My new hearing aids

My sister and BIL came to visit me for a week last month. The main reason for the visit was to check up on me and see if I was doing ok. My sister did not think I should be living alone so soon after brain surgery and planned on taking me home with her if she did not think I was capable of taking care of myself. After she had been here a few days I came flat out and asked her if she felt I was back to normal or if I was exhibiting signs of problems relating to the operation. Her remark was that I appeared to be 100% normal except my hearing seemed to be going out since I was asking her to repeat what she had said way too often.

My hearing has been bad for a long time, I had been in denial. I knew my hearing was going out but I was pretending it wasn't happening. I realized that 50 years of loud rock and roll is not the best thing for my hearing. So I scheduled a doctor visit to an eye ear nose and throat doctor and got a hearing test taken.

Basically perfect hearing would be hearing all frequencies at the same volume. My low frequency hearing is poor, my high frequency hearing is basically non-existent. The chart should be a straight line left to right. My chart looks like one of the walls of the Grand Canyon. So the doctor let me try out a pair of hearing aids and they were fantastic. I was hearing like I was a teenager again. However they were $6000 a pair so I declined.

I decided I needed a pair of hearing aids but I needed a pair that was reasonably prices so I fired up the Chromebook and started shopping. It turns out that there are two types of hearing aids. Regular hearing aids and hearing amplifiers. Hearing amplifiers are basically 30 year old hearing aids that are big, bulky and look like those stupid bluetooth thingys that people wear on their ears. But since they are ancient technology they are dirt cheap. I got a pair for $25 including postage:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FGTPUK/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I knew when I ordered these that they were not going to be my ultimate hearing aids, but it would help me find out what options I needed and it would help me see if I could get used to wearing a hearing aid. It is kinda like when I tell people not to buy a new RV first, get a cheap used one first.

Well they worked really well except that they didn't stay on my ear as well as they should have because of the size of them. They also got a lot of feedback and could not be used with a telephone since they did not have a telecoil. But I got used to wearing them almost immediately.  They came a lot closer to actually working as my primary hearing aids than I thought they would.

So while I was wearing them I did a lot of shopping to find my next pair. I finally stumbled upon MDhearingaids:

http://www.mdhearingaid.com/

They sell three different pairs of hearing aids, Max for $220 a pair, the Pro model for $329 for a pair and the Airs for $599 a pair. The differences were the more expensive ones were smaller. The Airs are digital, the other two are analogue. So I ordered a pair of the Airs and they arrived last week.

I gotta tell you that I am in love with these things. $5400 cheaper than the ones my doctor tried to sell me but every bit as good. I could not tell them apart sound wise. The only difference is the more expensive ones were smaller, but the Airs are small enough. You can't see then when I am wearing them except for a bit of the tube is noticeable.

It took only a day or two to get used to wearing them. One of the biggest problems I have with the hearing airs is remembering to take them out when I shower.

Everything sounds better, I don't have to ask people to repeat themselves, I don't need to use the captions on DVDs. Life is really good.

I have an expensive pair of hearing aids (cost $5,000.00 new) that can be "tuned" to your hearing that I'd gladly donate to you if you're interested. They are about 3 or so years old. I can do this because I got new hearing aids recently. If you're interested PM me with shipping instructions and I'll get them in the mail to you.

My tuned hearing aids were obtained through my Medicare Advantage health insurance plan (United Healthcare), for a $340 co-pay. I too had been in denial for many years, but once I finally faced the facts as seen on my audiogram, I've been very pleased with all the "new" sounds I'm able to hear. I had no idea how much I was missing!

I tried to get mine through an insurance company but neither Medicare or United would pay for them. But I realized I needed a pair pretty bad so I decided to buy a pair. I too had no idea how much I was missing.

Good ol' Uncle Sam (VA) got me some high dollar tuned hearing aids.  Too many jet engines took their toll from many years ago.  Now if I can just remember to put them in.  The darned things are tuned via a special PC application.  Incidently, this was my first introduction to "air activated" batteries.  I wasn't aware there was such a thing.

This was my first experience with "air activated" batteries too, Tom. I'm currently testing 7 different battery brands for the best service, using a 42 battery trial pack from HearingAidBattery.com.

I've got an even cheaper solution that really seems to work.  This is not a misprint, but Harbor Freight sells than and they are about $11.  My wife has been ignoring me for so long that I got her one and it makes a big difference.  As Tom stated, they are amplifiers but they really do a good job.  They are not as big and  clunky as many and they fit well on her and do not move around.  They take a little battery that last ten days or so and can be bought at DollarTree, 4 for a buck.

Tom, It's good to see  you taking care of yourself.  When dear husband got his new  hearing aids MY LIFE improved significantly.  We can visit, the  TV does not blare, he can go to restaurants and actually hear others in the conversation. And more and  more advantages.  Denial is not  your friend.

Betty Brewer said:

Tom, It's good to see  you taking care of yourself.  When dear husband got his new  hearing aids MY LIFE improved significantly.  We can visit, the  TV does not blare, he can go to restaurants and actually hear others in the conversation. And more and  more advantages.  Denial is not  your friend.

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My oldest sister Sue has also been in denial and I have motivated her to take some action. The whole reason I posted this thread is not to brag about my hearing aids but to encourage people to get a hearing test if they think they are having hearing problems. Hearing problems are nothing to be embarrassed about, it is a natural byproduct of getting old. My sister has never listened to loud rock music but her hearing is going too. Her husband complains she has the RV too loud.

Found a good deal on true & tested hearing aids: here. In a prior life we used to design & sell silicon (chips) to most of the hearing aid manufacturers, 90? of which at that time were in Denmark. Oticon made the high end products.

'Tuning' per se is a misnomer; In a well designed product, the response of the unit is individually matched/programmed to the individual ear, over the full audio spectrum. They'll also dynamically adjust, based on the ambient sound.

I keep promising myself to get evaluated for a high end pair. My hearing got screwed up during 7 years working at a steel manufacturing plant and, more specifically, during the last couple of years working there. That was back in the 60's. A year or so after leaving, I realized I was again hearing frequencies I was previously unable to hear, and thought I'd dodged a bullet. But not so.

Ok, call it "matching/programming" a hearing aid to my specific frequency losses instead of "tuning" it for those losses then, but whatever you call it, it makes a world of difference. My high frequency hearing was damaged in Vietnam in the 60's, so now when people ask me if I'm hearing things "normally" now, I can only tell them I'm hearing things a lot differently, but since it's been 50 years or so since my hearing was "normal", I have no way of knowing if what I'm hearing now is "normal" or not.

It?s really amazing when you find out how many folks actually wear hearing aids. The products today are not noticeable like they were 10 or 20 yrs ago. I've been wearing them for about 15 yrs, now using the digital Bluetooth style from Siemens. They are matched directly to each ear based on hearing tests and the new ones will connect with the tv, stereo or anything else I want them to including my cell phone. When I get within range the hearing aids start broadcasting the sound form the tv or the cell if I have the feature turned on. They are remarkable but they also can do only so much. It?s not about increasing the volume of what?s around you but the clarity to understand. Without them I hear noise but to understand and distinguish words I need them in. I say this simply as a warning about some of the other ones on the market. They can be ?turned up? to make you think you hear more, which is the same as asking someone to speak louder. They can also be loud enough to actually do more damage to your hearing. Make sure what ever brand you get have a safety so they can?t reproduce noise like a gunshot or backfire loud enough to further hurt your hearing. You still have to wear ear plugs etc when around loud noises too to help preserve what hearing you have left. I have learned this over time from going from an industrial application such as a shop to a meeting room where people seem to ?whisper? whenever I come in, hope it helps.

Aye Mavarick, that's what I was tring to say. The cheap brands don't do much more than indiscriminately amplify which, as you say, could merely exacerbate a hearing issue.

I'm encouraged by some of the experiences I've read about, and by others I've heard in person. I'm also interested to read about some folks getting insurance to chip in. This morning I searched for a hearing center associated with high end brands.

Tom, mine are pd for by the state because of my age when it happened etc. so they are pretty spendy, around $4k for both. There are some much cheaper ones without the bells and whistles so to speak that make them more affordable. I certainly don?t need the Bluetooth but it is nice.
You will be amazed at the difference and I would encourage anyone with any loss to see an ear specialist. There are many different types of hearing aids and they are all set up and adjusted using computer software today. Just about all the good ones are digital and most of the hearing centers will let you try a pair for a month or so to see if you need to switch to a different style.
The only issues I have run into are the custom made inserts for your ear canal have a tendency to give me a headache after about 10 hrs or so. Most of the time I remove the inserts and just use the standard ?dome? then I?m good to go. This doesn?t go into the ear canal as far and works better for me (also less $). Hearing aids are all about finding the right pair for you so expect some trial and error. The better they are matched to your hearing loss the lower the volume and the less chance you will have of ?noise headache's" etc. This comes over time from certain frequency noise that is loud enough to hurt but not a loud enough overall volume to where you even notice it.
It?s really a pretty simple transition and hopefully when you find the right pair like Tom S above you will forget you have them in. Until I got mine I had forgot that turn signals ?click? inside the vehicle! If I can help in any way just ask.

Thanks Mavarick. I've known and talked openly about this for many years, and learned to live with it, largely by avoiding noisy places, loud music and crowded restaurants. What's made me more conscious lately is the fact that we recently removed carpet in a couple of rooms and replaced it with laminate (aka fake hardwood). That changed the acoustics of the rooms significantly; The opposite of what I experienced the first time I entered an anechoic chamber in the audio lab in college, where sound is absorbed/attenuated by the almost infinite absorbent surfaces.

I had forgot that turn signals ?click? inside the vehicle!

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Understand and appreciate that. In addition to my personal experience of frequencies temporarily returning, one of the kids had ear surgery when he was 4; The Doc had sent my wife home in tears when she tried to get his attention, but we went elsewhere and had the problem diagnosed within minutes. Following surgery, my son was fascinated to hear sounds like the singing of birds early in the morning that he'd never heard before.

Tom, my hearing aids came from hi HealthInnovations, a United Health Group company. They sell to the public with prices starting at $749 per ear, but my UHC Advantage plan pays all but $340 of it. An audiogram from a hearing professional is required if you don't visit one of their own hearing centers. My local hearing pro, also a personal friend, examined and tested my aids when I first got them, and said they are programmed almost exactly as he would have programmed the $6,000 per pair aids he recommended. The only difference would have been a longer warranty and free cleaning with his. He was quite impressed...

Worked with a waiver for many years as a ATC.  Wore a ear piece in the right ear and had to switch to the left ear.  Lost high tone.  A few weeks after I retired went to COSTCO and purchased hearing aids. 

Some people are too vain to wear them, but I hear a lot more now.  I can even hear the coffee pot beep.  Coffee is ready...

The likes the lower volume on the tv also.

Thanks Dutch. Does that mean I'd need to be a UHC member to buy them? Do you know who manufactures these hearing aids?

went to COSTCO and purchased hearing aids

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Who programmed the Costco units Jim?

Tom said:

Thanks Dutch. Does that mean I'd need to be a UHC member to buy them? Do you know who manufactures these hearing aids?

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I don't believe you need to be a member to buy at the full retail price, Tom. The co-pay price of course, depends on the particular UHC plan you have. My zero premium plan has the $340 co-pay, but I understand some of the UHC plans even have a zero co-pay.