Subject: RE: Musicians with Hearing Aids
From:
Allan C.
Date: 05 Nov 15 - 08:33 PM
Some of this has already been said above, but I thought I'd say a few more things about getting hearing aids. Basically, if you suspect you might need them, I do hope you have already made an appointment to get your hearing checked. FWIW I don't, of course, have any idea of your benefit package, if you have one; but you may be surprised to learn that some offer as much as $1,400 PER EAR (yes, ear – not year) toward aids. That is a pretty good reduction in the overall cost.
The technology for hearing aids is continually changing. Because of that I am now on my third set although I continue to use my second set when I'm out fishing or something – just in case I fall in the drink and get the aids wet. (Some of the newer ones, though, can withstand such events.) Although my first aids were from Miracle Ear I switched to a Siemens dealer for the rest. They have served me quite well.
If you haven't already gotten some aids there are some considerations you may want to examine. Mainly, does the company with which you are dealing offer any extras? Mine will even replace some of the parts for free if they become defective. Actually, they'll replace all of the parts for free for a year or two. They also offer free appointments every six months at first and then annually later for the purpose of aid cleaning and for performing any needed tune-ups. Yes, they need tweaking from time to time as your hearing changes. Or you may at first need quite a bit of tuning to get them just right for your needs.
Something that isn't much mentioned in the discussion so far is the frustration of others who patiently (or not) put up with having to repeat themselves because you lost the last part of their sentence while attempting to figure out what you think you heard in the first part from context. This happens even more when the speaker changes topics and you no longer have a context to work from.
As I mentioned above, the technology has changed quite a lot since my first hearing aids many years ago. I particularly like the Bluetooth capability. It is truly wonderful to have TV or music played directly into my head by way of my aids.
BTW, I was quietly informed by a friendly source some years ago that you can sometimes negotiate a better deal with your hearing aid salesperson. Acting upon this suggestion, I got the company to throw in the Bluetooth setup for FREE.
Another thing that is often overlooked in discussions about hearing aids is what else they do for your hearing. When your existing hearing is stimulated by the aids' augmentation of some of the diminished frequencies, some of those frequencies actually become more audible EVEN WHEN YOU'RE NOT WEARING THE AIDS! (Note: this isn't true for everyone.) I didn't actually know about this factor even though I noticed it and even remarked about it long ago in an early post in this thread. "The odd thing is (and I have spoken to other aid wearers who have experienced the same thing) after wearing the aids for a period of time, say a week or two, it seems as though my ears somehow re-learn how to hear some of the sounds I have been missing." A ramification of this is that if your brain hasn't processed sounds of a particular frequency it "forgets" how to hear it and over time this "forgetting" becomes permanent. What this means (for many people) in plain terms is that the longer one delays in getting hearing aids the more irretrievable their hearing becomes.
Don't keep putting it off!
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sj
