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Hearing Aid problem

• Message 1. 

  Posted by JudithL (U14272244) on Sunday, 11th December 2011

  Apologies if there's already a thread somewhere for this problem.
  Earlier this year, a consultant decided that my upper register hearing problem - and my tinnitus - could benefit from a hearing aid. So in early September, I was duly issued with a hearing aid for each ear. So far so good.
  But said aids have now failed for the third time. I'm getting thoroughly sick of taking them back to the hospital, where it costs £2.50 to park, even though I'm only in the car park for 5 minutes.
  All the aids do is raise the level of very high sounds - I can almost hear bats when I'm wearing them. I get a high-pitched feedback note in my ear if I touch my ear or hair near my ear when I'm wearing them.
  My younger son, who is an audio engineer, thinks they're very bad for my ears and I shouldn't wear them at all.
  So, what I'd like to know is: do hearing aids normally give this amount of trouble? Should I return to ENT and have them adjusted so that they actually help my hearing? I don't actually need to hear very high-pitched sounds!

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Ceit katemehomeagain (U14551670) on Monday, 12th December 2011

  Good morning JudithL I wear hearing aids I have found this link the board is closed but might help your best bet is to go back and see if you can get them adjusted are they digital hearing aides?
  I miss my old ones I found them better and they were easy to be adjusted.
  I am sorry you have to keep going back and forth to the hospital to. I have found this link to hope it helps If i find anything out through the day I will post it hear for you.

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by AmbridgeTooFar (U14688510) on Monday, 12th December 2011

  I use two hearing aids, just to stop me from wobbling over sideways.
  
  If you have an upper register hearing problem then I can only presume that raising the level of very high sounds is doing exactly what the device was intended to do. There should be a volume wheel on it, try adjusting it down to a more acceptable level. Feedback is normal if the aid is set very high. I know from personal experience that there is a tendancy to keep turning the things up until you actually end up with a bionic earhole capable of detecting noises at levels mere mortals would not notice. We all like too much of a good thing.
  
  They shouldn't be failing so regularly. It seems you have been very unlucky. I have two aids and never have I had anything like this trouble. Digital aids are tuned to your own personal needs by a sort of inbuilt graphic equalizer that sets the volume across the sound spectrum. You probably had an audiology test where they play all sorts of different pitched notes at you to see at what level you can't year them any more. It could be this didn't go as well as it could and your aid isn't properly adjusted to your needs. Talk to the technicians about this.
  
  I am constantly aware of tinnitus unless 'plugged in', simply because the noise I am generating myself is louder than what is coming in from the outside. I was shocked when my audiologist once told me that tinnitus can be so loud that it is possible for them to hear it from the outside by listening to a patient's ear!
  
  I doubt very much that your doctors and technicians would have issued you with any device that can cause you harm. My own hearing problems are caused by the failure of the bones of my middle ears to transmit vibrations from the ear drum to the inner ear - which actually does the hearing. Any amount of amplification would hardly damage me, as so little noise actually gets through. I often use studio headphones with a headphone amplifier to listen to music - everybody else is horrified but it just sounds normal to me. A neighbour over the road used to be a senior Ö÷²¥´óÐã sound engineer and reckons what I use is technically illegal !! But it is what gets through to your inner ear that matters, not to amount of noise the aid generated per se.

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• Message 4

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  Posted by Sunny Clouds (U14258963) on Monday, 12th December 2011

  It's possible to ask for HAs to be adjusted differently. Ask for longer to agree/disagree with each adjustment and say what you want. If you're musical, you might say "it's these notes I don't want to hear so much of" or if you're not, you can give illustrations like "I don't like hearing the loo flushing so loudly".
  
  I grew up with hearing loss, but when I was a child hearing aids were big boxes you carried on your chest and my parents decided not to get me one and I just got on with life.
  
  Much later, a doctor picked up on the fact I mentioned not hearing something and asked why I didn't have aids and I said I hadn't realised I could get them or they'd be helpful. So I got my first pair. I specifically asked for them not to be adjusted to "normal" sound to begin with, but to be in between that and what I was used to. Then over the years they were adjusted.
  
  Even now, when they're adjusted, I then say, no, that's not quite how I want them and they tweak it a bit.

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 4.

  Posted by JudithL (U14272244) on Monday, 12th December 2011

  Thanks for all the advice.
  My HAs are digital, and I can't turn them up or down. The problem, as you mention, Sunny C, is that I've got used to being unable to hear higher sounds, so now they are disproportionally loud, so much so that it's quite uncomfortable. And the feedback is really unpleasant.
  So I think I'll have to ask them to tone down the higher registers a bit, possibly until I get more used to them.
  They do cut out the tinnitus when they're working (!), but I find it so hard to get used to them, and I feel as if I no sooner make a real effort to do that, than they conk out again.
  Then, as now in fact, the tinnitus is back with a vengeance, especially as I have a cold.

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• Message 6

  , in reply to message 5.

  Posted by Sunny Clouds (U14258963) on Monday, 12th December 2011

  
  
  One of the nice things about being hearing impaired and relying on hearing aids for some things is being able to take them out when you get home. A lot of people ask me when they visit me how I can stand living next to a main road and I tell them I just don't wear my hearing aids indoors.
  
  Occasionally, I like to put my hearing aids in to hear The Monster purring, but I mostly do what comes naturally to me and put the hand I'm not stroking him with round his side and feel the vibrations. I used to love playing the guitar when I was in my teens, because I could put my jaw against it and feel the music.
  
  I find my hearing aids very useful, and sometimes they're quite magical. I remember having my first pair and walking down the street and realising I could hear birds singing. Amazing.
  
  But they can't take away the alternative of relating to sound as a vibration through the body.
  
  It took me a while to get used to not needing to lipread so much, but old habits die hard so I prefer being able to see people's faces and especially their lips even if I've got my aids in.
  
  They're also not very useful when there's background noise, even when switched to front microphones only, but I've got very poor sound-discrimination anyway.
  
  They're just another option for when the conditions are suitable for them and not for when they're not. For example, I can lipread The Monster well enough to know when he wants food. The sound adds nothing to the beady stare and the open mouth.
  
  

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