Hearing aids - anyone an expert??

Having just bought two hearing aids which I paid £2000 for (they were on a half price offer and so would have normally cost £4000) my life has been transformed. I help with a very noisy Mother and Toddler group and find that I have no problem hearing conversation even with a lot of background noise. The aids are so comfortable that I have worn them on average 14 hours a day since day one. Because I forget they are in I once got into the bath with them and once forgot to remove them when getting into bed. I initially did the online hearing test offered by "Action on Hearing Loss" previously the R.N.I.D. I decided to go for private hearing aids because the N.H.S. waiting list is quite long in my area (there seem to be more cutbacks on non life threatening health problems). Tests showed that I had mild to moderate hearing loss. The Audiologist was extremely helpful in advising without putting any pressure on me. I have friends who have N.H.S.aids and are quite happy with them the important thing is to get the best you can and then make them as much part of your life as your clothes.

I have taken my mum back for adjustments on numerous occasions. The Technician spends loads of time making adjustments and fiddling with the computer settings and when he/she asks my mum if she can hear, she says "pardon"?

I rest my case

Yes, well, I loathe my hearing aid to this day. I haven't worn it since the day i threw it at my husband. If he has another go at me for not wearing it, I'll crush the bloody thing with the meat mallet. (hearing aid not husband)

Or.....

I think that it is very important to choose hearing aids that best fit you and solve your hear-ing loss problems. Before you buy hearing aids you should make a hearing test. Digital hearing aids are a very good solution for hearing loss. They are like mini computers. They hear a sound and adjust the way you hear it by amplifying it.
For more information: http://www.leightonshearingcare.co.uk/digital-hearing-aids/digital-hearing-aids.

My mother cannot stand anything in her ear so I have thought of going down the route of the aids being built into spectacles. Has anyone t ried this?

I can usually hear well enough, but on my husband's insistence I had tests and was given a hearing aid for my right ear, by our NHS equivalent. It is small, moulded to fit inside my ear, and quite efficient, except things sound loud and false, like listening to the radio not real voices. Scrunshing papaer sounds particularly vile, I have stopped wearing it as I can hear everyone fine, unless there is a cacophony of voices.

Unfortunately my husband mumbles a lot - other people's voices are fine. Last night I was doing some writing on the computer and he was watching TV. He was watching one program, then suddenly started to complain about another program I'd watched earlier. Thinking he was talking about the program he was watching, what he said didn't make sense, so I said I didn't understand. He got mad and told me to put my hearing aid in.

It was the last straw in a rotten day. The aid was in a little container on one of my desk shelves, and I grabbed it, container and all and threw it at him. It missed, and flew into the kitchen. I sought it out to stamp on it but couldn't find it, so stalked off to bed in a huff.

When I got up it was back on my desk.

Perhaps I'd better not stamp on it after all - the bad mood has dissipated, though the dislike of the thing remains.

I've had aids in both ears for 5 years since I was 59. Certain frequencies were lost due to measles as a child. It's opened my eyes or should, I say ears, to how deaf people are treated. I tried the NHS aids and hated them so I went private and, after much research, got some really good ones in the mid-price range which adjust themselves. As they last 7 years the cost evens out and is far better than the cost of specs. The ear piece is as light as a feather and I hardly notice the over the ear battery.
My 87 year old mother has just given up on her NHS aids, even the better digital ones, She discovered the private ones did have advantages for her needs. She's on a low income and will rarely spend money on herself so I was surprised she took this route. She was delighted with the tests, aids and services included, & the fact that the audiologist was so complementary about the quality of NHS aids, unlike others she consulted.

My elderly dad had NHS hearing aids. My sister and I persuaded him to get expensive digital ones with a private company and regretted the day. They were too small and fiddly for him to cope with and for all the extra cash were wasted on him. I suggest that for most people it is best to persevere with the NHS ones as I know of people who are quite satisfied with them.

My father was profoundly deaf in his later years and struggled although he could lip-read and wore an aid in the only ear with any hearing ability.

The thing he always said made a difference was a badge he used to wear that said 'I'm deaf, not stupid'. It made people more aware and more careful when they spoke to him.

I have two hearing aids and I find that if I am in a small group ( say 3 or 4) they are great I can hear what they say, but if I am in a social area, the background noise takes over and believe me the noise can hurt, so now I am sensible and make decisions on the environment as whether I wear them or not. Maybe this is the way forward for her, don't pressurize her as this can be very, very stressful, particularly as you are not the ones who need to wear them. I had a hearing aid many years ago and I could not cope with it. I was put through the mill by my loved ones (children know best) technology had changed etc., It really stressed me out, but it made me go back for another hearing test and I then received aids for both ears, but like I have said it can be very uncomfortable. Maybe it would be more appropriate to suggest she wears the hearing aids when she is on her own, watching TV or doing anything without anyone around, and then she might be able to choose when it is best for her to wear them.

xxx

I dont really mind being deaf, actually if i look at people talking to me I can almost tell what they are saying by the expresion on their faces. Also I have A big vocabulary with the sound MMMM, this can be done watching the face and saying it to match the facial expresions of the people talking !Excellent.
Annie.

annie 33 I sympathise. Ears really don't like foreign bodies in them. I have had too many bouts of otitis externa (swimmers ear) to count because my hearing aid produces just the right environment. This is incredibly painful and tedious so I rarely wear mine. You could talk to your doctor about getting a bone-anchored aid (BAHA). I keep intending to but not getting around to it.

I have two hearing aids and frankly they are a pain.They are digital from the hospital and in a social situation you just hear noise, its awful. I dont mix now as its useless, also another lovely thing is if its warm your ears get hot and itch inside, so the answer for me is .... if someone calls at the house I put them in and its fine, when they have gone out they come.I wear mine to watch the TV and really thats it. You do become isolated and avoid people, its easier. I am 78 years old.
Annie33

My experience with my mother is that it is not the hearing aids, it is that she has stopped listening because she assumes the conversations are not meant to include her and got used to being excluded before she was fitted with aids. She finds it difficult to know where the voice is coming from unless it is just one-to-one because like most people who do not always realise it, she partly lips reads. My advice is to make sure she is looking at you before you speak. I find if I get her attention by saying 'Mum' in a loud voice and then repeating what she has missed in a normal voice she can hear it ok and starts to join in.

There has been quite a lot of research about the effects of not being able to hear very well on the well being of the individual concerned. So it's not just about not being able to hear property, but the feeling of exclusion within a conversation. It's definitely an issue to address.

Def go back to NHS hearing clinic. It is one of the areas the NHS does best.

I've worn hearing aids for 10 years, my father did since the 1950s, and my mother does. A few points...

I suspect your mother will want an aid that is simple to operate. I would restrict her to settings "noisy" (i.e. concentrates on voices from the front), "T" (if she uses loops), and maybe "normal".

If she is used to older aids, then the new digital aids can confuse people. In particular, they are much better at enhancing voices and reducing noise. Nowadays is is undesirable to adjust the volume so that the background noise is sufficient - it is better to adjust the volume based on voices. Yes, I know that sounds obvious, but I also know how people acutally use hearing aids!

The modern digital NHS aids are good, very good. The NHS staff are good and unbiassed, and will give your mother the type of aid she needs. The NHS aids are cheap - free (including replacements), or maybe £50 if you've been seriously negligent.

The private aids may be a bit better, but they are horrifically expensive (up to £3000 each), and there is such a bewildering range that I doubt any private practitioner really knows more than a very small fraction. When hearing changes, you buy another expensive aid.

Summary: go NHS, get something simple, persevere.

my husband has the hearing aids from the NHS which are the same as some a friend paid £2,000 for. Its worth going back to a NHS audio clinic and getting them to look at the aids to see if they can be improved now. My husband still finds it difficult to spend too long with a lot of conversations going on but retreats to his garden shed with his pipe! Luckily the grandchildren visit him out there so he gets time with them too.

Social situations can be a bit of a problem for people with hearing aids because they tend to amplify all sounds including background noise. It is particularly difficult if more than one person talks at the same time.
My family tend to be quite loud and even when gathered in fairly smalls groups you always get several break away conversations. My father-in-law who has a hearing aid in both ears too, stays for a bit and then often retreats to a quieter room. Fortunately one of the grand children tends to follow him and it results in quality time between the two of them.
So dont necessarily worry too much if your mum leaves the main room just try to organise some company for her.

Take her back, they need to be programmed correctly. If she wants to use induction loop it is usually just a question of having that function switched on, aids are very clever but they tend to just put basic stuff on to start with as too many programmes is confusing. My DS is 10 and has nhs aids there are loads of functions, it is just a question of finding out what she finds useful.

good luck with mum hope a repeat visit works it was what they recommeded when I took my mum for her aids but she just says "I don"t like them" and I say lets go back then and she says " I don"t like them" see the problem?

Thanks, I'll have to get my dad to take her back. The trouble with my mum is that she has this 'I am old, it is to be expected' rather doomy approach to life these days. She won't think paying for private HAs (if it comes to it) would be worth the money.

sometimes just going back to the hospital hearing unit and saying mum is still having trouble may help, apparently hearing aids take some getting used to and need adjustment until they work as efficiently as they can,if you get mum to go back I"d love to know how so I can get my mother there!!!!!!!! she has an aid in each ear and won"t wear them

Bump...