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Signia Silk 7x First time using 2 aids instead of one

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I am just updating on this trial of Signia Silk 7x cic. I love wearing them. The right side stays in morning til night. The left side is new to me. My I believe is not accurate. I believe that I have some mild loss in the very low tones (125-500) on the left side. I know that when I am in that soundproof booth and giving it my concentration and I detect a sound of any kind, I have been pressing the button. However, that’s completely unrealistic. When I do the online hearing tests with my iphone, I always come up with a mild low frequency loss on the left side.
That aside, I love being able to make adjustments with programs, volume, and bass/treble from my iphone. When I turned the bass up all the way, I found I was able to hear my 10 year old daughter better. Sometimes she does sound like she is mumbling. There’s no bluetooth, but I’ve never had that so I don’t miss it. The two aids give me a feeling of balance and make listening easier. I don’t want to go back to wearing only one.
Tonight I heard more birds chirping…I always could hear a few, but now much more. A few night ago, I took a walk and I could hear crickets on both sides.
I am still somewhat self conscious. The aids are very small and black, but at some angles in certain lighting you can see them. I have to learn to not care.

5 people in this conversation9 min readJump to latest

Learn not to care. You worry about the hearing aids more than the other people do. Enjoying the voices and sounds around you will make it all worth it.

When I forget to put my hearing aids in, I feel naked. I leave the house and start my car and immediately think someone has been fiddling with the tone control on the radio. Then the “duh” moment dawns and I turn off the car, go back in the house and finish getting dressed. When I get out of the car, I realize I am not hearing traffic from the nearby highway. I really do feel underdressed without my hearing aids.

The struggle of going through a day without my hearing aids is just not worth it. Hearing and understanding my grandkids far outweighs the cost or any perceived stigma of wearing hearing aids. When you can’t hear properly, your errors in perception make others think you aren’t listening or that you are not very smart.

I prefer people know I have a hearing loss and I am dealing with it because I am interested in what they have to say.

I know very little about Signia Silk but am surprised they were not designed for Bluetooth.

As for me, I’m in Signia aids and have so very little hearing without them so first thing every morning after putting my feet on the floor I have glasses on, hearing aids in my ears. Mine are using an older version of software than yours. For my own life I prefer making more choices myself like mine do than having the hearing aids think they know best. New models had come out as I was trialing the ones I chose, so I also trialed the new ones. The engineers were still working on the software at the time, and then 2020 hit. That may have slowed their progress when I was making my choice.

Happy you are now wearing them in both ears!

@carolo said:

I know very little about Signia Silk but am surprised they were not designed for Bluetooth.

Many of the cic aids by most manufacturers are not Bluetooth compatible. They are just too small for the electronics.

In reply to @carolo

Thank you Carolo!! This morning on the way to work I was singing in the car, and I decided to take the left one out, in order to feel more comfortable. Although I have a loss at 8000 there, the middle tones are good, so it’s a trade off. When singing, the better deal is to keep the natural mid tones. I decided to go to work with just the one on the right, with the volume at 12 and the bass turned up all the way. I already have a lot of support with high tones already in that one, based on my . I was really amazed at what I was able to do. I went into the school cafeteria and had a conversation with someone and I was not straining or uncomfortable. That was a miracle. Throughout the day, I had no problems.

Based on this, I will probably just wear one on the right for now. However, I think it couldn’t hurt to wear the one on the left sometimes, maybe just for bike riding, just to give some stimulation to the 8000 that has the mild loss, and keep it in shape. Does that make any sense?

In reply to @MartinGale

Martin thank you for that advice this morning. I wore my hair in a bun with a bow on top. I decided I don’t care if people see my hearing aid today. I only wore one to work, but that one is helping me so much that I really can’t care or try to hide it any more. When I don’t wear it, I feel a tiny bit queasy, unbalanced, and sounds like my world got a lot smaller, like a slice of it was taken out. I feel like I am half deaf in that ear without my aid, so I love wearing it. I don’t ever want to go a day without it again. This aid in particular is really the best I have ever heard, and I can feel that my brain has decided that wearing it is the new normal. I agree that being able to hear people, be social and friendly, competent, and able to do my job, or be connected to my family and a good listener to my friends are all much more important than pretending (badly) that I don’t have a hearing loss.

I’m glad that I convinced you to venture out wearing your hearing aid. In this day of face masks, understanding others is at an all time low. Your idea of wearing your second aid for exercise is partially right. The way we hear, interpret and perceive sounds is incredibly complex. We forget just how much work our brain does to fill in the missing sounds.

When we fail to wear our hearing aids, our brain is deprived of some additional information that the hearing aid recovers for us. Without that stimulation, our brain learns to work without all the sounds a hearing aid might provide. As a result our brain forgets how to utilize those missing sounds. Our brain might cope well with the current loss, but what happens in the future if the loss progresses? Will our brain still manage to provide us with the information we need to be safe, effective communicators? I throw the word safe in the previous sentence for a reason. Our ability to locate the source of sounds is incredibly important.

My father’s hearing loss in one ear was profound. As a result, when he heard an unrecognized sound, he searched in front and quickly to his hearing side. The reason was obvious, he could not ascertain the source of the sound, but his brain always thought it was on his hearing side. Your brain needs all the help it can get to allow you to be relaxed and safe. If your brain misdirects your attention, it could put you in a dangerous situation. I urge you to at least try to wear both hearing aids. It will soon become an automatic effortless habit that might help you both now and in the future.

I wore the two of them this weekend when I went out to the movies and a noisy restaurant, and they did help a lot in that situation. However, sometimes the left side sounds better without it, especially when listening to music, or today at work.
The left side has a mild loss at 8000 only, and I think maybe a fluctuating slight or mild loss at the very low frequencies. On my right side, I am profound at 8000 and this aid doesn’t bring it back. So I am missing 8000 on both sides. Also, the left side needs to be refit because he gave me a medium click sleeve, which was uncomfortable because that ear is smaller, so I got an xtra small click sleeve and have been wearing it that way. So it probably will sound better after my next visit.

I appreciate you mentioning your dad’s experience. I am also thinking of my grandfather, who was hard of hearing when I was little, and deaf by the time I was an adult. He didn’t even try a hearing aid until it was way too late. Also, the technology was nowhere near what it is today. I have always stayed on top of my with him in mind. I feel it’s a 50/50 chance that my hearing will not decrease at all over the next 5 years, so I am also getting this second aid to be ready for that. And, some days I think I will want to wear it, but some days, like today, not.

Today was the second day I wore only the right one at work. Started out on Musician program, but ended up in Noisy Environment program, When I got out of work, I put the left one in. It felt very relaxing. Having one ear with a “program” and one natural ear is a bit of an adjustment, but I think my brain has adapted to that program too. Having two ears with aids that are communicating with each other and using the same program gives some relaxation, too, but I also give up some of my good natural tones. I remain committed to part time use for the left aid.

Edited

Today, day 3 of wearing only the right side at work. I tried to wear both but had to take the left one out. It needs to be adjusted, and then I will probably accept it for more hours. When I got out of work, I wore two for my drive home, and am still wearing two. I find that my brain craves wearing both of them. It seems like my hearing ability with the good ear is a bit less than what it was before I tried the hearing aid for it. It’s like my body can finally relax and let some things go that it was holding on to.
UPDATE: Took out the left one again. It seems like I enjoy it for drives alone, bike rides, and listening to music, but not conversation. I wonder if the adjustments will improve this. I wrote to my audiologist this morning and told him that I can’t hear a car running behind me when I am walking in a parking garage, and I can’t hear the bus coming from around the corner. In both cases, I was with other people who commented on these things and made me aware of them. He said he will make adjustments for this, along with the dome size change, at our next appointment.

Thank you Raudrive!! My appointment is one week from today. I am really looking forward to it.

In reply to @snorkelg1

Just wondering did the Clinician recommend a hearing aid on the left? you don 't have much loss in that ear at all and its pretty unusual to have a hearing aid for a loss at 8k only

Edited

He said I could try it. I have wanted to try it. The posted is from 2019. He did test me a couple weeks ago, but I feel it’s not accurate. I can’t hear very low tones like a car running behind me in a parking garage, or the bus coming around the corner that the other mom at the bus stop heard. When I test myself with the iphone audiograms, I have a mild loss on the left side only from 125-500 that even goes to moderate sometimes at 125. The right side hears the low tones at 20, but not the left side. I think it is fluctuating. So far, sometimes it feels better to only wear one on the right. However, I changed the dome to extra small and so maybe that’s why it didn’t sound right too. I put back the medium dome this afternoon and it feels much better than it did when I first tried it. It sounds better too. Other times, I love the feeling of wearing them both. It feels more balanced. However, I am asking him to adjust and put more low tones in the left. That might make it more comfortable. I don’t know how the low frequency loss on the left didn’t show up in the audiogram he did. I usually click the button for any trace of sound, no matter how faint. Maybe I should only click when I can easily hear the tone without straining and concentrating to hear any sound. Maybe I would have a more accurate audiogram if I did that.
I also suspect that since wearing the aids, for a week or two, maybe my hearing in the left ear will test worse than it did that day, because I don’t need to strain anymore. Right now I am wearing them both and it feels very comfortable.

I also think that if I had two ears like my good ear, I could understand not wearing aids. However, since my other ear is impaired, I want to optimize as much as possible what I can hear in the good ear. I don’t want to miss anything.

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