Newbie here!

whiskeyonesix

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Hi Folks,

After a couple of month of lurking, I thought I'd best create a username and sign in :)
My name's Tom and I'm a 38 year old happily married english Ex-Pat living in Perth Australia. I've got mild to moderate hearing loss on my left side, coupled with moderate to severe loss on the other. It's been gradually getting worse over the past 4 years and is starting to impact my job - I work in the transport field and really need to hear properly.
The Specialist tells me this is hereditary Otosclerosis, and that I will need 2 Aids or maybe a stapedectomy operation should I find that Aids aren't right for me.
I was fairly surprised with it being hereditary as none of my parent or grandparents wore aids. I worked as a contractor for the British and Swedish Armed Forces years ago in fairly noisy environments and thought it may have been related to that, but apparently not..
Anyway, I'm just saving up for the Aids at the moment ( Didn't realise they were expensive!), I had a fitting for a BTE Unitron Quantum a couple of weeks ago so we will probably see how I go with these ( The Saleswoman - sorry Audiologist, tells me that there's lots of different digital devices out there - but I thought it best to do my homework on different brands before I shell out the cash!)

But thats enough about me :)
 
Doesn't the national health in Australia just give you a hearing aid?
 
Hi Tom, welcome to AD. You will meet a lot of terrific people around here. Good luck!!!!
 
Thanks for all the replies Folks, nice to be welcomed :) Seems like a friendly enough place.

No, I'm not an Australian Citizen - I am a Permanent Resident though (Emigrated over here from Birmingham UK some 4 years ago). Medicare (our health service) will supply you with a free Aid if you're a pensioner or a War Veteran I think.
However, I'm lucky that my Health insurance will cough up A$1000 towards my Aids, and I'll be able to claim some more back from Medicare - its just finding the initial cash. My Wife and I have just bought our own place, so I didn't really want to go out and get an extra loan or a Credit Card. I'm lucky that there's Overtime at work!
 
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