The silence I encounter when removing my hearing aids at night

I second that!! It’s a blessing to have someone who understands too.

I remember getting my first aids and walking the dog and wondering what the strange squeaking sound I was hearing, then I realized it was birds chirping in the trees above.
My relative has worse hearing than I and his wife said the fire alarm went off one night and he slept right through it

my last hearing aids deteriorated with every visit to the audiologist that sold them to me. I had severe wind noise. Walks were a chore. I couldn’t hear cars behind me either. And our streets have no sidewalks. (still an issue with my new hearing aids. Paradise.)

Now with my new hearing aids I hear the wind in the trees! The little birds chirping! It’s beautiful. I used to love hearing acoustic guitars well played. I stopped listening to beautiful music. I’m looking forward to listening again.
Dave

Walking my dog is beautiful. However, I sometimes wonder about getting a hearing dog. Or giving my dog specific training. She is wonderful and very smart. She walks me quickly across streets at intersections to keep me out of harms way.
I wish she was responsive to cars behind on streets with no sidewalks. (Tesla driver goes down the middle of the road at high speed. I stepped the wrong way one day because I didn’t know she was behind. Car stopped. Close call. She was very angry.)

My tinnitus sounds a bit like a jazz band, just not a very creative one.

When I first got my aids the Audi told me to wear them all day every day to get used to them
So when I left him I got on a bus wearing my aids. I was actually startled at all the sounds. I spent some time figuring out where they were coming from. Fare box, windows rattling, bus frame rattling and flexing and so on
I soon realized that some things are worth missing. I never wear them on the bus or train.

Wow there’s actually someone else who has this on the forum, I have a very mild form of this type, it’s called musical ear or Musical hallucination (MH) for me it’s a orchestra! Oddly I don’t get this all the time tho, as it can and does change to other sounds at times, I think I’m lucky in a way because I actually have to concentrate to actually notice it.

Getting new aids and then being told to wear them as much as possible right from the start might not have been the best idea. You’ll be overwhelmed by all the new sounds like you were on the bus. Your brain needs time to adjust which it will and then you would return to your audiologist for further adjustments to the aids. To tell a person to wear the aids as much as possible right from the get go leads to people not wearing the aids at all. Nobody wants everything to be screaming in their face 24/7

Usually an audi/fitter won’t put a new wearer immediately at full prescription strength, but work up to that over the first several visits (took maybe 6 weeks for me initially). If it’s too much, you need to tell the audi to back off some so you can get to full strength more slowly. That should help the overwhelm, and def wearing all day makes a big diff in getting used to the sounds you’re not used to hearing

A very useful adjustment for those new to aids.
I self program and my Resound One’s have the option in the SmartFit program to auto adjust to full prescription over a given time frame. Both the increase in gain and time frame to reach full gain can be adjusted and the user doesn’t have to do a thing while they self increase gain over time

Don’t give up yet, there’s always DIY, sounds to me you could do a better job yourself!

Just remember that your brain will get used to that silence also, and like unused muscles, you lose them if you don’t use them