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Lost a hearing aid at Costco!

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Edited

Well, my worst fear was realized (about , that is).. On Friday I had an appointment scheduled at Costco for another follow-up with my HA fitter. Before that I had had my HAs fall out over and over again, mostly due to taking a mask off and forgetting, oh, yeah, I have to be super careful in taking them off!!

I was running late, because I had stayed up so late working on my follow-up list of issues, even though I’d emailed my fitter ahead of time on the most pressing issues. I just have had sooo many issues that have not been resolved yet.

Plus, we ran into ungodly traffic again getting there. So, I rushed into Costco and quickly realized that one of my aids had fallen out, even though I didn’t wear a mask, as I didn’t dare to!!

So I called my fitter to let him know and proceeded to spend HOURS looking for it fruitlessly!! After my husband parked and had his appointment, he looked too. But that Costco, in East Harlem, NYC has always been mobbed beyond belief every time I’ve been there in my HA journey. I’ve spent my entire adult life in NYC, but nothing compares to that Costco—it’s unreal!! A mob of people, carts, cars, etc. Just trying to walk from our car to the store is almost impossible in some areas, as every square inch is packed!!

I left written messages at the main desk, the HA Center, and the Security Center. I spoke to every security guard, traffic person, and store employee that I could find. I was despondent. I knew that I had lost them not long after I entered the store. But we could barely look it was so darned crowded.

Well, the next day, my fitter called and said that a cleaning person had found them overnight!!! Halleluiah!!

What a relief! But the problem is, it had just fallen off with no mask, glasses, etc. to be the problem!

So, the moral of the story is: I can’t wear my HAs without them being attached to something to catch them if they fall off.

I haven’t yet worn the Deaf Metal earrings that I ordered, because they are hard to get into one of my ear’s piercings. So, I just spent a bunch of time working on that. Plus, I’ve been looking at other models that they have, so I can order another pair or two that might be easier.

But I found out just now when I was doing that that my one aid had already come out of my ear such that it wasn’t turned on! I may well need molds, and that would surely help the falling out issue. But I will never again wear the aids out of the house without being attached to a device. Geez, it doesn’t seem like it should be this hard! But at this point, it is what it is.

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@Blue_Pearl1 said:

Well, the next day, my fitter called and said that a cleaning person had found them overnight!!! Halleluiah!!

OMG, I didn’t take one breath reading your post until the line above. You are SO BEYOND lucky!!! That is like finding a diamond that’s fallen out of a ring. The odds of NO ONE stepping on it are simply amazing. :smiley:

Surf up to Amazon and find MANY options for keeping those precious aids tethered21 to you. A few years ago, I wore such a device to secure my “waterproof” Phonak Lumity Life aids on while swimming with a snorkel mask in the pool.

The lanyard was colorful and functional, and by golly, my aids stayed firmly tethered.

My hearing aids were sunk after 20 min of never being immersed below 6” in the water. So I proved catagorically and emphatically that Phonak Lumity Life aids were NOT at all waterproof. But that is the topic of many an old thread on this board.

Plan B: try a pair of custom-molded titanium tips for the speaker that goes in the ear canal. I’ve been wearing my new ones about a month now, and they are LIFE-ALTERING!! My aids no longer slip back out of the ear canal at all! The titanium shell is roughed-up a bit so it’s nice and grippy. I have no allergic reaction to that medical-grade titanium either. LOVE ‘EM!

In reply to @1Bluejay

@1Bluejay Wow, as I was reading about you wearing your snorkeling, I was incredulous—whaaat, wearing HAs in the water??!! I hope that you had a good case against Phonak!!

Yes, I knew I was beyond lucky, because with the vast hordes of people walking everywhere, what are the chances that it would survive in tact and be found? Nil. I didn’t even post about it here when it happened, I was so despondent. Yes, Costco has insurance coverage for one aid per ear, but I didn’t even want to have it come to that.

So the titanium molds are comfortable? It doesn’t sound like they would be. I was thinking that the silicone molds would be the most comfortable. But I’m sure that there are pros and cons for the various materials that they use for molds.

Thank you for the link to all of the devices to attach to the aids. I think that I want to have a number of devices that I can rotate, depending on the situation.As someone pointed out the Jabra 30’s are very small and light, so it is way too easy for them to fall out. And I do think that there are molds in my future. I was thinking that maybe I should next try power domes, but we’ll see what the fitter says when I next go in. I missed my appointment on Friday as a result of this fiasco.

In reply to @WhiteHat

THANK YOU!!! I feel like I wasted YEARS wearing the squishy-gooshy silicone power domes. What prompted me to try these out was the grippy texture and the possibility they’d stay PUT in my ear canal.

I do have to be slow and patient putting them in every morning, cuz my ear canals swell up overnight, but I am EVER so grateful for these medical-grade, NON-allergenic tips. A miracle!

In reply to @Blue_Pearl1

LOL yes, I sure did prove that point. I didn’t do it to be irresponsible, but I’d bought two pairs of these rechargeable Lumity Life aids precisely cuz they’d been touted as “waterproof”. Dr Cliff had submerged them for like 100 hours, another poster here said he’d done a scuba dive with them on, and dangit I love the water and SO wanted them to be waterproof. Now I know better. Ain’t no such thing, mainly cuz the speaker in the ear is not waterproof, and that’s where the water got in.

Flash forward 2 years since then, and I’ve swapped out my rechargeables for the smaller, lighter, more colorful 312s of the same make/model. I LOVE THEM. I only wear the older rechargeables to the gym where they’d be exposed to a lot more moisture. Like you, I have a handful of these aids not only cuz of their strengths (water resistant, mobile in the boondocks) but because I have zero margin for not having aids, so whatever I buy, I get a 2nd identical pair for the times when repairs are needed.

Now I have to crow about the titanium custom molds. Perhaps my audi did a fantastic job with the impressions? These are truly comfy and I have NO idea I’m even wearing them. They stay put in the ear canal, so I’m not pressing them in 100s of times a day. I’m SO glad I have them, they are game-changers for my quality of life.

So very, very glad you got the hearing aid back!

I think you have Jabra Enhance Pro 30’s? If so did you try the “Find my hearing aid” function in the Jabra app?

It worked OK in our house the only time I needed it, but I can imagine it might not work so well in Costco (especially with so many other Bluetooth devices likely to cause interference).

@coastal_california

Good point, I forgot to mention that. Yes, I did the “find my hearing aid” right away, and it showed up as the Costco Plaza, or whatever the name of the plaza is. But, of course, it didn’t show where in the plaza it was, so that is a large very crowded area. It kept on showing that was where it was.

And when I got them back, which was 4 days later, the battery was still fine. They hadn’t been used, obviously, so it wasn’t wearing the battery down.

Edited

In reply to @Blue_Pearl1

@Blue_Pearl1 said:

Good point, I forgot to mention that. Yes, I did the “find my hearing aid” right away, and it showed up as the Costco Plaza, or whatever the name of the plaza is. But, of course, it didn’t show where in the plaza it was, so that is a large very crowded area. It kept on showing that was where it was.

When I use “Find my hearing aid” it shows a map with exactly where they are in our house. If I zoom in on the “map” it is the right room and right location in the room.

Did you have a map you could zoom in on?

Edit: I should add there is also a signal strength meter for both the left and right hearing aid in the app. If you could get the missing hearing aid to show up in the app on the signal strength meter you could then use your phone to get closer and find the location of the hearing aid. That is what I did when trying to pin point the exact location of the hearing aids hidden under some stuff at home.

@coastal_california

Hmm, I didn’t even know that you could do that! Wow, that’s too bad, it could have saved me a lot of grief. But in a big box store like that, how could it have narrowed it down? I think it fell out shortly after entering the store. That’s really good to know though.

I can’t remember if it showed a map, but if it did, there wasn’t any specificity as to where in the plaza it was. Oh, boy, if that could have helped as to where it was exactly . . .

I have had acrylic and silicone molds over the years. Both have worked fine for me and they keep my anchored where they belong. The starter domes never stayed in my ears and were such a nuisance. Once I got domes, I never looked back. My wife, OTOH, has molds blue only uses the domes. You have to find what works for you.

In reply to @Blue_Pearl1

Yes, truly!!! No idea they are sitting in my ears right now. I can eat, chew, smile, laugh, talk, heck - even YELL and the titanium earmolds stay right where they’re seated in my ear canals.

There IS some pressure and tiny bit of tenderness when I put them in every morning, but once they get seated, it’s like I’m not even wearing aids. Seriously, with the fit of these molds and the feather-light weight of the 312 “beans” I have to reach behind my ears EVERY time I get in the shower just to make sure my aids aren’t there.

Well. Perhaps a quicker, simpler verification would be … can I hear an M-80 go off at my feet? Nope! Then my aids are OUT, and I’m good. :ear:t2:

AH!!! Seriously, go back to your audi and ask to switch these to roughed-up, cuz both options were on my audi’s order form when she sent this in. I only learned of that option right HERE at the forum cuz some other person had posted it. I think your optimal hearing comfort and performance is #1, and if your impression was sent in, then scanned by laser, that file is still there. I am using my existing file to create another set of roughed-up titanium molds to put on one of my rechargeables (that I wear to the gym).

I can tell you that after 15 yrs of pushing those sharp-edged matchstick speakers in my ears 100s times a day, I’m DONE with that. These titanium molds are life-altering. GOOD LUCK to you!

And hey, spring for the $300 if need be to buy the replacement!

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