.
Don't forget the fun part of having them. You can turn them way down or off when someone is bitching at you and you don't want to hear it lol.

Hearing aids are NOT fun!!! I hate mine. I have had them for about 3-4 years. My church paid for them...$3.500! I still have not kept them in for more than a couple of hours. I have to wear my hair differently so I can't hear my hair. Frankly, I don't think they help me to hear, they really just show me how loud I talk at people...I don't know what to do...I hate them with a passion, and only wear them at an event. Oh and there is NO fun in hearing...

 

[wellington]

Hearing aids are NOT fun!!! I hate mine. I have had them for about 3-4 years. My church paid for them...$3.500! I still have not kept them in for more than a couple of hours. I have to wear my hair differently so I can't hear my hair. Frankly, I don't think they help me to hear, they really just show me how loud I talk at people...I don't know what to do...I hate them with a passion, and only wear them at an event. Oh and there is NO fun in hearing...

You just need to get them adjusted or possibly a different kind. I don't think they will ever be perfect for anyone, but you miss out on so much. Besides the people around you don't want to keep repeating themselves.
If you are talking loud it's because you lost your hearing long enough that you speak louder trying to hear. Or you just like telling at people lol

 

[Yvonne G]

Hearing aids are NOT fun!!! I hate mine. I have had them for about 3-4 years. My church paid for them...$3.500! I still have not kept them in for more than a couple of hours. I have to wear my hair differently so I can't hear my hair. Frankly, I don't think they help me to hear, they really just show me how loud I talk at people...I don't know what to do...I hate them with a passion, and only wear them at an event. Oh and there is NO fun in hearing...

I too have trouble with my hair and my glasses. It really bothers me that my hair and glasses makes them click and thump all the time. But I wear them at night so I can hear the TV without having it up loud enough for people in Sanger (the next town over) to hear it.

 

[Maggie3fan]

I too have trouble with my hair and my glasses. It really bothers me that my hair and glasses makes them click and thump all the time. But I wear them at night so I can hear the TV without having it up loud enough for people in Sanger (the next town over) to hear it.

I also have a brain problem so I forget about the hearing aids, until I stick my finger in tomscratch my ear and I send one flying...

 

[jeff kushner]

I also have a brain problem so I forget about the hearing aids, until I stick my finger in to scratch my ear and I send one flying...

Uh oh, I did that already too!


I wore them to the parade/party Friday night, outdoors(with firepots) probably 50 people, the parade tractors and trucks and in that environment, they shine! I told Kerry on the way home that I was able to hear conversations that normally would have been lost. A party is the "worst place" for my hearing and the little machines did well. In that setting, there is so much noise that I don't notice the background noise as much.

They are not perfect but the truth is, I held conversations that were not reliant on my lip-reading ability....THAT is cool. I actually heard what people said.

I've been playing with them a lot and found there's very little value to wearing them in quiet places like watching tv. I just don't need the amplification like Yvonne does, I need the blanks areas filled.

I learned that with them installed, I can't listen to really loud music at home or in the truck...they automatically keep adjusting down to the ambient sounds so you can never "hear" it loud! I had the music turned up to 60 at home so my sliding glass doors were moving...but it wasn't that loud to me till I turned off the aids in the app....holy cow they are effective at suppressing loud sounds! I left them off and turned it down to 50 and it was enough to pound the adrenaline.

Now here (get it?) is another thing I've learned.....when we hear things, we use how the sound waves strike our ear to help "locate" the point of origin. With hearing aids, all the sound waves come in though the hole on the side. I walked in the woods yesterday, heard 100 animals but couldn't locate any of them by sound! Weird!

Before the party, I was less then convinced that I would use them much.......that was before the party. Now I'm beginning to understand that this doesn't have to be an "all or nothing" thing....I can wear them where they will help and tuck them away when I don't.

 

[jeff kushner]

Let's close out this thread with this;

I spoke to the Dr at Zepp yesterday. She was a sweetheart and once she was comfortable that I wouldn't mess it up she gave me her backdoor into the program so I could lower the base volume by 2 steps lower than apparent in the program. WOW

Big, big BIG difference!

When watching tv now, there is no volume change when I remove or put back the hearing aid, I just hear additional sounds. Exactly what my goal was.

It's still a hearing aid with tiny speakers and some distortion & tiny still equals tinny to some extent but I'm happy with them now.

I will not be ordering the other pair now.....I'm good.

 

[SuzanneZ]

I will turn 66 in a few days.....despite my very best efforts!

I have mild hearing loss and am considering that it might be time to get hearing aids. Thankfully, the rules now allow the sale of real hearing aids , OTC.

I am only looking at the CIC & ITE types, no behind the ear stuff, ego is too large for that. (come on superman with visible hearing aids?)

I was thinking about buying a crappy set just to see if I handle them in my ear before plunging to more higher end aids. Does that make sense? Seems stupid to do when I type and read it! LOL

The information available from the manufacturers is all info about fit and batt life. Fluff....no real in depth specs and there are 50 million different ones now, many just amplifiers that make false claims. Wow.....

So how did YOU select the ones that YOU wear, word of mouth, amazon reviews, all the scab insurance company will cover?


Here's a snapshot of the OTC industry today;
I signed up to receive a sample of the eargo 7, a decent quality product and one of the more expensive of the OTC models other than Stryker......................then 2 emails and one text later, I realized that they were going to make this a "process"....now they want a phone appointment to "confirm my address"...they actually texted this to me....Really? Are all their clients as patient or gullible? Doesn't take over a 85IQ to see where this is going. Instead of sending me the piece of plastic like they said they would and maybe selling a $2500 device........... Goodbye.

So while the Audiology industry took advantage of folks for decades, now the shisters have moved in.....

So ANY advice will be appreciated......

 

[SuzanneZ]

I'm late into the hearing aid decisions, but I need to say I finally quit mine and do closed captioning and lip reading. If you're face to face with me, I do fairly well. Depending on your tone, I can get all of what you're saying or a garbled mess. I can hear birds and very high pitched sounds, almost like super hearing in that range. Deep voices and whispery voices are the worst. Vocational Rehab supplied $1500 aids in about '07. Restaurants are loud! Forks crashing onto plates! Glasses thunking onto tables! I never got used to the chaos. Then I developed a skin issue in the ear canals and couldn't use them at all.

I want a t-shirt that says "Really I'm not stupid. It's just the hearing."

For me a sound outside will be opposite of where I look first. That could be because my left only gets the really high stuff.

 

[Cathie G]

I have met 5 tfo members. One is not on much any more, but we are really good friends even though she lives in Georgia. We text almost daily and meet about once a year. We have had very similar lives with working with vets and showing and raising dogs, and of course the tortoises. I have met Tom and three others a couple times but they aren't very active any more either. All really great people.

I have met so many nice people here. There's a few that live close enough that we could have met but COVID took place and we're elderly so it didn't happen. I feel like I'm in a community of special people though anyway. It would be wonderful to get to meet them in person but we're all so busy we usually can't. Thank the good Lord we have TFO to talk to one another when we can.🤗

 

[Cathie G]

Yay, so glad you took that step. Keep going until you find what is more comfortable for you but then you do have to give it time to get used to them. Just don't get discouraged. Everyone I know that has gotten them, has had the adjustment period of playing around with the ones they had chosen to get that right level and getting used to hearing things they hadn't heard in a long time. You'll get there and when you do, you will be very happy you took that step.
Don't forget the fun part of having them. You can turn them way down or off when someone is bitching at you and you don't want to hear it lol.

My granddaughter just takes them out and sets them down if she gets sick of hearing what you have to say. Joe won't wear them 😉😁 I turn the TV up sky high but it doesn't matter cause Joe can't hear a dang thing. When you live with the deaf it can get really loud 😭 I probably need some hearing aids 🙃too