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New to hearing aids

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I have no idea how I lost my hearing. I remember doing some dumb things in college like putting my head right up to a speaker playing music by a band. Also did some dumb things like listen to music too loud in a car. When you’re young you think you will live forever and silly things like hearing loss won’t happen to you, and if they do, it will be temporary only. Right?

Wrong!

By around 2002 though people were noticing me saying “what” a lot, and I remember missing the sound of cicadas during the summer. I started noticing that I constantly heard this high pitched whining noise in my ears… tinnitus. I also have a brief time with Qtips, no idea if they did the damage or not. I lived with this for years, started becoming uninterested in movies/TV. Learned to guess what people were saying, lip read a little bit. Always frustrated me.

Had an audiology, said I had severe hearing loss in the higher frequencies. Women’s voices are particularly hard for me to understand. I got hearing aids yesterday, Oticoon Nera 2 Pro TI.

Some things I’ve noticed:

  • My left ear is worse than my right, my audiology notices this and programmed them accordingly I guess? Some of the high pitches sound like a “squawking” like a low quality radio or something. This effect seems to go away. The effect makes me feel like the right ear is plugged up or something though.

  • I am hearing things I never heard before literally, for example, the beep that the card reader makes on my parking area for work. I literally never knew it made a “beep”.

  • Still have trouble making out some words. When my audiologist first gave me these, I mentioned that everything sounded LOUD. She said she put in a program to gradually increase the volume over several days and not to be disappointed that I’m not able to hear as well as I thought I would. Still is disappointing though, hopefully this will improve.

  • Everything machinery-wise sound like it’s rattling

Are these normal experiences? Overall I’m happy so far, but I’m just wondering what the typical beginner experience is and whether or not I’ll be ok with these things.

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One thing to add, I find talking on the phone to be extraordinarily difficult. My audiologist said I have to hold the phone where the microphone is but I still have a hard time hearing it. I still talk to the phone with the receiver held up to my ear.

Edited

Hi,

Welcome to the Forum! You’re going to find a wealth of information here.

In my opinion, what you’re describing in terms of your initial reaction to hearing aids is normal. There will be a lot of sounds you’re hearing for the first time. All of the noise coming through can take awhile to get used to, and, even with a mild hearing loss in one ear, I’ve found that everything does sound very, VERY loud for that first few days!!! If you can wear your hearing aids as much as possible (I.e., put them in when you wake up and leave them in until you go to bed), you’ll adjust much quicker than if you wear them sporadically. That said, it might help if you keep a detailed log of sounds you find annoying, sounds/voices that you can’t hear, that kind of thing, to bring with you to your next audiology appointment. Then your audi can fine-tune your hearing aid even more. It gets better! Things start to sound more and more natural the more you wear them. It’s a process because your brain has to re-learn how to hear the frequencies it’s been missing.

Regarding the phone, Oticon has the option of using a streamer that essentially enables your cell phone to speak to your hearing aids. I just checked their website and it seems like the streamer IS an option for your hearing aids. It works really well when paired with a cell phone. The sound just floats into your hearing aids and is crystal clear. If you can afford it, I’d highly recommend it. I don’t know what options are out there for “regular”/landline phones, though. Hopefully someone else can give you some information about that. Or you can check the HLAA (Hearing Loss Association of America) website. They seem to have a tonne of useful information there as well! But likely someone from this forum can help you, too.

I love your user name, by the way!

Kerry

In reply to @Weird_Tolkienish_Fig

It took me about 4 weeks to get over the everything is so LOUD! syndrome. Hearing aids do not restore normal hearing. Hearing aids improve poor hearing. I had no clue that I made so much noise walking down a hallway. I can hear every time my shoe hits the floor. Most doors squeak to some extent when opening and closing. Another new revelation. I also learned that what I thought the singers were saying in many songs was not what they were saying. Do I hear perfectly? Absolutely not. Do I hear more things with aids? Absolutely. Do I understand more of a conversation? Absolutely. Do I hear everything a waitress says in a noisy restaurant? Sometimes, sometimes not. You will hear better with aids but it will not be better than someone without a hearing deficit. I also think that you lose the ability to recognize words if you have had long term hearing loss. It takes time, but you will get better at recognizing and understanding words. My hearing loss is asymmetrical. Left ear isn’t too bad except at high frequencies, right ear is in the severe loss range at most frequencies. I had no clue that I was basically hearing nothing in the right ear. Three months later, I can tell that I am not hearing in the right ear when I remove the aid. It is amazing to find out what you weren’t hearing. Hang in there, it takes time to adapt to hearing aids and finally hearing all of the sounds that you haven’t heard in years. For me the most amazing thing is the ability to hear my cell phone notifications. I now realize how strange it must have seemed to people that my phone was beeping away and I was totally ignoring it because I couldn’t hear it. I am lucky because my left ear is close to normal or normal in the conversations frequencies (300-3Khz.) My audi set me up with an on the left ear. I agree that holding the phone over the hearing aid’s microphone does not result in the best sound. I use a streamer with my cell phone. Awesome sound quality and I don’t have to worry about holding a receiver to my ear.

I was advised when I first got my hearing aids to only wear them 2 hours for the first day and gradually increase them an hour a day. Your brain needs to adjust to all the new sounds it is hearing. If you wear your hearing aids all day from the beginning it can be exhausting and stressful. That said, getting my first hearing aids two months ago was one of the best things I ever did. I never take them off now except to shower and sleep. When I do it’s like I put my head under a blanket. Everything sounds muffled. That muffled sound is what I was hearing before the hearing aids. Just take your time wearing them. You’ll have them for the rest of your life and you’ve done without them this long. So what’s the rush? What you’re hearing is normal and it wil go away if you do the right things. Good luck!

Still getting used to them, currently. I am noticing that I am picking out some words better for some people. I say “what?” to my wife a lot less now. I guess i just thought it would be more? I have heard that it takes time for your brain to recognize that it can hear sounds in this range and you still will have a hard time recognizing words. I still find hearing with lots of background noise difficult.

Keep in mind that people without hearing loss may also be finding it hard to hear with background noise. We always think others are doing better than they are (I think)…

In some noisy situations, I seem to do better than those without a hearing aid. The hearing aid can’t perform miracles, but they do a great job of improving hearing, especially in difficult situations.

Absolutely! I don’t ever NOT have mine in. When I take them out I feel like I just put my head under a blanket.

In reply to @Weird_Tolkienish_Fig

@Weird_Tolkienish_Fig said:

Still getting used to them, currently. I am noticing that I am picking out some words better for some people. I say “what?” to my wife a lot less now. I guess i just thought it would be more? I have heard that it takes time for your brain to recognize that it can hear sounds in this range and you still will have a hard time recognizing words. I still find hearing with lots of background noise difficult.

I am also new to hearing aids after needing them for several years. My biggest problem now is understanding words rather than not hearing them. An example: My wife used the word ‘anxious’ and I didn’t understand it. She repeated it several times and I was baffled. She finally spelled it and I said ‘Oh, anxious’. Even when I said it, it sounded strange. The problem has diminished in the last couple of weeks. Guess I’m finally learning English again.

By the way, my wife loves the new . She said that it takes much less effort on her part to have a conversation with me.

I think I will need her to either turn up the volume in both ears or at least my right ear. My right ear is stronger than my left one, so I guess the aids are “overbalanced” and now favor the left ear too much? I have a terrible time hearing out of my right ear.

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