hearing aids

To help F & F really understand the socially debilitating effects of deafness (rather than regarding it as some kind of annoying comic affectation) I recommend David Lodge's novel "Deaf Sentence".
It's also a good read in its own right.

Trying again tonight the speech on the TV was completely blotted out by the sound of DS eating a bar of chocolate ... not only the crackling of the paper but him chomping and smacking his lips. Nor did I enjoy hearing him use the toilet!!!

Thanks for the reassurance and good advice.
Thankfully husband has found another problem to niggle about now - nothing to do with me. Though knowing him he'll find me to blame somewhere .
I called in at Specsavers and they said just keep persevering. To turn up the volume, and reduce the hissing you have to have another appt. with the audiologist.

I have had hearing aids for just a couple of weeks,so am still getting used to them.
I find them brilliant in my own home for just a few people at long last I can join in the conversation,but they are no use for noisy restaurants they just pick up all the background noise.

Totally sympathise with the complaints about background noise. I can’t hear a thing at school concerts etc. either and gave up trying to watch programmes without subtitles long ago. Two tips I have found helpful, If out always try to sit with your back to a wall and if you have a choice of venue look for one that has lots of soft furnishings as they absorbe some of the background noise rather than ricocheting it around. Even then you need to train people to understand that you’re unlikely to be able to hear much and always carry pen and paper.

I could have written that post grandma2213, I feel exactly the same, yet my family and friends just keep saying I havnt tried hard enough with the aids.
I tell them that if they helped me of course I would use them but as they don’t, I don’t.

I had hearing aids last year as I was diagnosed with mild to moderate hearing loss. I had already realised that! I know, because I was told that I should persevere wearing them and indeed I did for weeks , waiting for my ears to adjust but it became unbearable even when I turned them down and I ended up with headaches. I could hear every movement of my clothes or rustle of paper and the noise of the fridge in the kitchen, the tap running in the bathroom or my DS's radio playing upstairs, not to mention the creaking of floorboards when he moved. This all drowned out the sound of the programme I was trying to hear on TV or radio. The background music which is usually a drone or plinky plonk noise also becomes more audible and irritating. As for when DGC are arguing or screaming .... no way!

I wear them for concerts or plays (usually school ones) and again cannot hear for coughing, whispering shifting chairs or babies crying.

I am currently trying again particularly for TV programmes that have no sub titles but again more of the above!

Mr C has hearing aids fennel and it’s been as much of a learning curve for me as for him. No, his hearing isn’t what it was 20 years ago and no, he can’t hesr me if I shout from another room or talk to him while he is next to the washing machine in manic spin mode. What it does mean is we can have ‘normal’ conversations in most situations as long as I remember that sometimes, particularly if there is a lot of background noise, I might need to get his attention first. I wonder if there’s something straightforward on line or from your local audiology department you could find for your husband to read or would he read this thread? I’m sure others will be along with thoughts to share. Good for you for getting the hearing aids, a brave step but one that will make life easier.

Thanks .
I don't know how I can explain this to him.
He seems to think that hearing aids should restore my hearing to what it was ?20 years ago.
He's in a grumpy mood at the moment.

Yes Fennel, he is being unreasonable. Hearing aids help a lot but you will find that it's still difficult to hear what people are saying unless they are close to you and preferably in a position where you can see their face. Hearing aids maximise the hearing you have left but cannot replace what you've lost so much of the time your brain is hearing only part of a word and has to work out what the word might be so context is everything. Someone talking to you 'out of the blue' and in another room will be impossible to cope with. Being deaf is hard work.

Another question - husband is moaning because I still can't hear him when he calls from another room.
Is he being unreasonable?

You're welcome.

Thanks MissAd - just what I was looking for.

youtu.be/8EEvrcdh3-U
This one is very straightforward.