Sound overload - that is how I feel. I know I just got my hearing aids (HA) and I am really happy to hear sounds and words. I had really bad hearing in both ears and my speech discrimination is poor. I was severely deaf in both ears and now with my HA's I am about mildly deaf in both ears, which is amazing.
I am trying to get a good idea of what I can handle with my hearing aids and what limitations I have with each hearing aids. The premium HA's I have can be programmed various ways depending on the environment I am in. The hearing aids will immediately adjust to different environments and cut down on uncomfortable sound levels that might hurt my ears. The problem is my hearing level and my uncomfortable sound level are very close so I don't have much room to play with.
Let see I went to bank today (that was really loud), Starbucks (hate when they use their blenders), lunch at Chi k-fila with family, then finally the Mall of GA. If you remember a month or so ago I posted a blog about my bad experience at the Mall - http://myworldofsilence.blogspot.com/2012/07/not-cool-anymore.html I think I should still stay away from the mall on the weekends. I am surprised I am the only one having sensitivity issues with these noises and it does even bother people with normal hearing. Maybe people just don't care until they lose their hearing.
I am know upstairs in my room in silence so I can rest my ears and my head. I actually took off my HA's so there would be silence. WOW! What a difference having them on one moment and then off. I didn't even realize how deaf I am.
Technology is amazing but I sure how this technology will work for me.
6 comments:
Now you see why I keep mine off most of the time! I love the silence. But you need to get used to wearing hearing aids...
Yeah but the tinnitus setting is really good. But there is nothing like silence, hence, the title of my blog.
wow how true it is
There's a tinnitus setting on your hearing aids? My audiologist said that the aids would get rid of the tinnitus, but they haven't made any difference at all. They do distract me from it a bit, but don't diminish it at all.
My problem with the aids is that although I have hearing loss across the board, it's a bit worse on the high end, so my audiologist set the aids to amplify the part that I have most trouble with.
The problem is that I have to turn it down to get balanced sound (sound that sounds anything like normal), but that's way too quiet for me to hear.
If I turn the aid up, it just amplifies the high sounds, and nothing is recognizable. I keep asking her to give me SOME amplification for ALL sound, but she won't do that, so I still can't hear anything useful.
I recently got to try out something called a pocket talker, and it amplifies sound across the board, so I can actually hear with it. I got one today, but the earphone I got for it has the wrong plug on it, so I haven't been able to use it yet. I tried one out a few weeks ago, though, and although it also amplifies the background noise, sounds are much more understandable.
Johann,
Thank you for your comments. I do like the tinnitus setting on my HA's but the audi has to change my settings to the tinnitus is all by itself so I can just use that during the night. The issue I have with my hearing is I have severe hearing loss but my UCL's are really close to my hearing loss so I don't have much room to give in-between. The goal for me is not so much increase sound but clarity given my speech discrimination is about 50 percent.
Oh, did I also mention the issue with loudness recruitment. CI's here I come.
I cannot take more than an hour of family or social gatherings without turning off my aid, and stop trying so hard after a while. It's called fatigue, and it's quite common for hard of hearing persons. My fiance used to call me "rude" when I would go off and watch tv after a while when we had friends over. But I just seriously could not take another minute of over compensating and trying to fill in the blanks.
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