Anybody else find HAs are sometimes bad for hearing?

ecp

ecp

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So last weekend I got married (woohoo).
My husband and I had a joint bachelor/bachelorette party that was super low key at a local brewery.
I accidentally left my hearing aids in the car and didn't want to run though the raid to get them so I just lip read and...it seemed like without all the NOISE I could "hear/lip read" so much better (my husband had to sign a few things to me but to seemed as though since our friends knew I wasn't wearing my hearing aids they made sure I could lip read them)
The next night at our rehearsal dinner I wore my hearing aids and did well but once we got home, I couldn't hear ANYTHING but roaring.
The roaring lasted over a day.

That is always my problem with my hearing aids- in noisy situations the sounds aren't meaningful, they are noises that are painfully loud and cause a day or two of worse hearing loss.

Does anybody else with profound hearing loss elect to not wear hearing aids in noisy situations?
My hearing aids are awesome in quiet but are painful in noise.
 
I know a few people on here say they prefer to not wear them in noisy situations as its pure noise.

I found my Naidas noisy in noisy places but they were better then my Phonak Superfronts HAs.

I went to my Audi the other day to try one last thing to help with my annoying feedback that I get with my hair down, that I thought was solved and he changed the fitting formula within the software. It's helps my feedback now, finally! BUT one thing its also done has made thing super clear in noisy situations and I only have the Naida III. I can now hold a convo on the bus which I couldn't do before. I can also hear children in noise as well. Amazing what changing the fitting formula has done to me. I'm very impressed. Just thought I would share it :)

Anyway congratulations on getting married :)
 
@ecp......I do the same with my CI. If I am around a group of say ten people, I get a headache when I come home. If I am in a noisy place, I take my CI out otherwise it's too loud and painful.
 
Again, ecp, I'd look into CIs....it really does sound like you may have recruitment issues if noise is painful for you. I thought they were implanting due to recruitment. (and I wholeheartly support that)
Everyone seems to be different with profound/severe/even HOH losses and how they respond to hearing assistance.
But difficulty in hearing in noise seems to be universal...it's just a part of being HOH.
Even unilateral dhh folks can be totally lost in noise.
 
I can not wear my hearing aid if there is a lot of noise. It just bothers me.
 
With my Starkey's I had the option to turn off the back microphones so that muffled the background sound, but it didn't give you great sound but it was better than not having the setting. My Q's are supposed to do this automatically and while they do a good job zooming in on someone at your table talking, the background noise is overpowering. I usually leave a restaurant or noisy place with a headache. If I didn't wear my HA's though, I wouldn't understand anything anyone was saying.
 
It depends on the noise level, if it's really really loud, like lately I've gone to The Boathouse for Sunday Fundays and there are bands there, so my HA's muffle the noise pretty much to where I can't hear anything. So..no the noise doesn't really bother me because I can't hear it :giggle:

If it's just a crowd, even then my hearing aids block most of the background noise, they pretty much don't let me hear anything at a level that would be painful....but on the other hand it kind of defeats the purpose of wearing hearing aids, because they're making it so I can't hear anything, they basically become ear plugs. Not that I would need ear plugs ever, noise or no noise, without them I can't hear anything anyway. But the programs to hear speech in noise are not what they're promised to be.
 
Keep in mind that hearing people articulate their words more in noisy environments, which makes them much easier to lipread & understand.

That's the nice thing about today's hearing aids...you can mute background sounds and focus on speech (at least with my CI's) compared to the old analog aids.

When I wore aids, yes, I would have echoing going on for a few minutes after turning the aids off following a noisy event.
 
The last several months prior to getting my CI and what also spurred me to do something; I could not be in noise or music with my hearing aid without incurring screeching tinnitus and reduced hearing. I'd leave my aid off a lot to conserve what hearing I had left.

You really are ready for a CI. At this point, everyday that you wait you will be kicking yourself over after activation.
 
I do not like wearing my HA in a very loud environment and I end turning it off . I once when to see some fireworks and had my HA on and I could not hear anything for almost hour after the fireworks where over. Someone here said it sound like monkey chatter when in room with a lot people , I agree , a HA is useless in a room full of people to me.
 
In retrospect of your title.... Wearing CI can be bad when you can hear someone next door to your toilet cubicle pissing and groaning!!!


Anyway, I prefer wearing my CI over my hearing aids in noisy places but to be honest I steer clear of noisy places! It's just me... I hate being in crowded places.

During my ha days, I suffer from recruitment. it was awful, I used to end up in tears as I couldn't cope with it. I don't have the problem with the CI :)
 
one can still have recruitment with CI too. I do apparently. My dog's barking with my CI on is too much it hurts, and birds chirping kind of hurt too.
 
Thanks for the advice everybody.
I've been considering a CI for a few years but it seems like now might be the time.
I just have to convince my insurance company to cover CIs (they explicitly exclude cochlear implants).

Recruitment sucks, trying to get by in the hearing world is hard, but I'm really lucky that my husband has been learning ASL since we met (almost 10 years ago) and he makes a point to always sit on my right (better ear) side.

And in the post above I said my hearing aids are awesome in quiet...that apparently isn't quite true. Tonight I asked my husband if he preferred a side dish of whole wheat pasta or green peas. He replied with, "green cheese.". Of course I thought he misheard me and told him that green cheese wasn't an option...he couldn't stop giggling when I realized that I was the one who didn't hear...we usually make jokes about stuff like that.
 
What carrier do you have and does your work offer an alternative choice like Kaiser? Do you have a HMO or PPO?
 
cdmeggers said:
one can still have recruitment with CI too. I do apparently. My dog's barking with my CI on is too much it hurts, and birds chirping kind of hurt too.
Click to expand...

true, and it most likely is an indivdual response just as with all hearing gizmos.
 
cdmeggers said:
one can still have recruitment with CI too. I do apparently. My dog's barking with my CI on is too much it hurts, and birds chirping kind of hurt too.
Click to expand...

Good point!!! If someone is thinking about getting a CI for help with recruitment or tinnitus they should know that it doesn't always help. Or course everyone is different and this is why we speak from our own experiences.

I love my CI but it does not help me at all with my tinnitus or recruitment.
 
BleedingPurist said:
What carrier do you have and does your work offer an alternative choice like Kaiser? Do you have a HMO or PPO?
Click to expand...

We have independence Blue cross through our school (we are both in graduate/professional school...getting a pHd and pharmD). My mom, who is a nurse who deals with insurance companies all day, has been doing research about appeals to the insurance company and what not.
 
I almost always take my hearing aids off or i wear just one when it's too noisy..and yes my ears definitely do ring even louder (if that was even possible..) than they usually do. I'm getting the new naida q for my left soon so i'm hoping that its better for noise than the core naida
 
ecp said:
We have independence Blue cross through our school (we are both in graduate/professional school...getting a pHd and pharmD). My mom, who is a nurse who deals with insurance companies all day, has been doing research about appeals to the insurance company and what not.
Click to expand...

The CI companies will help with getting insurance approved as well. You have to get medically approved for them and whatnot first though too. If you are interested in CI's, start the process and see what they have to say about qualifying for them and what they see with your insurance.

lovezebras said:
I almost always take my hearing aids off or i wear just one when it's too noisy..and yes my ears definitely do ring even louder (if that was even possible..) than they usually do. I'm getting the new naida q for my left soon so i'm hoping that its better for noise than the core naida
Click to expand...

One big bonus with the Q over my Starkeys is that they can have a mute button. I use it a lot. I have been wearing my Starkeys the past couple days because the ear mold on my Q is irritating my ear. They sure are a lot quieter, but then again, I can't understand anyone either....
 
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