I lost my hearing during the first lock down. Was quite traumatic for me. Severe, bordering profound in one ear and moderate on the other. I managed to get in to royal Surrey’s fabulous team shortly after they opened back up and came away with one hearing aid. No choices about anything but was very grateful to have something. It’s quite bulky, not bluetoothed and you need to change the batteries manually. I can’t really make any changes to settings either. But I was grateful to hear more things, however painful it was hearing running water, crumpling paper, windy days, walking on gravel etc. was also forever fiddling with the bit in my ear as it felt huge. I was previously not one to wear ear buds to listen to music etc so not used to this feeling of something in my ear at all.
So I went to spec savers a few months later. I first had a pair of phonak. Wow. Huge difference. Much smaller, flesh coloured and smaller piece inside my ear. So more compatible AND I could make adjustments according to my environment , batteries are rechargeable inside the hearing aids but I was still uncomfortable with the bits in my ears. Audiologist changed them to advance ADV861R and I am in heaven. The app on my phone means I can make so very many adaptions /filters for various environmental changes. And I can filter out background noise in a noisy restaurant, wind buffering - I could go on and on
As it’s bluetoothed, i have it hooked to my Fitbit. I can answer the phone on my watch, hear it in my ears. I listen to podcasts (helps drown out bad tinnitus days), my car is bluetoothed too so I hear in my ears but my voice is into the car phone speaker. It is amazing and has changed my life. I just put them in a little charging case when I sleep and they’re fully charged that last me over 24 hours. The little case itself holds a charge for 3 or 4 days. Looks like an apple ear bud charger but is black.
Best thing is the piece inside my ear is very small and does not bother me at all.
Whomever said that hearing aids are the same as the nhs ones and just as good has not experienced these hearing aids. I’m very grateful for my nhs one but it is not anywhere near the same thing as the pair from spec savers. I do wear my nhs one if I’m doing something slightly risky where I’d be anxious of getting my spec savers wet or fall out (I did paddle boarding this past summer, canoeing another day - that type of thing).