Tami,
Sorry for the long post.
You seam to be in the exact situation I found myself in last summer to fall. How you word your feelings is exactly how I felt and opinions I was going through. I was seeing the Audiologist to reprogram my HA more than I ever thought possible. Everyone in the office knows me by name. They know my wife by voice on the phone since she has to call to make the appointments since I couldn't hear worth a crap on the phone. I would E-mail my wife to call and schedule an appointment and I would start driving to the office so they couldn't just say sorry when I was standing in front of them not being able to understand what they were saying. Looking back, during two of my most frustrating weeks I visited the office 3 times to get the HA adjusted just so I could hear enough to just maybe catch what people were asking me to do. This may have been the turning point because the week after, I had an appointment with the Dr and when he asked how I was doing I kind of mentioned he needed to talk with the Audiologist as I was there 3 times in the past 2 weeks. He did leave the room and talked with her and that was the first time they mentioned a CI as I was strongly leaning that way as well.
I found early on coke and salt played a part in the tinnitus. Prednisone sometimes helped reduce the tinnitus and sometimes it did not. I was taking so much medication at one point that when I found myself taking 20+ pills in a single day I made the choice that this can't be good for my health so I tapered off everything and guess what, nothing changed. The hearing did not stabilize or get better or worse. For me, the most frustrating part was I couldn't do a damn thing to make my hearing get better or worse. It just did whatever it wanted to. It just kept on the downward trend. Good days always lead to worse days. At on point, I told the Dr. that I did not want any more good days. I just wanted my hearing to stay where it was which sucked but I sure didn't want it getting any worse. I did know that if I ever lost enough, a CI was in my future and just hopefully it would help more than a HA.
I went through a ITE HA to start with and after 4-5 months, it was not powerful enough so the Audi helped work a deal to get me a BTE with no out of pocket money on my part. That one lasted maybe another 4-5 months before it was no longer any good. Batteries would initially last almost a week until the end where they lasted maybe 36 hours because it was cranked so much. Feedback My wife would tell me that my ear was ringing long before I could hear it which was also telling me how bad it was getting. They were consistantely adjusting the HA to reduce the feedback and change the amplification on the different frequencies just so I could maybe understand enough sounds to make out what people said but I had to follow lip reading as well.
I wish you luck and hope that you are able to keep things going as good as possible at home while things take their course. If your hearing is like mine, you'll have a CI soon enough. I hope you are able to find an Audi that will allow you to come in when ever you need the HA adjusted. They may begin to understand your frustration and just might understand the frustration you are going through especially when they start seeing you twice a week if it gets that bad. I truely hope it doesn't since I know what a pain that was for my lifestyle.
Steve