I Need Some Advice

Levonian

Levonian

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I’m wondering if you guys could help me out with something. I’m thinking about buying a hearing aid and I have no idea where or how to begin. Here’s my situation: I had meningitis when I was 5 years old, which knocked out my right ear. I’m not really sure exactly how messed up my hearing is, because I have never been to an audiologist. The last time I had my hearing tested was when I was a child, and it was done by my family pediatrician. So I can’t give you all the nitty-gritty details about my hearing loss, but I can try to give you a general description. My left ear seems to be normal or at least very close to it. I can use a regular telephone, carry on a conversation with my back turned, and hear typical soft background noises like the refrigerator humming in the kitchen. My right ear is toast. The only time I’ve ever heard sound in it has been at concerts. If I hold the phone up to it, all I hear is a very faint muffled noise. I can tell it’s a human voice, but just barely. If I plug my left ear while I’m watching TV at a normal volume, I hear nothing.

Since I’ve been like this all my life, I’ve never really given it much thought. Neither my parents nor anybody else (teachers, doctors, etc.) have ever suggested that I get a hearing aid. And I’ve always thought that my right ear was so shot that it wouldn’t do any good anyway. But last night I was hanging out at my friend’s house watching a movie, and I asked her if I could check out her BTE. When I stuck the mold in my ear, I was astonished to discover that I could hear. It sounded like an AM radio, but I could hear very clearly. I plugged up the other ear as tightly as I could and experimented with it for about an hour. With my back turned, I could understand everything my friend was saying. I could use the phone, and I could even hear the sound of her aquarium pump. Now I’m very intrigued by the idea that I can have bilateral hearing, and I want to get one. But I have no idea what to do. I got on the Internet, but I was overwhelmed by the amount of information that is out there. I have lots of questions, and if any of you could give me some advice, I’d really appreciate it. For example:

What should I do now? Should I go see an audi, or should I just go to somebody who sells hearing aids?

How much does it cost to go to an audiologist and get a full evaluation?

Does the fact that her BTE worked so well for me mean that I’m not as deaf as I thought?

Will a digital HA give me more natural sound that an analog HA?

Since the BTE worked so well, does that mean that I can get one of those little ones that you just shove in your ear? How much do those cost?

I’d really appreciate it if you guys could help me out with this, even if it’s just posting a link for me to read. Thanks.
 
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It's best to go see an audiologist and have a hearing test done before getting a hearing aid. They have different kinds of hearing aids specifically designed for various hearing levels. Once they know your hearing level, they can determine which hearing aid is best for you.
 
Will a digital HA give me more natural sound that an analog HA?
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Not nessarily. Some people are hardcore about digitals, but for every digital lover there are people who just wear analogs. Besides if you get analogs then you can spend the money that you would have spent on technology on things like cool colors! :mrgreen: My best advice is to take advantage of the 30 day trial period and experiment with a variety of different aids. Just b/c an expert reccomends one type of aid, it doesn't mean that the aid is right for you.
Since the BTE worked so well, does that mean that I can get one of little ones that you just shove in your ear? How much do those cost?
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Probaly not....the dinky ones do NOT and I repeat do NOT provide enough power to aid more then a mild loss. The dinky ones are just for old people or people who are in denial of their hearing loss! Hey....at least a BTE isn't a body aid or an ear trumpet! :mrgreen:
 
Oh geez, deafdyke—you really know how to kill a guy’s fun, don’t you? I was sooo looking forward to that ear trumpet. :D

Anyway, I spent the whole day on the Internet trying to make sense out of all the information that was out there on the subject of HA’s. It’s pretty baffling, but I did figure out a few things. First of all, it looks like my self assessment was pretty accurate. My left ear has low range normal hearing, and my right ear has the hearing acuity of your typical rock. Not quite profoundly deaf, but way past moderate. Which means that deafdyke is right and that ITE’s probably aren’t going to work, based on the spec sheets I was looking at. I also found out that my friend has a particularly strong HA, which is why I got such a good response with it. This is her hearing aid:

http://www.unitronhearing.com/site/people/products/analog-us80.html

She paid about $800 for the whole package, which is about what I was hoping to spend. So that pretty much leaves digitals out of the picture. I don’t think I want to spend too much on my first HA—it may turn out that it’s not really as great as I thought it was going to be and I might lose interest a couple of years down the line. Buying a cheaper one right now will also give me more time to thoroughly research the subject, so that if I do decide to get a better one in the future, I will be more knowledgeable about the subject.

So it looks like my next step is to go find a good audi. Has anybody had any experience with Costco? I have plenty on my Costco card. My friend suggested that I don’t go to a dispensing audiologist, though. Should I go to a separate audiologist for an evaluation?
 
Levonian said:
Oh geez, deafdyke—you really know how to kill a guy’s fun, don’t you? I was sooo looking forward to that ear trumpet. :D

Anyway, I spent the whole day on the Internet trying to make sense out of all the information that was out there on the subject of HA’s. It’s pretty baffling, but I did figure out a few things. First of all, it looks like my self assessment was pretty accurate. My left ear has low range normal hearing, and my right ear has the hearing acuity of your typical rock. Not quite profoundly deaf, but way past moderate. Which means that deafdyke is right and that ITE’s probably aren’t going to work, based on the spec sheets I was looking at. I also found out that my friend has a particularly strong HA, which is why I got such a good response with it. This is her hearing aid:

http://www.unitronhearing.com/site/people/products/analog-us80.html

She paid about $800 for the whole package, which is about what I was hoping to spend. So that pretty much leaves digitals out of the picture. I don’t think I want to spend too much on my first HA—it may turn out that it’s not really as great as I thought it was going to be and I might lose interest a couple of years down the line. Buying a cheaper one right now will also give me more time to thoroughly research the subject, so that if I do decide to get a better one in the future, I will be more knowledgeable about the subject.

So it looks like my next step is to go find a good audi. Has anybody had any experience with Costco? I have plenty on my Costco card. My friend suggested that I don’t go to a dispensing audiologist, though. Should I go to a separate audiologist for an evaluation?
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It's probably better to buy a cheap hearing aid. The hearing aid I'm wearing right now is analog and over 10 years old... and it still works. It was cheap and has taken a lot of beating. I left it in the parking lot for cars to run over, in the tennis court for people to step on, fell out of my ear during my sleep for my dog to chew on, left it on when I got in the shower or jumped in the swimming pool, and many more...

Amazingly, it still works... :eek:

I got a new advanced digital hearing aid in 1999. It only lasted me less than one year before it stopped working. The warranty to fix it was for one year... so, I can't get it fixed for free. Grr!
 
VamPyroX said:
It's probably better to buy a cheap hearing aid.
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A lot of the stuff I was reading today supports that. It seems that the smaller and more sophisticated the unit is, the more delicate it is. Some of the CIC units only have a rated life expectancy of 3 years, because they are rapidly destroyed by the moisture and wax inside the ear. It also seems to me that I don’t need a lot of advanced features. I obviously don’t have to worry about a telephone coil, and I also don’t need sophisticated differential frequency discrimination, because I have a functioning ear on the other side which can fill in the gaps for me. My friend’s analog HA seemed to do just fine for me. I would be content just to be able to localize sound, and to not have to turn my head every time somebody says something to me. If I can keep the price down to $1000 or less and the unit gives me at least 5 or 6 years of reliable service, I’d be perfectly happy.
 
because I have never been to an audiologist. The last time I had my hearing tested was when I was a child, and it was done by my family pediatrician. So I can’t give you all the nitty-gritty details about my hearing loss, but I can try to give you a general description. My left ear seems to be normal /
Well back when you were little, most experts discounted the effects of unilateral hearing loss, b/c it was thought that as long as you had one good ear, you could function OK, and didn't need the advantage of biurnal hearing. They said this b/c until relatively recently most deaf kids only got aided in one ear, or had those BWA with the Y cord.
A lot of the stuff I was reading today supports that. It seems that the smaller and more sophisticated the unit is, the more delicate it is. Some of the CIC units only have a rated life expectancy of 3 years, because they are rapidly destroyed by the moisture and wax inside the ear.
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Good, seems like the downsides of the dinky aids are becoming more well known.
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Hello there, first of all sorry for my English, I'm italian so it's not my first language.

In the past months I was in a situation very similar to yours: I realized that I could get really better hearing with a hearing aid. In my case, I have a loss in both ears since I got complications from an infections years ago. Btw I didn't realize how much hearing I was loosing until one of my hearing friends made me notice that I was asking to repeat things too much often and acted like I wasn't really a person who can hear ok. So he helped me and I met a friend of him who also has a hearing loss and i could try his hearing aids. Well, even if molds didn't fit my ears at all, I could realize that I could hear really better.
So I spent lot of time thinking if I really wanted to go and buy them, and which ones were better and so on.
It was a big step but I went to an audiologist and I realized I really was in need of them.
Until here everything was ok. As for choosing hearing aid style, things are different... I think that almost every audiologist will suggest you to buy digital ones: they cost more, need more maintenance, they break easily, and so on...so really better for them.
Anyway I tried to get well informed and realized that also a GOOD analog can be a great solution. Finally I went for analog, got the earmolds and started with them. Getting used needs some times...at first looks like all the sounds come from the same size into your head...but after a while I realized how much I needed them!!!
Now i realize it was amazing how I couldn't understand I needed them...
In less than one month I became fulltime wearer and really happy of them...even if analogic ones.
Well of course every situation is different...but this is mine: my advice is just to get informed about getting analogic instead of digital...audiologist can have an interest on it! :)
Let us know what you will decide!
Marco
 
Thanks for all the advice you’ve given me so far. I’ve made an appointment with a dispensing audi at Costco for Thursday, March 11. Although I’m a little leery about going to an audiologist who is also the person who is going to try to sell me the unit, the examination is free. I feel that I’ve sufficiently armed myself with enough information beforehand to able to make a critical analysis of the options that the audi presents to me. I found this on the Internet regarding Costco’s HA services:

Costco has been in the hearing aid business since 1989 with more than 100 hearing aid centers in some of its more than 300 warehouses across the nation. The company will undercut costs on hearing aid products, which most private providers mark up 300 percent to 400 percent, said Michael Baughn, Costco's Hearing Aid Center manager and certified hearing specialist who previously worked for Costco competitor The Hearing Aid Center.

"If a hearing aid costs at wholesale $1,000, it will be marked up to $3,995," he said. "That's a typical scenario, but it's not a hard-and-fast rule. Costco operates completely differently. It just puts it out at the lowest price possible for members. Generally, that means our end-product price is at least half of that which outside dealers charge."

Private companies with high overhead costs and advertising expenses must pass costs onto consumers, said Jack Cohen, Costco Hearing Aid operations manager.

Once I get the lowdown on Costco, I’ll continue to shop around and see exactly how competitive their prices are and how well their service plan stacks up against private providers. More to come…
 
I just wanted to throw in a side note. I'm sure you're already well aware of this fact, but most places give you at least 30 days to try out a hearing aid before you purchase it, allowing you plenty of time to make up your mind.
 
Yes, I knew about that, but thanks anyway. Deafdyke also mentioned it. I later found out that federal law requires it. What cracks me up is that all the dispensing audis advertise it like it’s their idea and they’re telling you how generous they are! :lol:
 
I saw an audi on Tuesday. What I found out came as quite a shock. It turns out that my self assessment was accurate, but not quite accurate enough. I thought I had low range normal hearing in one ear, and a severe to profound loss in the other. Looks like I was a little off. It turns out that I have completely normal hearing in my left ear—0 db loss across the board. There’s nothing wrong with it. My right ear is deader than a doornail. Not severe, not profound, but DEAD. Needless to say, I was astonished. A pattern like this would be expected in an acoustic neuroma victim, but it is remarkable for a post-meningitis case. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are less than 100 people in the United States like me. I’ll have to investigate this further when I have some time.

So that rules out a traditional hearing aid. But why was I able to hear when I used my friend’s BTE? It was an illusion. The sound waves were passing through my skull and were being picked up by my right cochlea. Pretty neat trick—it really sounded like I was hearing in that ear. So that leaves me with four options: a specialized type of HA called a CROS aid, a BAHA device, a CI, or forget about the whole thing and just go with what I have. A CROS aid is a device which consists of two BTE’s. One BTE is worn on the dead side, and it transmits to the BTE on the other side. It’s sort of like having one good ear connected to a microphone on the other side of the head. It has advantages and disadvantages. It enables the wearer to hear sounds better on the dead side, but it tends to reduce hearing ability on the good side, because both sides are in competition. A BAHA device might be the ideal solution for me. It’s an HA about the size of a Chiclet which attaches to the side of the head on the dead side and transmits vibrations through the skull to the good ear. It’s fairly new, and has only been recently approved by the FDA for treatment of SSD (single-sided deafness). Early test results show that it gives much better results than a CROS HA.

http://www.hei.org/research/depts/hcsd/baha.pdf
 
Wow...your ear is dead. Does that mean deep, deep profound? My advice is for you to join listservs about the aids that were reccomended. I know there's a BAHA listserv out there (most people with my type of loss wear bone conduction hearing aids and transistion to bone anchored hearing aids if they don't opt for surgery) and there might be a list out there for CROS aids as well.
 
I guess after you get past a certain point it becomes purely a matter of semantics. I’m not sure whether it would be appropriate to describe it as being beyond profound, or at the extreme limit of profound. "Zero residual hearing" seems to me to be the best way to phrase it. But to put it in purely quantitative terms, the audi pumped 110 db (the legally permissible limit) in my right ear and got no response. If I’m not mistaken, 110 db is equivalent to the volume of an SST on takeoff.

Good idea about the listservs—thanks. My gripe about the BAHA is the price. The unit itself is $2200—no big deal. That’s about what a person would expect to spend for a typical digital HA. But the surgery costs about 10 grand! It’s just a half hour procedure under local anesthesia to implant a small titanium anchor into the skull. Doesn’t sound much more technically complicated than lancing a boil on my ass. I think I’ll wait until the next improvement comes out, and when they start soliciting for guinea pigs I’ll get over there in a flash waving my hands and going ME ME ME. I might even pay the folks at House Ear Institute a visit and see if they wanna cut me a deal right now. They might take one look at me and go "whoa—a meningitis case. Might be able to get a paper out of this one". I know the neurologists at UCLA who examined me back in the 60’s wanted to publish it. I’ll see if this chimp can swing some sort of angle to get it for free.
 
Lev, the BAHA surgery can be covered by insurance. They might not cover you b/c you have a "good" ear, but it might be something to look into.
If you want to try it out before the surgery there is something called a Softband BAHA (it's like the BAHA but it's on a softband thingy)
How come the nereologists at UCLA wanted to do a paper on you? Was it b/c the mengintinas only caused single sided deafness?
 
Levonian said:
My right ear is deader than a doornail. Not severe, not profound, but DEAD. Needless to say, I was astonished. A pattern like this would be expected in an acoustic neuroma victim, but it is remarkable for a post-meningitis case. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are less than 100 people in the United States like me. I’ll have to investigate this further when I have some time.
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Hmm... I'm thinking that it's possible that the audi at Costco didn't do a through testing of your hearing and just went ahead an assumed your right ear is "dead" -- if it was, the BTE wouldn't have worked. That's just my guess.
 
deafdyke said:
Lev, the BAHA surgery can be covered by insurance. They might not cover you b/c you have a "good" ear, but it might be something to look into.
If you want to try it out before the surgery there is something called a Softband BAHA (it's like the BAHA but it's on a softband thingy)
How come the nereologists at UCLA wanted to do a paper on you? Was it b/c the mengintinas only caused single sided deafness?
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Right now I’m partially self-employed and don’t have insurance. But believe me, I’ve already thought of that and it’s an angle I intend to pursue. And I’m also going to check out the soft band. I think they pretty much require you to take it for a test drive anyway before they give you the thumbs up on the surgery. In a few individuals the sensation caused by the BAHA device is uncomfortable.

Now I’m not sure why they wanted to publish my case. I was led to believe that unilateral hearing loss from meningitis is very rare, but some things that I’ve been reading lately suggest that it’s somewhat more common than I thought. Bilateral deafness is clearly a far more common consequence, though. Since UCLA is a research hospital, it’s possible that they were experimenting with a new treatment modality and it worked. So maybe it’s more common now than it was back then, and I was lucky enough to be one of the pioneers.

I do have a minor claim to fame thanks to UCLA—my mother was only the second person in the world to receive a fetal sonogram. So I am the Buzz Aldrin of the in utero baby pic! :cool:
 
Sweet_KJ said:
Hmm... I'm thinking that it's possible that the audi at Costco didn't do a through testing of your hearing and just went ahead an assumed your right ear is "dead" -- if it was, the BTE wouldn't have worked. That's just my guess.
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Actually, it wasn’t the Costco audiologist—it was another audi that I saw 2 days before the Costco appointment. I canceled the Costco appointment after I saw the first audi. The reason I was able to "hear" with the BTE is that the sound was passing through my skull and was being picked up on the other side. It was just an illusion. However, the audi did recommend that I get a second opinion.

I’m going to try something else, too. I’m going to see if I can localize sound with the BTE. I’ll sit in a chair in the middle of a room blindfolded and have my friend move around me while banging a pot. Then I’ll analyze the results and see if there’s any difference with the BTE versus without it. If the audi is right, there should be no difference with the BTE on.
 
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