Frustrated

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JennyB

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I have had my new HA's for just about a month now and it has been a struggle. For those of you who haven't read any of my other posts I will give you a breif over view before I continue. I have severe-profound loss in my left ear, and moderatly severe-profound loss in my right ear. I started wearing HA's when I was 2 and I wore them until I was 12. When I was 12 I became a vain pre-teen and refused to wear them anymore. About a month ago I got new HA's and have started to use them again.

My adjustment to sound has been difficult to say the least. I have had a very hard time with speech in noise, and music. Luckily, my audiologist is a saint. I have had 4 fine tuning appointments so far, and I have another one on Friday. I have a new audiologist this time around because I moved recently and I couldn't be happier with her. I am just very frustrated with my re-adjustment to sound and all of the problems I have had with the HA's thus far. I just needed to vent a little. Has anyone else had a similar experience with programming? We just can't seem to get it right.
 
Hmm, what you mean by "can't seem to get it right"? Like what is it that you don't like about way things sound? Echo-y? Staticky? Monotone? Lack of richness in sound? Please explain more :)

I liked my hearing aid from phonak (phonak forte when I had moderate loss) but right now its in profound so I tried out most powerful ha Oticon sumo ds and it hurt, makes me very dizzy everytime I hear low frequency sound and gives me strong "whoosh" sensation inside my head from all the amplification. And sound were awful, provided only little tone difference enough to distinguish the difference between female and male voice. And over half of the speech sounds, sound like static. So I got CI and OMG what a huge difference. But I was very lucky compared to some though.

Anyways please explain details with your issue with ha I might can help and ofc I won't push CI AT ALL :)
 
How many years have you not been wearing your hearing aid? I realise you stopped at age 12 but you are now? It might be that you need to give it more time to allow yourself to adjust to the sounds again after being in quiet for so long?
 
I use Phonak Savia Arts, so quite high end powerful aids. My problems initially were with singing. I have been a singer all my life and I have adapted to hearing loss and figured out new ways of singing. With the hearing aids I have had a really hard time with singing. The music program on the HA's was making things sound distorted and blurry and I felt as though I was trying to sing one song while a different song was playing in the background. As far as speech in noise is concerned I am often unable to pick out the persons voice from the noise. My audi made a ton of adjustments today which will hopefully help. The appointment was at the end of the day though so I didn't get to try them out. I don't wear my aids when I am home alone...I don't see a point. Tomorrow will be the test though. From the limited experience I had today, ordering coffee, with the new settings it seemed much worse. We will see. I have another appointment on Friday and I can always get one sooner if need be.
 
I know how you feel. Although I'm not a singer (unless if you count that I sing in the car!), but I know how music sounds with hearing aids. When I was young, I was able to follow lyrics very well, and had no problems with music in general. I was able to pick up the vocalists. I did not like male singers because it "sounded" like they were blended in with the background. After many years without a problem, I started to have issues with music. I knew something was wrong with what I'm hearing when I'm listening to my all-time fave singer, Reba.

So, yeah, the issue I think you're having is that you're sorely missing the high frequency that you need. Hearing aids is just an amplification device. Most people with hearing loss, are missing a LOT in the high frequency range. From what it seems like is that you're so used to hearing stuff "without" the high frequency stuff, and now with the hearing aids, it's there, but not all there, and it's throwing you off. It is possible that that ear you have the HAs in has not been simulated in so long that it's sounding quite weird.

It took me a while to adjust to hearing the high frequency with my CI because I never had it in the first place. Even now, it has been a month since my activation, there's some stuff that sounds slightly weird/loud.
It takes some adjusting period and and adjustments to meet your needs. At an audiologist office, it's hard to really determine if it's a great adjustment because it's not really the "real world". SO...I suggest you to bring your iPod, or some music CD that you KNOW what is supposed to sound like (for example, I always use "Fancy", or "The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia", for comparison purposes). It should give you some insight what you need....hell, it may even help if you sing back to the audiologist of what you're hearing, then she can tell which sounds you're missing.

Sorry for a long post. I wish you best of luck!
 
I have been unaided for 6 years. I would have stayed unaided too but i was struggling in lectures at University and needed the use of an FM again.

I get to test out the new changes at a choir rehearsal tomorrow night and anticipating problems I already have an appointment with my audi for Friday morning at 9:00am haha. There are already other adjustments that need to be made too so we aren't being completely pessimistic by already having an appointment schedualed. Hopefully we can make this the last adjustment:fingersx:...on the upside I am getting to know my audi really well which definatly helps with making appropriate adjustments. I am truly blessed with this audi, I have said it a million times I know. She makes herself always available which is fantastic. If I send her an email at any time during the work day I have a response within the hour which is wonderful, and she really takes the time to get to know her patients and remembers everything. It's so nice not needed to explain things to her a million times or wait for her to read over my chart every two minutes. I would be much more frustrated by all of this if she wasn't so great.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will keep you updated :ty:
 
Just give yourself some time with it...I have worn hearing aids since I was 7 and Im 36 now and even with a new aid I had to adjust over time with it.One of my new hearing aids was really good and it took about 2 months before the mechanical sounding voices started to sound smoother and normal,even after repeated adjustments.

Just dont turn it up too high,give yourself a few months to adjust and it should fall into place...it has been a long time since you had something to help you hear somewhat.
 
I think with ANY digital hearing aids, it's going to take time to get used to them. I've been wearing digitals since Jan. 2001, and every time there's just a tiny adjustment made, "whooooaaaaaa do I like this?" But I do know what you're talking about, about things not sounding quite right. It just takes a lot of tweaking with until you find the right adjustments. I still have a lot of issues with hearing speech in noisy situations, and no matter what my audiologist did, it just didn't work out as well as I had hoped with every adjustment made.
 
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