also perhaps in HAHA, a magnetic rather than surgical solution, based on a conversation with a fellow cruiser (recall that I lived and cruised for 15 years on a sailboat) who had THAT - and who joined the choir I was in, so musically he was just fine, one of my targets in my metric.
is unlikely to help you, because it’s mainly for conductive hearing loss. Your fellow cruiser seems has diffferent kind of hearing loss than you.
Where/who/what do I need/go to for an appropriate evaluation? ENTs in NE GA are scarcer than hen’s teeth, and HAProviders and ENTs universally seem to not have REM anyplace within a couple of hours, so I’m a bit hindered in my quest for “the best it can be”…
Ask in Facebook group “Cochlear implant experiences”. Here is much useful information.
Maybe call or have someone call the CI group in Atlanta and see if they can recommend someone for cochlear implant candidacy evaluation, and whether they know someone good close you to or if you’ll have to travel.
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By chance do you have a link or an email for that group? I was unaware there was one…
Meanwhile, I go for my first setting of the Phonak Audeo Sphere Infinio I17s which arrived yesterday, later this morning…
Something you could do is use the Internet to ask one of the CI brands where to get the CI evaluation, Cochlear, AB or MedEl. That is how I found my excellent audiologist and surgeon.
Assuming that in October Phonak probably will make new announcement - maybe new Naida Link will be released for solutions with potential new Advanced Bionics devices not released yet?
Yes, is due for a new release. Especially the Link aid. I believe it’s on the Marvel generation now. The cochlear implant brands are super careful to only put out products that are bug free IMO. I believe that’s why they are slow to put new products out.
I wanted to go with AB because of Phonak but my surgeon talked me into Cochlear.
I’m left with the alternative of my humorous analysis of "there will be a murder or a divorce soon if I can’t reliably hear my wife) my reality
OK, LOL! If that is a driver, then don’t beat around the bush. GO TRY IT.
I may be just one voice quacking in a vacuum here, but I can’t say enough great things about my OLDER generation Phonak Lumity Life 312s. They are 1.5 yrs old, and while my audi thinks I could adapt to the Sphere, I’m not sold yet!
Even my dear hubs of 46 yrs agrees I HEAR WAY BETTER with these aids than even the 2.5-yr old rechargeables of the same make/model.
These 312s have given me an added edge of speech comprehension no matter if I’m in the same room as a person, my back is turned to them, ambient noise is in the room. It’s definitely noticeable to me and my hubs that I’m able to understand what’s said and reply on topic better than ever before. I don’t see an for you, but if you look at my cinderblock hearing, you’d be amazed.
Perhaps it’s a combination of patient audiologist, tinkering to get the settings and programs just right, along with my growing confidence having used these 312s for over a year now. I also enjoy a huge benefit with their compatibility with the Roger ON mics and excellent, reliable streaming on my Samsung Flip-7 phone.
NO aid is going to be worth 50-cents unless it has been adjusted to YOUR specifications. I typically go back to see my audi 4 times with any pair of new aids. So it’s an investment in time, too. I hope you find that perfect solution to keep your marriage intact AND deliver quality of life!
Oh, on this subject, are you taking your wife to your appointments?
Yes, and no. She came with me to my appointment for the Phonak aids, but was merely an observer. No involvement in the testing (and no over-the-air speech recognition, either, in that appointment, as was done in my initial adjustment over a month ago in the Beltome office I ended up with when it turned out that no existed in my 2-hour radius).
However, she DID come (those weeks ago) to my last Beltone ’s office (that office’ 'gram came weeks later after a disastrous attempted tweak seen ), and massively improved my hearing of her voice; I’m STILL attempting to have the tech there dig out my profile to revert my Beltones to what had worked so well after my first visit! And, she did come to my Starkey appointment (local, whereas everything/everyone is a minimum of an hour away) which resulted in the refusal to give me an audiogram.
She’s so angry about my hearing that she essentially has written off any involvement, in general. And as to how much computer time I’ve spent in attempting to find a solution However, she MAY relent, if there’s any benefit, now that I actually have a new set (Phonak Audeo Sphere Infinio I70) in my ears today
As to my Phonak initial setting, go here for my initial results:
Well, it’s a start…
I got the new Sphere I70s yesterday. Along with them, I got, finally (and that was via email; no reason I can see why that didn’t happen the first time I wrote, rather than while I was in the office) the current (well, a week and change ago) audiogram.
As commented earlier, to my surprise, they’re markedly better than my previous ones, even going back a couple of years (see upstream comments with earlier 'grams), in the speech range:
[image]
While these readings are muc…
Thanks for your continued interest and support. Barring any cataclysmic unexpected results, this will be the end result, however it lands, as she’s beyond “finished” with my pursuit of being able to hear her reliably. If these don’t do the trick, it will be back to wearing the PalPro Beltone mike solution, again, until even that doesn’t work…
She’s so angry about my hearing that she essentially has written off any involvement, in general.
This seems like a strange reaction. Would you be angry if she lost a leg? I hope angry on your behalf and not angry AT you. But it would be lovely if a good clinician could give her some informational counselling, talk to her about your hearing loss and the functional impacts and limitations.
Interesting that you should use that analogy, as it’s the one I used very recently during one of her rants. Her anger is at my not having solved my issue, and peripherally at my audiologists.
That said, after seeing some initial results, she was supportive of my weekly 3-hour round trip adjustments with a very talented Beltone rep north of where we lived, and, indeed, for a long while, I managed to hear her without need of remote mike.
Then I moved to GA, as my hearing further deteriorated, and we went to another rep after a year of hacking at it with the closest Beltone office didn’t resolve my her-speech issue, let alone the music issue; she managed to - with Lydia attending, and her making minor tweaks as she fiddled while Lydia spoke or read stuff get my Beltone Imagine 17s into a usable form (see below).
My bad for asking her (audio) to massage the main program (All-Around) with the Speech Clarity tweak; it totally ruined that profile and for whatever reason, I’ve not succeeded in getting the working profile to reset my Beltones.
At the moment I’m working on tweaking and understanding my Phonak through the MyPhonak App. Not yet happy but there are glimpses of hope.
I’m based in the UK but hello to a fellow barbershopper!! I wear Phonak bilateral hearing aids and sometimes have to step away from the tenor section as their notes are so high they turn ‘tinny’ in my hearing aids.
Hope you find a solution to your issue.
My bad for asking her (audio) to massage the main program (All-Around) with the Speech Clarity tweak; it totally ruined that profile and for whatever reason, I’ve not succeeded in getting the working profile to reset my Beltones
Just throwing this out here … I think audi/fitters SAVE all the profile versions? I had similar frustration setting up my Phonak Lumity Life rechargeables when I first got them. My audi was able to use the profile on my Phonak Marvel (older) aids and we were 95% there - only a few minor tweaks needed till my world sounded the way I want it to.
Call your Beltone genius in the previous location and have him/her send that profile to the new Beltone outlet in GA. Try using that older profile (able to hear wife) and then experiment with adjustments. AGAIN, the initial, baseline profile you started with should be in the program software?
I am sending you GOBS of good luck here. Nothing more discouraging than a partner blaming us for what we were born with or our current condition. What goes around comes around, and partners need to have each other’s back.
That said, also know that there ARE excellent aids out there to help with a range of speech challenges. Is your wife hard to comprehend cuz she has a soft voice? Speaks in a frequency that’s out of your range? PLEASE get your posted here.
I’m deafer than a cinderblock, but with these amazing Phonak Lumity Life 312s I occasionally correct what my hubs (perfect hearing) thinks he’s heard. Even more often, since I stream TV via Roger mic, he’ll ask me, “What’d he say?” when watching shows. Yeah, ME, the big DISCERNER of speech! Almost cracks me up!
Not to speak for Janey, but BBShop tenors are at the top of the frequencies in barbershop voices. Under that is the lead - the melody, the bass (counterpoint) and baritone between Lead/Bass, filling in all the missing harmonic necessities - which makes for a usually totally stupid-sounding track, but without it, the harmonics (perfectly balanced BBShopper quartets, with good arrangements, often have several overtones, making it sound like there are more than 4 singers.
Those tenors? Think of a band’s obligatto/counterpoint top over the general melody. That’s the function they fulfill in BBShop. But other than extremely rare times, they are higher than the melody.
Which for women’s barbershop, is about like a coloratura soprano at the opera.
My bad for asking her (audio) to massage the main program (All-Around) with the Speech Clarity tweak; it totally ruined that profile and for whatever reason, I’ve not succeeded in getting the working profile to reset my Beltones
(Ed:1) Just throwing this out here … I think audi/fitters SAVE all the profile versions?
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Call your Beltone genius in the previous location and have him/her send that profile to the new Beltone outlet in GA. Try using that older profile (able to hear wife) and then experiment with adjustments. AGAIN, the initial, baseline profile you started with should be in the program software?
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(Ed:2) Is your wife hard to comprehend cuz she has a soft voice? Speaks in a frequency that’s out of your range? PLEASE get your audiogram posted here.
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In order: (1) My second GA Beltone audiologist had my wife and me in her office on the first occasion for 4 hours. That resulted in a profile which - with the All-Around setting, and the Speech Clarity tweak - allowed, astoundingly, me to properly hear (well, much more importantly, understand) my wife in nearly all circumstances, without a microphone, for the first time in over a year.
So far, evidence points to that provider NOT having saved that profile, as despite at least 3 written, and one phone call, requests, she has not forwarded that profile to the other office which is closer to me. Nor has she responded to several (not in this language, but functionally:) WTF ??? letters as to why that’s not been transferred or me being told it can’t be done, but come on HERE and I’ll re-install THAT profile. I’ve written yet again to her this very early morning (they’ll not be there for another 3 hours), and will call her before noon and get the real story (vs the fecal equivalent I’ve been getting so far).
GRRRRRRRRR
(2) I’m not certain as to why it is, other than the classic “speech is the hobgoblin of every hearing loss” - but hearing-aid enhanced ears don’t do well with her frequency, whatever all that encompasses (at least as observed in N>1 instances beyond mine).
Several of my , including the most recent Phonak one, can be found here: Round 3; DING! - with my apologies for repetition for those who’ve already pored over them…
Several of my audiograms, including the most recent Phonak one, can be found here: Round 3; DING!
My suggestion would be to add this to your avatar, so every post in every thread would have the link to it. Yeah, involves some TYPING and yadayada… but much easier for folks to see at a glance where you’re coming from. Directions for doing that at this thread.
Is the OP’s hearing loss due to Conductive or auditory nerve loss, or some combination of both? This is an important question to answer. If the OP has primarily conductive loss, then a style aid may work very well indeed–better than traditional aids. At least that’s my experience. My loss is primarily conductive, so I can’t speak to auditory nerve loss.
Poland
Toccoa GA 30577
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