For Those of us who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing Part 2

[Violinist64]

The original thread is almost full and I have found it extremely helpful so have started this new thread.

Has anyone experienced ringing in ears but only when shaking head vigorously?

@Violinist64 from your username I assume you also play? I am thinking there is no way I can play my violin with the aids in, but do you adjust with the instrument so close to your ear?
Today I was acutely aware of all small sounds and thinking do I really need aids, and then struggled to hear a conversation with a softly spoken lady right next to me so I know I do really, but the music playing does concern me!

@Milliways, yes I am a professional musician. I have taught piano, violin and viola as well as being an accompanist for the best part of forty years. I am also in a very good semi-professional standard orchestra. In addition to this, I have had some sort of hearing impediment for most of my life. Strangely, though, I have perfect pitch and synesthesia. My old left hearing aid would whistle in sympathy with the high notes, but my new ones are fantastic and not a problem at all. I have an adult violin pupil who also has a hearing aid and, as far as I know, she is ok, too. The other advantage with my new aids is that they have Bluetooth and I can use that facility when teaching online. Modern hearing aids can actually enhance our musical enjoyment. If you are having a problem with yours in relation to playing your violin, it might be a good idea to see your audiologist; perhaps a newer pair of aids might help.

@Milliways, are you in the USA? I am asking because you mention Costco and over the counter hearing aids. Most of us here are in the UK and many of us, me included, have been fortunate enough to receive free hearing aids on the NHS, although some people buy their aids privately. In any case, you are very welcome on this thread and we look forward to seeing more of your posts and insights.

I meant to say that, while we have Costco here, it is not a big thing yet.

From the looks of it some Costco do hearing aids in UK.
I took her post to mean that she's in the UK

No, I am in the UK. Our local Costco didn’t have them so we had a 40min drive to Farnborough, was worth it though! They have a few in UK now and will likely roll out more according to the man who did my testing, but need to recruit more trained audiologists first. (He used to work for another UK chain and said the Costco test was more comprehensive, they allow 90 mins).
My aids are being programmed for my ears, not totally OTC.

Sounds excellent.

Is it normal for the Bluetooth on the phone to interfere with the hearing aids? So if I have the Bluetooth on my phone on all the time, then I'll get notifications when my doorbell goes off for example or when you get a sky new notification but also sometimes when the phone's not getting a notification it goes silent for a few seconds. I know it's the Bluetooth on the phone cos when I switch it off it doesn't do this.
It's a bit annoying.
So I tend to turn my Bluetooth off.
But someone else said they keep their Bluetooth on their phone all the time and theirs doesn't do this.

I just wondered if this is normal or not?

Mine occasionally go quiet for about 5 seconds when using via ipad.

The thing is it happens fairly often.

It's just annoying.

I think I'll have to just not have the Bluetooth on all the time and only switch it on when I want to listen to something on the phone.

Just didn't imagine it being like this

@purpleme12 I don't quite understand what the problem is. Are you saying your hearing aids switch on and off randomly? Or something else? If you could describe it more clearly we might have suggestions. It would also help to know the make and model of your phone and your aids. Bluetooth issues between different phones and aids are common, especially with Android phones, as unlike iPhones they all have different architecture and the hearing aid manufacturers can't possibly keep up with all the phone manufacturer's updates.

The problem is that the Bluetooth on my phone interferes with the hearing aids. I can understand when it does it when my phone has a notification of some kind (hearing aids go silent for a couple of seconds and it does the noise for a notification) however my hearing aids quite often go silent for a few seconds even when the phone doesn't have a notification of any sort. Which is just annoying

My phone is an android

I am finding that having them linked to both ipad and phone means they disconnect at times, and I need to restart them to reconnect.

No it doesn't disconnect it's not that

I've noticed mine drops out briefly when something comes through that I don't have notifications enabled for - and when it's switching settings automatically, such as when somebody's voice goes from a frequency I can't hear well to a lower pitch that I can.

It's all systems go next week at work and I'm not exactly looking forward to it with all the extraneous noise.

But it's not when anything comes through

And nothing to do with settings. It's the Bluetooth on my phone

@purpleme12 The problem is that the Bluetooth on my phone interferes with the hearing aids.
That's not the problem, that's your interpretation of the problem. What are you experiencing that you don't like? What do you mean by 'interfering'? Are you getting strange noises? Disconnection? It may well be connected with the Bluetooth on your phone, but if you want a better solution than just switch the Bluetooth we need to know more about what you're actually experiencing.

I'm not sure how else to explain it apart from what I've already said in my posts explaining it to be honest.

Like I've said, the hearing aids cut out for a few seconds quite often. And this is not when I'm getting any notifications on my phone. And only when the Bluetooth is on on my phone.

I don't know how I can explain it better

If you don't think it's the Bluetooth interfering then what are you saying it is?

Can you connect via an app and see if the issue resolves. As I mentioned below, every so often mine cuts out momentarily, so I hear the external sound only but not my phone/ipad but it is usually when there is nothing playing for it to tune into.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say can I connect via an app?

The problem I'm having is my hearing aids cutting out for a couple of seconds (fairly often) full stop. So I've only got my normal hearing for those few seconds, the normal sound's not coming through my hearing aids.
Yes it's when I'm not listening to anything on the phone. So every day noise. But from other people tell me,I should be able to have my Bluetooth switched on on my phone all the time and my hearing aids working normally all the time.

But maybe you're saying this is normal?

I do not have notifications enabled for most apps - but there's a brief drop out when something has updated, even though I'm not actually receiving a notification (because I've set it up that I don't receive an alert). So a new Youtube video, a Google Play app update, a game, all cause the brief drop even though there is no message in the swipedown.

Does that happen quite often with you then?
Because it happens really often on my phone

And I can't see any reason for it/ can't see anything's been updated

It's happened a few times in the last few minutes. I'm quite sure it's not updates to things