HA Opinions Please

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NickCameron1031

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Ok if you saw my newbie post a few weeks ago you know my background, if not a quick recap. I have been HOH for a long time and recently had an infection in both ears that wiped me down to a hearing level of 90-95. I have never had hearing aids before but my audiologist is telling me to try them. I need some input, what do you all think? Is it worth the $4000 its gonna cost me or should I just cut my losses and deal? I have no problem with being unable to hear, but my family is all up in arms over it. Please help.

Thanks


Nick

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well if you really don't care not to hear then don't let anyone push u to do something you dont want. esp your family, but they are just trying to help and they think they are doing and thinking the right thing by telling u to try ha's..
but the good thing about ha's are that you can trial a pair and see if you like them before buying them. So if you don't like them and don't get em and if you do like them then heyyy great!. I personally love my has so i think everyone shud at least try ha's but def dont get pushed around into trying them if u dont want too! Good luck!
 
Thanks for your input, I never realized I could give them a trial. I am just worried that with as loud as they are going to be that all the noise will drive me crazy!


:ty:
 
Well hmm I got few questions for you,
1) Do you know sign language?
2) what do you rely on for communicating with hearing people?
3) do you have alerting system with flashing (doorbell, wake up alarm, fire alarm, etc)
4) do you experience any frustration with not being able to hear?
5) what is your job title? Does it involves with a lot of communicating with worker, boss and/or customers?

Thanks if you answer those I'll give you my opinion on if you should try hearing aids out :)
 
SkullChick said:
Well hmm I got few questions for you,
1) Do you know sign language?
2) what do you rely on for communicating with hearing people?
3) do you have alerting system with flashing (doorbell, wake up alarm, fire alarm, etc)
4) do you experience any frustration with not being able to hear?
5) what is your job title? Does it involves with a lot of communicating with worker, boss and/or customers?

Thanks if you answer those I'll give you my opinion on if you should try hearing aids out :)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response SkullChick, here are my answers.

1. Yes I know both ASL and Signed English, I am rusty at them from lack of use, but I am quickly picking them both up especially ASL which I prefer over signed English.

2. I have a hearing b/f, my entire family is hearing, and the majority of my friends are hearing, I lip read them and talk to them. I use i711 relay or my text msgs to communicate via phone.

3. I do not have an alert system set up in the apt yet, but we have been talking about doing it, I am rarely home alone though.

4. I do not experience any frustrations over not hearing, but a lot of my friends and my b/f and family seem to get very frustrated with me. I do get a little upset when they are talking to me and either point at something so I look at it and they keep talking or they talk to me and walk away.

5. I am a warehouse worker in a very noisy environment. Most of what I do is automated, and I rarely have to talk when I am there except on break time. The only thing that hinders me at work is I can't hear the bells or announcements that they use to tell about breaks and things, I have a friend that comes and gets me.

I hope these help and I look forward to your input.


Nick

:ty:
 
Just give them a try but at first, they may seem uncomfortable.

What are your expectations from HAs if u do get them? Do u want to hear for communication, just hear environment noises, or both.

I rely on my hearing aids for both. I am in an ASL environment most of the time so I use my HA more for environmental sounds.

Hope that helps!
 
I am not going to try to think I can hear peoples voices, so I am thinking environmental. I dont know how any of those things work lol, so my expectations are pretty open. Thanks for your help.

Nick
 
NickCameron1031 said:
Thanks for the response SkullChick, here are my answers.

1. Yes I know both ASL and Signed English, I am rusty at them from lack of use, but I am quickly picking them both up especially ASL which I prefer over signed English.

2. I have a hearing b/f, my entire family is hearing, and the majority of my friends are hearing, I lip read them and talk to them. I use i711 relay or my text msgs to communicate via phone.

3. I do not have an alert system set up in the apt yet, but we have been talking about doing it, I am rarely home alone though.

4. I do not experience any frustrations over not hearing, but a lot of my friends and my b/f and family seem to get very frustrated with me. I do get a little upset when they are talking to me and either point at something so I look at it and they keep talking or they talk to me and walk away.

5. I am a warehouse worker in a very noisy environment. Most of what I do is automated, and I rarely have to talk when I am there except on break time. The only thing that hinders me at work is I can't hear the bells or announcements that they use to tell about breaks and things, I have a friend that comes and gets me.

I hope these help and I look forward to your input.


Nick

:ty:
Click to expand...

Hello sorry that it took me long time to reply, I've been busy, so anyways
1. That's good that ur picking up sign quickly that's important to know sign.
2. Yeah that's hardest part is being deaf and surround the hearing people all time do you ever feel left out in group of your friends when everyone's chatting and no way that you can keep up with them by lipreading? I would suggest you to get hearing aid it actually help a lot with lipreading.
3. It is important to have alerting system because you never know anything could happen. Try going to deaf school office or state fire marshal and ask for fire alarm they should give you some for free.
4. Yeah I understand your feeling, I hate it when people does that too, hearing aid would help a lot in lipreading as I said earlier, and hear people calling your name, and you can practice listening to audio book (book on cd) and have someone talk to you slowly or with sign so you re-learn the speech sound, never too late to learn! :)
5. Ooh yeah hearing aid would definately help with bell and when you hear announcement you can ask some one what it said or who know maybe eventually you will know what it said by yourself!

As in for all it sound like a good idea for you to try them out, no result are same so it might exceed your expecation or it might don't work at all but I really think you should try them out, my bf is hard of hearing for 15 years (he's 21 now) he didn't care that he can't hear but I can see some frustration that when people start talking to him from behind and he didn't know till I told him that someone is talking to him so when he tried it out he loved it and said he didn't know how good it feel being able to hear again in 15 years out of right ear and he got excited being able to use phone on both not just left one. So maybe that will be you who know just give it a try and you can contact dvr or some place like lion's club they help with cost of hearing aid
 
Whoops! Accidently posted twice my sidekick wasn't working right so I thought it didn't send so I typed another one but it did send lol sorry I don't know how to delete it haha sorry
 
Skullchick,

Thanks so much for your input, from the positive responses I think I will give them a try, I mean the worse that will happen is I will get ear overlaod and turn them off. The support that I get in the forums here is overwhelming to me, you all are great.



Nick


:ty::ty::ty:
 
Definitely try hearing aids first before buying them. Sometimes hearing aids just are not for some people, so they go without and are happy with it. This is totally up to you, as this is your life and your ears. If you want to wear hearing aids, go for it! If not, that's great too! It's a personal decision. But yeah, don't buy hearing aids right away as you don't even know if you will be happy with them or not. And there are so many different hearing aids out there (styles, brands, types, etc.), so one may work best while another is TERRIBLE. They all have different levels of power and sound quality, etc.
 
Volume control

Some hearing aids have a finite set of programs and that's the only way
you can "adjust" them in situ. I have always insisted that I get
hearing aids that have volume control (either a wheel or a up/down
button) so I can decide how much volume I'm willing to tolerate versus
the importance of understanding all of the words. This has helped me
a great deal; a setting that sounds good in your quiet audiologist's office
may blow your head off on a busy city street. (Of course this depends
greatly on characteristics of your loss; also, as you get used to the
aids you may be able to tolerate higher levels.)

I've found this to be very useful; when my cubicle mate is having a
phone conversation I can just dial back the volume and still get work
done, while not being totally deaf.
 
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