New hearing aids, help

[chilly]

I have just had some hearing aids fitted(both ears),i can hear a lot of background noise,e.g cars ,birds,feet on the ground,floorboards,toilet flushing,i can now converse with people in a normal way,the problem i have is i cannot use my mobile or landline phone,with the plugs in my ear, i bring the mobile to my ear and nothing,just very faint speech.now this is a big problem for me because i chat to my daughter and mom and dad every day,my aids are digital,so i can use the loop function(not activated yet as the doc said try it without),can i get a mobile with this function or a landline,for now i have to pull the plug on one of my ears to use the phone and i have been advised not to do this because it can cause irritation in the earwell?
All help needed please.
 chilly

[oldjim]

The only advice can give you is stick with it, you will learn to filter out the back ground noise, or you can do what I do and take the d**m things out, and enjoy the quite.
The phone problem I get round by using the speaker function, it does mean the people can hear both end of the conversation, but what the h*ll   
Jim

[chilly]

Thanks jim,i have had them in for 8 hours and they seem comfortable,going to bed so put them back in the box,will learn about loop system,very damn noisy things,good job i can turn them off
no speaker function so i have to use a loop phone ect,oh well we live and learn,at least i will be able to listen to my grankids

Behind ear digital,only a volume control is present,everything else has to be programed at audiology

And i have a splitting headache

Are your aids Analog jim?

[weirdwolf]

Hiya Chilly
I got mine about a year ago and all I can say is after awhile you start to get used to them, it happened gradually for me. The Doc said it would take some time to retrain my brain after it hadn't "heard" certain noises for so long (Turn signals, my shoes while walking, air conditioners squeaking....) I try to leave them in as much as possible, but take them out at night.
Not sure everything is worth hearing, but there is a whole lot that is...  
On the phone thing try holding it to your temple or above your ear some. My Tracfone has a setting for hearing aids and I can hear ok with it.
Best of luck to you !

Still getting used to a guy saying "Battery" every 4-5 days

[jaydot]

a friend of mine had hearing problems and he had some sort of loop he wore around his neck to pick up the phone signals.  if you have a look on the royal national institute for the deaf website, they should have some useful info.

[ThirdOfSix]

For those who have not experienced it, getting hearing aids after not hearing any high frequencies for decades results in the brain being bombarded by and overloaded by an extreme amount of high frequency "noise" that it has to learn how to processes into useful information.

It is as though the world is full of people with compressed air nozzles  firing them at random from all directions.

Traffic noise is excruciating until the brain adapts which if I remember right, takes about a month.

Chilly, what the doctor is not telling you and the reason he is trying to dissuade you from using the inductive pickup feature of the phone that was originally designed when all telephones used a magnetically based earphone whose signal would couple into any coil of wire held near it is that the fidelity of that input really sucks and more importantly, it picks up electrical hum from many many sources in the environment.

If that is not bad enough, all the extra features in the hearing aids require extra power to run. The current hearing aids are designed to be very small so that people with vanity problems will consider using them.

In order to make them very small so as to be almost unnoticeable, they reduced the ability to use a battery that is large enough to operate the device for a reasonable length of time when all the features are enabled.

The VA finally agreed to provide hearing aids to people like me who lost a good deal of hearing ability while in Vietnam. They provided some that have a bluetooth pendant that you wear around your neck that couples to the hearing aids through an antenna wire that is inside the cord that holds it. It will link to any bluetooth enabled phone which these days means almost all of them.

It works wonderfully...for about an hour before the hearing aid batteries die from the power requirements of this personal wireless network.

I finally gave up on it because if I was silly enough to try to make a call other than after just installing new batteries, I could count on the call being interrupted.

The little size thirteen batteries will normally run just the hearing aid for three to five days if it is run as a bare bones hearing aid with no features enabled.

What I finally found to be the best solution is to make up a headset that will plug into the phone that can be worn over the the entire ear including the hearing aid.

The problem is that almost no manufacturer makes headphones with the cavity large enough to go over the entire ear with the muffs only touching the side of the head.

I use my modified shooting protection headset for that.

But, what I have found is that if you buy one of the headsets that are about an inch or so in diameter and modify them so that the electrical connection matches your phone, you can wear them such that they rest on the ear next to the microphone on the hearing aids.

This works really well provided you get a set that are supported by the band going over the head and do not require them to squeeze the ear against the head and hearing aid.

[chilly]

Thanks,very noisy outside with my hearing aids in,sounds like the world has gone crazy,using speaker function on my landline is great but on my mobile it is less than ideal,ok in the house but not good outside,got a lot to learn again.

Thanks jim,was looking for a speaker switch on my hearing aids until i realized you meant the phones themselves

[jaydot]

just a thought, chilly, might it not help if you removed either one or both aids while out and about to get an idea of what it is that you are and are not hearing effectively?  i have no idea how useful such a comparison might be. 

[chilly]

Removing one aid is not a pleasant experience,very confusing and the feeling of nausea creeps in,also you feel unbalanced.
I have now turned the volume down on both aids,and everyday will turn them up a notch until i am comfortable with them and can converse with a group of people in a restaurant or public house without having to watch their lips.

[oldjim]

Hi chilly.
Yes mine are digital, they took some time get used to them as I had used the old analog ones for about 20 years.
I have a loop system for the television, the only problem I have with it is when my wife tries to talk to when I am watching TV.
I wish you success with your aids, I would also recommend lip a reading class, for the times for when your in a noisy environment,  or when you forget to put them in .
Regards Jim 

[jaydot]

i hadn't considered the effect on the ear canals, chilly.  sounds horrible.

[chilly]

I have only had these aids for a few days and already i am sick to death of them,the high frequency noise,zips,crunching shoes,cars ect,when i wear them i shiver when a car goes past,like a jet engine next to you.
Can i have them reprogrammed to take away all this high noise?because if not they will only be used on a need to basis.
My dad has hearing aids and cannot stand these digy ones,he uses old analogue until they cannot fix them anymore   

[oldjim]

Hi chilly.
You should be able to get them adjusted at the hospital, or where you bought them, it's usually just a quick tweak with a tiny screwdriver.
Hope you are able to sort it out soon.
Regards Jim     

[ThirdOfSix]

Chilly,

Please do yourself a favor and don't give up on them.

It seems like the noise can not ever be adapted to but it can.

After a while, you will be able to put them in or take them out and have your brain make the transition withing minutes.

Until you have worn them a while, there is no point to trying to adjust them because until your brain adapts to them somewhat, any changes will simply extend the time it takes to get used to them because your brain is trying to adapt to a moving target.

When I got mine, I put them in and never took them out even at night. I think that it helped me to make the adjustment because my brain was still adapting even while I was sleeping.

For most people this is probably not an option but since I never actually go to bed, I did not have the problem of the discomfort of sleeping on them.

The digital hearing aids can be adjusted to fit the needs. The only problem is that the result is only as good as the skill of the person making the adjustments.

The real problem is communications. Until you have worn them a while and have talked with him enough to figure out what he is actually asking you, any adjustments are likely to be wrong.

For me the problem was that none of his questions were relevant to my life style.

He would ask questions about how they worked in a restaurant...I don't go to restaurants. He would ask how they worked in a large social gathering or party. It soon became clear that he did not speak hermit.

Do you know the actual make and model of your hearing aids?

There are enough of us here who wear them that one of us may have experience with the same model and be able to answer your questions as to what adjustments can be made etc.

They don't always tell people that what options are available.

For instance, mine came with a remote that I can carry in my pocket and select from several usage profiles or turn the amplification up or down. This is very handy when  I go to the store and brain dead managers keep hollering over the PA system.

Once again, give it a little time. It does get bearable fairly soon.

Some things may even surprise you as you get used to them. I always thought that they were going to help most with understanding female voices because of my normal high frequency loss. It turns out that when I take a shower and then forget to put them back in before going to the store, it is the men who I find myself not understanding most often without them.

[weirdwolf]

chilly, there should be some sort of volume control either you or they can adjust. they are a bit to get used to, but I think they're worth it as well (It no longer sounds like I'm wearing taps on my boots )