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Hi I’m a new user, this is my story please advise me

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In reply to @Rain.Drop

@Rain.Drop said:

I’m just so scared when office attendance is required and I’ll be so lost in meetings and conference.

I usually work from home remotely. My employer has many employees working remotely, some in remote states across the country. Even when I am on the office, most meetings are either virtual or physical with very few people. My challenge with virtual meetings in the office sometimes is occasional noisy office chatter happening around me.

@Rain.Drop said:

Oticon real 2 minirite

I am exchanging my Oticon More 1 minirite for Oticon Real 1 minirite on Wednesday. The Real 2 is a lower technology level. If you are a little unsure and can afford the price difference, I would recommend the Real 1.

Yes I think I will do that. Do you happen to know the difference between the two model in term of performance? Is there a specific reason why you pick Oticon real? I’m new to Hearing loss and . Oticon is a good brand? Thanks

I have been using hearing aids for 20 years and know I need a high technology level. By following here and considering what brand are sold by my audiologist, I narrowed my choices to 3 brands. Signia, Phonak, and Oticon.

Phonak only has rechargeable aids and a short runtime of up to 17 hours because the use power hungry Bluetooth Classic.

Oticon seems to rate highly here. Signia is made by the same company as that Rexton brand aids I wore for 4 years. They did not keep their firmware updated for the newer iPhones. After the first year they were a struggle.
I ended up choosing the Oticon More 1 which also happened to be the least expensive choice.

I was offered a no charge upgrade to the new Real aids that are now sitting in the audiologist’s office.

In reply to @Rain.Drop

Hi, @Rain.Drop! I’m glad that you have a great relationship with your audi. And, too, that you feel confident with her. I am not sure mine is so great anymore and I will be checking around to find another. I was exactly 34 years old when I learned about my hearing loss. It has slowly progressed. It’s funny, but it kind of goes down in what I call ‘chunks’. I will wake up one day and suddenly I cannot hear something I always did before. I don’t know if it was just progressing and suddenly it got to the point where it was gone, or what. I need to post my when I get some time so that people who are curious can look at it. Maybe they might have some advice. Looking at your audiogram, I can see my loss is much more severe than yours. I am at the bottom, but I can still hear. It is just difficult sometimes. I get a lot of bass. My audi did not want to do an adjustment. I may possibly be in denial, but hoped maybe she could squeeze just a teensy bit more out for me. I need a second opinion and if that opinion is the same as my current audi, then I will have to accept it.

Hi @rain.drop, you must understand you type of hearing loss. mild to moderate is quite easy to solve. Just test out the ’s and then you buy the one that is suitable to you. Costco provide 6 months trial until you are satisfied.It takes time to get use to the sound coming into your ears and the brain.
Severe to profound hearing loss is more problematic. You need super or ultra power hearing aids!

In reply to @SOL

Hey - just a thanks @SOL for this. I didn’t realise I could do it. Sometimes (yes, I’m weird), I like plugging in the Airpods for the noise cancelling focus of it. The sound is even better now!

Hi. I’ve been a hearing aid user for over 20 years, starting when a co-worker noticed I watch people’s lips in conversations (he had hearing aids). It was a good call. I started with (completely in canal) aids as I was concerned about how they would look. I didn’t like feeling my ears were plugged - you may or may not feel the same. I converted to (behind the ear, receiver in canal) aids, and I’m happy I did. With open domes (part of the receiver that goes in your ear), you hear both naturally and as amplified by the receiver in your ear. It’s the best of both worlds.

Two points I didn’t see in the other replies in this thread: First, when you first wear aids you will notice certain sounds are loud and objectionable (think paper being crunched or glass breaking). Give it time. Your brain will adjust to this and the sounds will no longer seem so loud.

Second, getting good speech recognition is tricky. You may need to work with your audiologist or hearing aid supplier to fine tune the settings. Even with this, you may find some people harder to hear than others. Women and children tend to have higher frequency speech and will be harder to understand. You may be able to hear others (e.g., men with deep voices) more clearly.

My hearing loss is pretty bad when it comes to speech (I’d love to understand 70% of words across the board), so listening becomes more active than passive. This means you’ll be a little behind the conversation because you’re “translating” (trying to figure out what the speaker just said) as you listen. You might need to ask the speaker to go back a bit once you figure out you didn’t translate/understand something said a bit ago. Don’t worry. You’ll learn skills to help understand more. It’s all a process.

Good luck!

Edited

Some genetic deafness is stable. Some worsens. Although it’s called deafness, for many they just remain hard of hearing. There is a lab in Iowa (one of many) that offers screening panels for genetic hearing loss. It’s called the MORL (medical otolaryngology and renal research lab): https://morl.lab.uiowa.edu/

If you decide you want to see speech in addition to hearing it, you can. I use a combination (but my hearing is worse than yours). I use an assistive listening device. I use captions. And I’m experimenting with SpeakSee, which was developed by a Dutch child of Deaf adults. You give people in a meeting a microphone that they wear comfortably around their neck. And on your phone or computer you see every word they say. The fidelity is very high and the captioning is really fast:

Be Part of the Conversation6

Inclusive Communication for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing with Speaksee: Your Portable Speech-to-Text Microphone Device for Real-Time Captioning, Transcription, and Translation during Group Conversations, Events and Meetings

There are things I just don’t hear. And I’m one of the officers of a company, been in an executive role in different organizations for many years. My colleagues help out–listening in meetings, or repeating things for me or filling me in. People I meet with help me find quiet environments. It actually brings us closer together, it doesn’t divide us. Yes, it’s frustrating in some situations and at times it bothers me. But I find the more I’m open and matter-of-fact about being partially deaf, the calmer and more accepting people feel around me. You will do just fine. You may not even know your colleagues have other issues, like ADHD or dyslexia or even, like you, hearing loss. Meetings are complex–for everyone. I hope you are feeling less apprehensive as time goes on.

I had hearing loss in my early 20’s. I didnt get hearing aids until my 50’s (a mistake that i regret). I am 66 and still have enough hearing that hearing aids work for me. But sometime in the next few years i will be qualified for a coclear implant, and i sort of look forward to that.

Don - you may want to ask for a assessment sooner than later. They don’t wait until it’s a last resort anymore - you may have better results by doing it before you lose more of your natural hearing. You can see my prior to my CI and I was considered borderline but pushed for an assessment and am very glad I did. I am five months post activation and have never looked back. It is different, but definitely better. My CI is testing in normal hearing range and 95% booth scores for words and sentences. You can always go through all the steps, talk with the surgeon, and then wait. It’s all in your hands to decide whether to mover forward now or later, but asking all the questions and getting assessed gives you what you the info. Good luck

In reply to @Don

Don I agree with @joanhawsey, the sooner the better for a evaluation. Yes the theory in not waiting is they hope you get better results.
I got told yes a CI would be best for me. I then sat on the fence for a further 18 months, do I or don’t I go ahead. In that 18 months I did a heap of research on CI’s. In the end I got so frustrated not being able to talk on the phone. Not being able to hold a conversation without asking people to repeat themselves. And sitting in the corner reading a book instead of joining in the function that I was at. I organized an appointment with my surgeon and within a few months I had surgery. I’m so glad I went ahead with surgery, it’s the best decision I ever made.

In reply to @Don

My understanding about the turning point to get is when aids do not help you as well as CI can. Doctors want a successful CI.

This is a broad statement in my opinion because there are so many different CI results. Some are better than doctors expect, superstars. Most of us on this forum fall into that category, 85%-95% word understanding tested for each ear in quiet. This is far better than we were able to do with aids.

Don, you have reached the Medicare age. CI should be very affordable for you. 65 was the magic number for me getting CI.

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