I’ve talked about this here before but the thread is kind of old. My husband’s tinnitus has gotten worse and therefore his hearing is worse. He never liked his old hearing aid. He went last week to an audiologist and he’s getting new hearing aids. It makes me feel like a terrible person when I get a little irritated at how much he misses out on conversations or how much I have to repeat myself. Of course I know it’s worse for him. A famous personality said that hearing loss is the only disability where other people get mad at you.
It looks like they’ve made big strides in the past few years, especially for people with tinnitus. One thing he is to start is to listen to jungle music while he sleeps. Apparently these new things re train the brain to tune out the ringing. His new hearing aid can link up to his phone, so he can hear it ringing, and the other thing I can’t wait for, is I will have a microphone of sorts so if I’m in another room I can talk to him and he’ll be able to hear me. I could lay dying screaming in the room next to him and he wouldn’t hear me. Apparently the range he can’t hear as well is women and children. So when I have a meeting with him with another woman his brain literally shuts down the conversation. I would get so irritated when he wouldn’t know what I was talking about later when referring to the middle of the conversation. Insurance covers a lot of it, but it’s still a hefty bill. From what I understand the Costco hearing aids just amplify, that’s not his issue.
Costco hearing aids work very similarly to hearing aids you’d get from an independent audiologist. You can buy the same models and same companies there, although the steepest discounts tend to be other costco-specific models, which are generally almost the same as more basic mainstream models. They apply filters to the incoming sound that influence the amplitude of specific frequencies and in some cases minimizes specific sounds. If he can’t hear the higher frequencies that are common associated with women and children’s voices well, then it might amplify that frequency range, while having little change in lower bass-like frequencies. The hearing aids typically have several different modes that you can set for different situations. For example, if the background noises in restaurants are challenging, then an audiologist (including the ones at Costco) might set up a program that minimizes the associated restaurant background noises to a greater extent and amplifies typical conversation range to a greater extent. More expensive models often have other related technology, such as amplifying voices in the direction you are facing, more than voices in other directions.
Costco has a range of hearing aids. My new ones are the premium Bernafon Zerena’s; big improvement over my old Oticon aids. The bluetooth capability has been a big help. The Costco price was about 40% less than the price of a similar unit at a local hearing aid provider.
No matter where he gets his hearing aids, buy the batteries at Costco. Way, way cheaper than anywhere else I’ve found. With bluetooth at my level of hearing loss I find I’m going through batteries faster than before.
I go through batteries more quickly than I was told to expect but my audiologist told me that they are experimenting with the new rechargeable batteries and may chat about that at my next six month appointment. I reorder batteries from the audiologist as opposed to buying at Costco or ordering from Amazon because I can submit receipt to Flexible Spending as on the audiologist letterhead/invoice.
When my health insurance stopped covering hearing aids, I started looking at prices more closely. I ended buying a basic model for ~$800 at Costco. The most similar model was selling for ~$1500 at Sonus and ~$2200 at an independent audiologist. There is also a notable difference in maintenance costs. Sonus charges $30 to clean after initial free period and more for certain other services. Costco cleans for free and has also replaced filters + other basic repairs at no cost. It’s also convenient to have them cleaned while shopping, the pick them up on the way out. As noted above, battery prices are also lower than I’ve seen anywhere else, including online. These hearing aid benefits are the main reason why I have a Costco membership.
He is getting rechargeable batteries that get replaced once a year. I was off on what I thought, the jungle noise will be playing through the hearing aid. 9 days and counting. I really hope for his sake this does the trick. I know how isolating it is to miss out on what is being said around you.
Did you say what brand his new aids are?
Mine are Oticon OPN. I have used Oticon from the beginning–about 10 yrs (not sure)
and this is my third pair and the best. Their new technology is much better for speech recognition.
One of the most important factors is the availability of his audiologist and that the audiologist
is a very good fit personality wise. The learning curve for new hearing aids is a big deal–getting use to
the new sounds and, most of all, frequent adjustments in the beginning.
I had two out-of-insurance audiologists --they were just ok–insurance did not pay anything then.
I then had Kaiser, which I generally do well with, but the access to the audiologist was terrible.
Fortunately Kaiser is allowing a referral program and I have an audiologist who walks on water–well,
she is just fabulous and available. Fitting the proper ear mold has been super difficult but she has finally
done what no other before her has been able to accomplish.
I have tinnitus and did try the sound of the ocean as a program. I disliked it but have not tried the
retraining your H is going to do. Fortunately I have been able to just accept it overall. I feel like I have
the choice to be miserable or just let it go. So far so good. I do miss silence. I like quiet but it is never
silent.
I rely on lip reading also as my hearing loss is moderately severe on one side and severe on the other.
I have just discovered a lip reading program on-line that I am looking into.
We all lip read to some extent, especially in a noisy restaurant. I actually do better than my H
do to lip reading. You might encourage your H to develop this ability.
I expect to go deaf someday and signing is great except I would have no one currently in my
life to sign with.
And yes, I think your H and I both feel super frustrated when we cannot understand what is being said ;).
I think if you see him making a big effort to deal with his situation it will help a lot and if you see a positive
acceptance on his side that he needs to take the responsibility to try harder.
One last thought-I have recently realized how exhausted I am after a few hours of hearing concentration.
It is called hearing fatigue and it is felt as body fatigue. After a dinner in a noisy restaurant or talking for
few hours with a friend I really need to crash for an hour. You might check with you H about this.
Best of luck! Tell him he is going to have lots of company in the next decade as we age.
@oregon101 …you really covered a lot of what we go through. I wear HA from an audiologist. That first 6 months was invaluable to have her at a moments notice. She’d get me in that day, give me her loaners the few times one of mine needed sending back in. The “at your service” was great. To me, it was worth the extra expense. No charge for doing anything…ever. Once a year they have batteries for 1/2 off, so I stock up then.
Hearing fatigue…argh. I can now manage in a busy, noisy, clangy restaurant with my HA made for speech recognition. But I agree, after 2 hours I’ve had enough of concentrating, watching lips, etc. I love carpeted restaurants with drapes! The new iron, brick, wood is just sigh worthy as I walk in…no matter how cool it looks.
I just accept my tinnitus. It’s a constant soft “ssshhhhh”, more in one ear. I don’t even motice it anymore. I do remember total silence and how wonderful that was, but I don’t let myself go there. There are worse tinnitus sounds than what I have.
I think the one thing that DH does all the time, even after being told countless times, is talk to me from another room. It’s not done on purpose. In the beginning, I always felt guilty having to say “what”, so I’d go to him and say that. Now, after 9 years, I just say, “I can’t understand when you talk to me from another room”, and I won’t go to him. As annoy8ng as it is to repeat yourself, and I truly know it is!, it does make us feel bad to have to ask you to do it. Nobody wants to be the annoying person.
@oregon101 …if it comes to the point you lose all hearing, you could get a cochlear implant. Don’t lose hope!
His brand is Siemens “something” 7. I know if he actually mentions to me how loud the hissing is in his ear it’s really bad. He’s had it as long as he can remember. I know if we go to a crowded place he’ll be in trouble with a lot of noise all around. I know what side to sit on with him - if he wants to hear me or not. If we’re at a dinner party I’ll sit on the side he doesn’t hear as well from so he can talk to the other people around. If we’re somewhere just the two of us I sit on his “good” side. Both of his parents have significant hearing loss, it’s not making me feel great about down the road more. He’s in his early 50’s, so a long way to go and a lot of hearing to diminish. I’m really hoping this does the trick. This is the first audiologist he really liked and thought “got it”.
@Consolation, let me know how your appointment goes. I saw an audiologist in our area and she just said, “Yeah, my husband has lived with it for 30 years. Your brain will get used to it…” Gee, thanks! The tests showed that my hearing is fine. This ringing in my ears is driving me nuts.
A couple of years ago I took several flights in a short time period. I specifically recall after one, feeling that I had the roaring of the flight noise in my ears. That remained with me for over a year. I felt like it was not so much that my hearing got worse as that I could not hear DH over the noise in my ears, especially in high ceilinged rooms.
I actually discovered in my 20s that I was significantly deaf in one ear and proably had been most of my life as I could read lips and faces in the hearing test. What is the lip reading app you like, @oregon101 ?
