Hearing loss anyone have positive hearing aid stories

[bobdylannumber1]

Im.51 and had hearing issues a while now maybe 5 years. Eventually last November I went to have a hearing test the audiologist was surprised i was so bad at my age suggested it may be medical issue. I had an ENT appointment before christnas a CT Scan which showed nothing sinister. Which was great but doesn't help.my situatiom. After the ct scan he said come.back ill.look at you again so.qemt back another hearing test and another look he saidnum.at hearing aid levels.i said can tou do nothing he said cime back in.a.year well keep an eye on you im quiet upset that hearing aids ate my only option. I won't get aids yet as I don't want to cant afford and I think im doing OK ish. My family speak loud amd I've told my friends in work abiut the situation. Does anyone have positive stories of hearing aids .

Sorry about typos typing on my phone

Me.

I'm 15 years younger than you and recently got hearing aids due to moderate loss.
The difference is brilliant. I have paid to have some very expensive ones from boots instead of the 80 week NHS wait, but it so worth it.

I got NHS hearing aids 4 years ago (I'm 47 now) and the difference was immediate and absolutely wonderful.

I have moderate hearing loss and could watch the TV loudly but was finding work meetings were becoming challenging.

Now I can hear my kids in the back of the car. TV is normal. At meetings and events I don't have to worry about sitting the front row. I can hear all the small sounds again that I hadn't even realised I'd been missing.

My only regret is that I didn't get hearing aids sooner.

As I said I got mine on the NHS so no charge. It was pre-covid so only a 16 week wait.

If you are in the UK you can get free hearing aids on the NHS. I was diagnosed with hearing loss in my mid 50s. Initially I felt embarrassed about it - wasn’t deafness something that only old people suffered from? But I soon realised how wearing my hearing aids reconnected with people and stopped me feeling excluded from conversations and the gossip!

I began wearing the aids and didn’t tell anyone - no one noticed. I finally told my best friends and they didn’t believe me, made me show them!

I have the kind that hook over your ears and have an in-ear fixing. I have very short hair but they really are discrete!

Well yes they really help
I don't know why you shouldn't get them if you qualify for them

Thank you everyone sounds like all good experiences, I live in Ireland amd have to pay for hearing aids maybe I should start saving for them

Try a private place, they may let you spread the cost. I have spread mine with boots.

@Hercisback Can I ask what kind you got? I am looking at Starkey Evolv but the reviews for the app are not great.

@bobdylannumber1

Thank you everyone sounds like all good experiences, I live in Ireland amd have to pay for hearing aids maybe I should start saving for them

Are you entitled to the grant of €500 per hearing aid? It helps with the cost of private aids.

I have severe deafness in both ears, the result of meningitis in my 20s. I tried lots of aids, but none ever really worked that well for me.

That is until last year and I am now the delighted user of Phonak aids. They work brilliantly for me and my life has been transformed with them. They are very discreet and often people cannot believe I am using them, that is with my hair tied back of course.

The best bit is they work on bluetooth so I can listen to audiobooks, radio, podcasts, and speak and hear on the phone through the aids with such clarity it is miraculous.

I paid privately and got them within a few weeks. The audiologists were amazing. I never thought I would hear properly again, but I can.

The funny thing is, when in the garden in Summer and the kids here and all over are loud and excited (screaming... which I can now hear lol), I just take out the aids, and all is silent again. There is an app that allows adjustment to suit surroundings, such as cutting out background noise and so on.

You can tell I am delighted can't you!

It's really, really important you wear hearing aids if you have a hearing loss. If your auditory nerve isn't being stimulated enough you gradually over the years lose the ability to understand speech (different thing to hearing it). Your brain slows down.. hearing loss is known to be linked to dementia.

They are so tiny nowadays they won't even show.

I got NHS ones last year for mild hearing loss. I’m 61. They seem very basic compared to the ones my friend got which are also NHS. Hers can be adjusted via an app. She is really pleased with hers. Mine I just don’t feel help much. I’m still straining to hear in noisier environments which is the main thing I wanted to improve on. Am thinking to save up for the in ear ones . The phonak ones sound amazing PegsandBags

Please get them sooner rather than later. My mum got some ten years ago, wore them for a few months then decided she didn't like them and didn't really need them. Visits to hers were difficult - I could hear the TV from the other end of her long flat through two shut doors almost perfectly, and anything I said had to be repeated many times. She'd make up what she heard and react to that which then meant a whole tangential conversation to sort out. I once lost my voice for three days after a visit due to having to strain my voice so much to be heard.

So far, my problem. But then when she really needed them she needed new ones which took too long to process, by which point dementia had struck and now there's no way she would put up with them. So her life is so much harder than it could have been purely because she chose not to wear them.

@ElegantlyTouched
It’s not so much that your mum “made up” what you said, that’s what she heard. It’s not a conscious thing, and what the brain makes up may not make sense. It’s really difficult explaining this if you don’t have hearing loss yourself. A lot of the time hearing loss and what people can and can’t hear just doesn’t make sense.

I’m sorry she wasn’t able to tolerate the aids before. Not all audiologists are great at their job, I’ve dealt with some stinkers in my time. When hearing aids fit correctly you’re hardly aware you’re wearing them from a physical point of view, but getting audiologists to re-do moulds that haven’t actually been made correctly is a nightmare.

@RachC2021 - thank you so much for your post. It's strangely reassuring to think she did actually hear what she said she'd heard, as it was depressing believing she thought so little of me at times. (Eg she berated me for going from Edinburgh to Glasgow via London when I hadn't said I'd gone that way in the first place, and I wondered why she'd assumed I'd said that in the first place. Knowing that that's actually what she heard makes me feel tonnes better.)

@ElegantlyTouched it comes from personal experience! I’ve been chatting to friends at times, responding to their questions, and then I’ve started talking about something or other, in response to what I heard… but judging by their very confused expressions I’d obviously misheard something and they were too polite to say anything.

I’ve had conversations with others where they think hearing loss is a uniform loss, so just making everything louder helps — it doesn’t, because the loss almost always varies between different frequencies, so some words you do hear, some you don’t, and then others you only hear parts of — these are the ones that are troublesome, but you often don’t realise you haven’t heard them correctly to ask for clarification. Sometimes I’ll use logic to realise I’ve not heard something right (like your trip “via London” example), but I guess not everyone does that, or doesn’t do it all the time.

Do you have to visit your doctor or is it enough to just ask them over the phone to refer you? I could really do without spending £1000 on this especially if the NHS does it for free

If you need hearing aids they are a real help. I am waiting for my second aid as I need one in each ear. As I am a professional musician, it is imperative that I can hear properly. It is no different from wearing glasses, surely? I like putting my hearing aid in my ear in the morning and rejoining the world of sound. It is equally nice to take it out again just before l go to bed and enjoy a sleepy silence.

HollowTalk. I had a phone appt with my GP and told him I was struggling to hear phone conversations, the doorbell, in crowded places and be referred me to Specsavers for a hearing test. The audiologist diagnosed mild hearing loss and said it’s really beneficial if people start wearing them while the loss is mild. I got NHS through Specsavers. My friends doctor referred her for a test too and she got an appointment at a nearby health centre. She also has NHS aids but they’re different to the ones I got and seem more high tech (they can be adjusted by a phone app). Mine seem much more basic and aren’t helping as much as I’d hoped in noisy environments.

In case you didn't know a hearing aid entitles you to a disabled rail card with discount for you and one other not just off peak.

Which brands would people recommend if cost not a priority ?

My lovely older friend has hearing loss, and eventually went for nhs aids but wears them only grudgingly , and I suspect only when we have dinner together! I am aware of the dementia issue and loss of understanding of speech, and worry for her.

However much one worries and sympathises, conversation does become a bit joyless and frustrating having to repeat at ever louder volume when a solution is obvious. She's a bit clumsy too, so something non- fiddly would be good also. Complains the batteries constantly expiring on her nhs ones.

No one would walk around semi blind when they can use spectacles!

do I have to be referred to have a hearing test. My hearing on one side has really declined. I’m 48 now and realise that I withdraw in groups of people because I can’t hear properly

@ihatethecold

do I have to be referred to have a hearing test. My hearing on one side has really declined. I’m 48 now and realise that I withdraw in groups of people because I can’t hear properly

@ihatethecold If you are prepared/able to pay you can get a hearing test with an audiologist on most high streets - often based within opticians but stand alone hearing aid suppliers usually do them too. My DH has had a hearing test at both type of places. The first was at the opticians (he was going for an eye test anyway so booked the appointments back to back). They said he had a mild loss at high frequencies but didn't offer anything as they don't sell hearing aids. He (a few years and lots of nagging later) went to a hearing aid specialist (recommended by 3 different people we know) and had a further test (same results!) but was offered the chance to buy hearing aids. He was given a sample aid to wear and told to go to a local cafe, get a drink and listen to conversations. He was amazed he could actually hear what a group of men on another table were saying - apparently he couldn't hear that before and he can't hear me half the time either He's still done nothing about it though. Not sure if it's the £3 - 4 grand price tag putting him off, vanity or the fear of losing them when he's got them in.

Thanks @bigbluebus
ive booked an appointment at Specsavers.

I'm trying ginger my dad to get his hearing tested. He had an issue but I don't think my mum sees the problem. So isn't nagging enough!