Does anyone have any experience (personal or DP etc) of hearing aids - I've never bothered but...

[Jackaroo]

have just read an interesting article about how bleeding tired you can get dealing with hearing loss without them.
I've had complete hearing loss in one ear since I was at primary school, and despite several tries, they can't fix it. Middle ear not cochlear btw...

This real life interview woman said that she hadn't realised how much she has to concentrate to hear people and how much she uses lipreading - well I do all that am perfeclty aware of how exhausting it can be - and now she's got a hearing aid it's made a vast difference.

Mmmm... any ideas?

The only person I know who's supposed to use one (well 2 actually) is my mum. She refuses saying they make everything too loud (ROFL ).

Though, more seriously, she has always been partially deaf and the problem that causes that means she finds high sounds painful and the hearing aid excerbates that. I think she was also put off having them when she was at school as she feels it makes her deafness obvious. So I have a feeling that she wasn't going to like them anyway.

Anyway I know NikkiBFG/CrookshanksinJimmyCHoos wears them so she might be around later.

hi jackaroo i wear hearing aids. I have hearing that is well under the avergage but not quite totally deaf. I can survive without them and have done up until about 4 weeks ago. I lipread a lot, more than I realise, and the tv has to be quite loud. I find it very difficult to understand people talking that I'm not looking at as well. My problem is also middle ear, somehting to do with fluid and whatnot!

Having them has improved my quality of life as I can hear much more and sounds are there that were never there before! It does seem to make things very loud at first. When i had mine put in the guy set them at normal audibilty (is that even a word!) but left the volume level so i could change it. I do often turn it down as i do find some of the sounds too loud for me, but its great when watching tv, listening to lectures, in small conversations. When out in a club or pub with lots of background noise its not so useful as you pick up all the background noise, but apparently after time your brain learns to filter this sound out! They arenet too obvios on my ear tho sometiems i do feel self conscious when my hair is up and not covering my ears.

Have a try with them, you dont have to usse them

Ooh, thank you. I'm quite excited at the idea now. What DH will say I don't know Lol!!TBH I think I'm past being self-conscious, don't know if it's age or motherhood that's done it...

Penelope, do you feel any more energetic though?!

Look forward to hearing from the otehrs too (oh, arf, arf)

I have had h aids for 2o years. NHs until 2 wks ago, I just spent some inheritance money on teeny in-the-ear things. They make a HUGE difference to quality of life for me - I can lipread but find it so all-consuming focusing on the speaker all the time and social gatherings are impossible. I still need my new ones adjusting - sounds are not right yet - but its only been 2 wks and I would not be without them now. Cost £2200 for both and they are teeny.

wow - sounds as if they're worth it though... not seeing my ENT guy til December (postponed 4 times from last April 06!).. but guess I should ask him.

jackaroo go for it!

feel slightly less tired i think. I seem to have more energy and dont have to concentrate so much on hearing leaving energy for other things I think. They do take a while to get used to. I have the over ear ones but owuld love the smaller in ear ones, just cost so much!

You will prbably be waiting a while on the nhs, It took about a year from my appointment to actually getting them but its worth it.

Just seen this thread.
I am now wearing hearing aids!
have been diagnosed with high frequency loss and am wearing behind the ear aids (oticon spirit 3s) they are quite discreet but still behind ear! Cant wear in the ear as they will block all the other sounds that I am currently able to hear so would make things worse.
To be honest I am more tired as hearing so many other noises I prob not heard for ages and my brain is on overload.
I am currently off work as have been finding it hard to deal with and the fact that I have to wear my hair up at work means that there is more chance of people seeing them! I know I should be happy that it is helping but am so worried about the looks I will get and how to react to people and peoples reactions to me! It is not as common as turning up with new glasses (not that I wear glasses but i know alot of people who do)
My aids are digital so they are programmed in to my needs but are quite tinny at times and I do get alot of feedback. I need to go and get them checked as they squeel at me everytime I put my hands near them!
I have been in the RNID site and it is not at all like this site, they are lovely but there are so many supportive people on this site that I think I will continue to post on here.
I am having a hard time excepting my hearing loss and dealing with the cosmetic side of it and worried about telling people or seeing people I have not seen for ages but also glad that I can watch tv and hear conversations better than before. It is just embarrasing when your young I think.

Jackaroo, maybe try them and see how you get on. It is worth a try i do think, It is strange and you pick up so many other sounds(even my own voice is odd) but I am hoping my brain gets used to it eventually like penelopepitstops says.

Thanks so much Jenwa, I do appreciate you giving me that detail - I sounds like I felt when my hearing returned for a grand few days after surgery 15 years ago. They did a very hit-and-miss replacement of the bones of conduction, and they worked for a short while before being rejected by my body.... but in that few days I just felt completely overwhelmed. Admittedly I had also just had surgery, but even so. A funny analogy would be Mel Gibson in what women want, except of course that it wasn't funny at all....

I will still give it a go. A letter to my ENT bloke is still on my list of things to do!

I'm supposed to wear them, I have a moderate hearing loss, which is supposed to equate to me hearing what a nomrally hearing person hears underwater. I think mine is middle ear too, it's the nerve that goes to the brain.

I was dx when I started school, gave them up when I was about 10, did try again when I was a bit older but couldn't get used to them again. I've got too used to hearing things the way I do, and found it really tiring and stressful trying to decipher sounds through a hearing aid. I also don't WANT to be able to hear all those little annoying background noises that hearing people hear. Actually a few times a year I discover there are sounds I didn't realise existed ( I only recently learnt that gas hobs make a hissing noise! )

I actually tried them again when waitressing, lots of people would order with their noses in the menu and since I was standing it was hard to lipread. I really didn't find hearing aids a benefit at all, they make speech louder, but I can't filter out all the other soundsso still can't hear people. I lipread mostly and I've been doing it from a baby so I don't think it makes me more tired.

sassy - WOW - I had no idea?

Hello what a great thread. I too wear hearing aids (or are supposed to) and did not realise there were so many people out there who did!!! That's so great. I often feel a bit of an outcast wearing them. I have nerve deafness which is apparently normal ear construction but some problem with sounds actually reaching the brain. Middle ear cochlea problem of some sort that cannot be rectified. Its hereditary. Had my ears checked when about 8 and was diagnosed as mild deafness but advised to get hearing aids. DM (who consequently is also deaf, but did not find out until 50 years of age) refused to acknowledge this stating nothing was wrong with me so I went thru school & Uni without them. Finally got some aged 25 and boy did they make a difference. Now my hearing loss is 'moderately severe' whatever that means. Am currently out of hearing aids as my old ones died whilst in labour. DS is now 8 months old and I have no hearing aids. As on unpaid maternity leave we cannot afford to buy more so waiting on NHS. Waiting list is 14 months long! Arrgghh....Oh, I'm rambling. Catch you all later and will post something a litte less wordy soon.

Now I will start to answer your question....personally I find i AM exhausted without hearing aids. Have to strain so hard to listen to 'normal' conversation. Hearing aids definately DO make a huge difference. I find at the moment (without them) I am constantly running into the room where DS is as I cannot hear him cry/babble from another room and therefore unsure if he is ok. The best thing about hearing aids is when the noise is annoyingly loud (traffic, roadworks etc) you can just take them out and it feels a whole lot better. so you get the best of both worlds. And new sounds are amazing. You can hear your fingers on the keyboard, food cooking, kettle boiling, birds singing, you DC breathing!!!! I say go for it and get them. NHS offers them but not sure if you get a choice and the waiting list can be long...PS you get priority as you are 'young' (i'm 35), and also having a DC bumps you up the list also!

I would be interested in the article link, Jackaroo.

I am deaf in one ear and have some hearing loss in the other. I also (apparantly) lipread to add to what I do hear. I can't hear which direction something is coming from and miss things if I am not wearing my glasses and watching the persons face who is talking but I am grateful to hear well enough.

I'm might have a chat with my mum about what specifically was wrong with my hearing, I can't remember.

I think I remember being told when I was 10 years old that as my deafness was caused by inner ear nerve damage that there is no point in wearing hearing aids....is this right ?

As my TV has to be on silly volumes for me to hear it and more importantly I need my DH to nudge me awake at night when DD wakes up...I dread when he is away overnight and my DD might be crying for ages until I turn over and so my good ear can hear her

Hiya

I am profoundly deaf and wear one hearing aid (I should wear two, but what can I say -I'm a rebel!! lol!!). If I didn't wear my hearing aid, I would be absolutely wiped out with the stress of lipreading!! I rely totally on lipreading but the sound I get from the hearing aid to back up what I lipread, is invaluable and I'm lost without my hearing aid. So, definitely go for it!!! If you don't like it, then you can just give them back...nothing ventured nothing gained!

Babieseverywhere - was interested to note your comments about the TV and your DH nudging you awake at night when DD wakes up...have you got a subtitled tv? Also, when my DH away for the night, I have an RNID alert system to alert me to DS. This consists of a pager, a receiving box that goes into DS's room, a charging cradle, a vibrator (not that kind!! ) that you put under the bed. The receiver box can be set to varying sensitivities i.e do you want it to go off after 5 seconds, 10 seconds etc and then that sends a message to the pager which vibrates. During the day, I just clip the pager to me - nice and portable but at night, the pager is put into the charging cradle and linked to the big vibrating pad - it works a treat and when you get over the initial heart attack of the bed vibrating, it does alert you!

Go to the RNID website for more info and am happy to advise regarding any alerting products you may need - I have so many I'm constantly on vibrate....

babieseverywhere, I have the same prob with not hearing DS in the night, and DS has to nudge me to get out of bed. I even ask him in the morning if DS slept thru! And I do dread going to bed if DH is not home or out for the evening as I do fear DS will cry for ages without a response from his mother...We do have a video monitor, not much good with my eyes closed!!

jackaroo - am interested in the article....

CrookshanksinJimmyChoos, I can hear the TV as long as the volume is high (though I often miss bits of the plot and drive DH crazy asking about stuff I have missed when the camera is no on the person speaking.

I don't want to make out I have real difficulties, as I have a RL friend who is really proundly deaf in both ears and I know I am lucky to hear as much as I do and also as I have always had this nerve damage I don't know how bad or good my hearing really is and properly will never know.

I like the idea of a vibrator pad for the baby alarm that is a fab idea,

amother, We use a video monitor during the day, I have the same issue with closed eyes...do you think our monitors are broke...LOL ;)

the article was in the magazine they sell at Holland and Barrett - I don't know if it was August, and therefore if it's still available.... just checked the website, it's August, the one with the lovely Anthea on it!! I'll call them and see if they'll put it on their website. They have with some other articles.

I don't hear the dts during the night, so I get to sleep through and dp gets upw tiht hem.

Babieseverywhere - have you tried subtitles on the TV?? You will be amazed!!

Ah this thread is just too funny. Babieseverywhere you are making me laugh. Must buy new monitor, how about you ?
Everyone is making me laugh. This is just so close to home and I've finally found some people who have the same issues as me. Apart from my Mum & Aunt, I don't know anyone else who is partly deaf or wears hearing aids. So to hear that babieseverywhere drives her DH nuts when watching TV or movies makes me chuckle.... My DH also has the same prob. In fact, we once (before DS of course) went to the cinema and I forgot my hearing aids. DH spent the entire movie whispering rather loudly in my good ear everything that was said. It drove the people behind us NUTS! .

this thread is great, makes me feel that I am not alone and so many more responses than the RNID webpage.
Amother, I cna't believe you have to wait so long for your hearing aids! I saw my consultant (2nd one I have to say as first one was a pile of pants) beginning July and got hearing aids 3 weeks later. Went for appt and came home with them. Am going back end sept to choose which colour I would like and to have them checked although think I may go before as they are screaming at me when my hands get to close to them or I lean on something or someone (DH or DD).

Its so true about films and tv - I would always ask DH or he would look at me and ask if I got it! I think he is liking me wearing the aids as he does not have to tell me everything. I prefered for him to watch a film before me so second time he could watch it just to run through it with me!!

I am dreading going back to work next week and people seeing these aids, always try to present myself well and wear my make up and do my hair and feel these are not so glam! My sis said she could stick some of my hair on them to disquise them!!!! I was not so impressed as people would think I have hairy ears!!!!

oh can I also add, I cant lipread, I try to but I find it sooo hard. It must just be me as others seem to manage well. I just nod my head and hope people thought I understood, I did sometimes get the look that I knew I really should not have nodded! Its so frustrating at times.

Must buy new monitor, how about you...Yep, need to buy one too

CrookshanksinJimmyChoos, No I have never tried subtitles...might do just to see if it helps.

jenwa, Are you sure you don't lipread. I has told I did, when I had a hearing test age 11 years old and finally failed one. My mum had been telling them for years that I couldn't hear properly but I get sounds in my ears anyway (tinnatus) and hence passed earlier tests. I learnt to say yes when they twist that knob on the control panel and pass the test Children know they SHOULD pass tests if possible and finally a clever tester made me face away from him before testing my hearing and I failed big time. Interestingly at the end of the test when they had train sounds playing though my ears and the tester talks to you and I knew the standard topics...favorite hobby, TV show etc and the clever tester said...I know you can't possible hear me as the sounds are far too loud, you have picked up some basic lip reading skills...and I never knew.

-I did sometimes get the look that I knew I really should not have nodded

I know that well and when I laughed at the wrong time or accidently talked over someone...it is hard sometimes.