Hearing aid tips and advice.

[Aunt Maud]

Following on from my trouble with the "Pig Man in the Van".

I noticed that I had gone slightly deaf after I'd been through his rear window head first, so I went to see the ear specialist at Aarhus hospital yesterday for a session of audio torture.

Result, I have moderate (suitably vague diagnosis) hearing loss in both ears and I need not one , but two hearing aids......pants!

Any tips or tricks that I might find useful in using these would be very welcome.

[tiermat]

Don't forget to take them out when you get in the shower.

Have a routine of cleaning them, at least once a week.

Keep them in a box, with a silica gel sachet, at night.

REplace the batter[y|ies] before they run out, for instance the bog standard NHS beige ones (GN Resound) use a battery every ten days.  Providing I remember I replace mine after 9.

Always carry spare batteries (I have a set in Mrs T's handbag, in the car, in my bike bar bag and in my laptop bag, as well as several spare sets at home).  Sod's Law dicatates that the one time you forget to pack batteries, yours will go flat and ruin your ride/night out/visit with friends.

[Kim]

When applied to hearing loss, 'moderate' is defined as 40-70 dB (fitting in between 'mild' and 'severe').

Sometimes people (especially USAnians) tend to quote a "percentage hearing loss" which is even more meaningless.  Only the shape of the audiogram (an upside-down plot of frequency response) tells the whole story.

What tiermat said about batteries.  Basically, treat packs of batteries the way asthmatics treat salbutamol inhalers: scatter them liberally throughout your life, so you have a reasonable chance of finding some when needed, and to hell with any strange ideas that the medics might have about "your inhaler" or "your spare batteries" singular.  Advanced skills include developing a deaf-dar and working out whose hearing aids use the same kind of batteries as yours.

Don't be afraid to take them out when you feel the need, but conversely, do wear them as much as possible so that you get used to hearing with them - it's not the same as hearing with working ears, and only time, experience and tuning will let you get the most out of them.

Earmolds are disgusting.  Sweat kills hearing aids (as do showers, if you forget you're wearing them).  Novelty condoms are available for keeping BTE aids dry.  Silica gel is your friend.  Tactical scotchlite tape helps you find dropped hearing aids in the dark, when you don't have a pet hearing person to home in on the feedback.  They always malfunction at the beginning of bank holiday weekends, especially if Audiology have taken the following Tuesday off for administrative reasons.  DAI/Bluetooth good, induction loops bad.  http://www.connevans.co.uk for useful gadgets.

Consider doing some sign language or lipreading classes.  You're guaranteed to learn something useful, even if it doesn't change your preferred methods of day to day communication.  (This goes for hearing people too, BTW.)

If someone makes the "I'm deaf" "What?" joke, you're permitted to kill them to DETH and ask questions later.  Trufax.

[tiermat]

If someone makes the "I'm deaf" "What?" joke, you're permitted to kill them to DETH and ask questions later.  Trufax.

Or give them the stare that makes them wish they were dead...

[Aunt Maud]

He told me I was down at 84db, which is on the border of severe then.

I've got some fancy Danish ones coming in a couple of weeks when I go to see the Audio Tortureologists again, so we'll see what goes then.

[tiermat]

He told me I was down at 84db, which is on the border of severe then.

I've got some fancy Danish ones coming in a couple of weeks when I go to see the Audio Tortureologists again, so we'll see what goes then.

Hope they are not Danalogics in retail packaging...

I am saving up to buy a Phonak Naida 3 (or whatever the newer model is) as it is "waterproof", hopefully more so than the NHS standard ones which seem to last me about 3 months before being ruined by rain/sweat.

[Kim]

He told me I was down at 84db, which is on the border of severe then.

That's well into severe, but presumably only at one frequency.  They tend to categorise based on what you can hear, rather than what you can't, IYSWIM.

That also implies serious ear damage (inner, not just middle), so van man has a lot to answer for.   


(Barakta will no doubt be along later with her splendid example audiogram with real-world sounds on it...)

[Aunt Maud]

Widex somethingorother.

[barakta]

84dB is well into severe but the "definition" is based on the average of both ears across 250Hz, 500Hz, 1kHz, 2kHz and I think 4kHz so it's a bit of a fudge. Depending on how the frequencies are spread out you can have Moderate to Severe implying you've got a mix of both.  http://www.batod.org.uk/index.php?id=/resources/audiology/descriptors/audiometric-descriptors.htm

US and UK definitions differ slightly - mileage varies across Europe too no doubt. I tend to assume no one is wrong, just different ways of the same thing.

I wonder if you had some pre-existing loss as well as accident related damage although if your YACF age is accurate you're awful young for that. What did the audi-torture bods say? Ask them if they haven't told you. Also ask for a copy of your audiometry, it's invaluable as evidence and also being able to link up information about deafness/hearing loss to your experience.

There are two main kinds of hearing loss.
1) Conductive which means something has affected outer ear, ear canal or middle ear.
2) Sensori-neural which means something has affected the cochlea or the auditory nerve to the brain.
You can have both types of loss at the same time.

Where the losses are also matters. High frequency losses affect consonant sounds such as K SH F TH S G CH and make English harder to make sense of. Other languages have different key frequencies. I can't recall where you are based - I seem to recall it's not in the UK.  Lower frequencies affect vowel sounds and D B NG J Z so loss of these can result in distortion to what you hear especially if there is poor acoustics (lower frequencies are harder to acoustically dampen)... 

An audiogram is plotted on a X axis of frequency in Hz and kHz vs "volume" in dB (Decibels). There be trippy logarithmical wossnames with sound volumes so it's not intuitive. 100x louder is 20dB; 24x louder is 12 dB - I still don't understand the maths!   Different sounds are in different loudnesses and frequencies on an audiogram chart see http://www.barakta.org.uk/stuff/hearing/SMALLaudiogram-template.png for examples of speech sounds and every day noises.  Audiometry tells you that you can hear a tone at X frequency at Y volume.. It doesn't tell you how well you are processing speech or if you have some degree of distortion.  More info on reading audiograms at http://www.hearingdirect.com/pages/Audiograms-Explained.html and easily googleable with "audiogram explained" which will get you examples which might look familiar to you.

Hearing aids are not like glasses, they do not totally correct hearing loss/deafness.  Hearing through hearing aids is different to natural hearing but I can't comment as I have always used hearing aids.  You will almost certainly lose things like "cocktail party effect" which is the ability to pick out one sound (signal) in a noisy background environment (noise) e.g. restaurant or dining hall.  Hearing people with normally working ears are using minute differences in when the sound hits each ear to do amazing cognitive processing which hearing aids can't yet fully do.. They're getting there, especially if you get two which speak to one another properly...  You may well get directionality if not true stereo/other effects.

You will need a higher signal to noise ratio to pick up a desired sound (signal) in amongst undesired sound (noise).  This means noisy places become even more difficult for you than before.  You can sometimes learn to lipread/read other clues but it may always remain harder work.

Widex are an excellent hearing aid brand, many of the experienced deaf folk I know use and like them a lot. There's a whole range of peripherals such as http://www.widex.co.uk/en/products/accessories/dex/ which can connect to bluetooth, fm, TV, phone etc... I know folk who rate them highly but they are not cheap. If you are in the UK and employed you can weasel funding from employers for some of this sort of stuff. Otherwise there isn't really funding for this.  These can be helpful in conference style situations. 

Agree with others about batteries, you'll probably end up with orange tabbed 13 size batteries, they're the most common. It's always useful to clock other hearing aid users just in case. 

When you get your aids, don't be afraid to keep going back until things are right. Earmoulds should not hurt and if they rub they can quickly cause damage which is hard to heal and will deteriorate easily. It can feel like you're making a fuss but you really aren't.  Same for programming, if you find the aids are UNBEARABLE with certain sounds, make a note and speak to the audiologists as they can probably link that to frequencies and do lots of tweaking. 

I agree with Kim on lipreading and or sign classes and if you let me know where you are based I will see what your local hearing loss organisations are - they can be useful for meeting people for advice and ideas and stuff.

The hearing aid protectors Kim referenced are called Ear Gear as at http://www.deafequipment.co.uk/catalogue/1233614/Ear-Gear

And for lolz my audiometry is at http://www.barakta.org.uk/stuff/hearing/SMALLNatalyaAudiogramtextsmall.png

The blue is what I can't hear even with hearing aids.
White + Blue is what I can't hear with hearing aids out (usual audiometry readings).
I have a mixed deafness which means both my middle and inner ear are affected.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Try not to poke the hearing aid batteries into your ear rather than the hearing aid. DNAMHIKT.

[Kim]

Try not to poke the hearing aid batteries into your ear rather than the hearing aid. DNAMHIKT.

Don't eat them either.  For some reason, primary school teachers are compelled to do this. 

[Aunt Maud]

Thanks Barakta there's and awful lot to take in there, so I'll have to read it a few times because I can't concentrate on reading something like that in one sitting (another consequence of hitting van windows head first, I really should stop doing it).

I fibbed with my age and am now in my 50th year, mainly because I don't want dob and stuff like that swimming around the web.

I'm in Denmark and all this is coming on the health service/insurance lala.

I'm British though and have been in Denmark now for something like 6 years and all the audiometry, testing etc is done in Danish which I'm fluent in, luckily. I'd hate to try and learn Danish now though as they speak like they've got their whole dinner in their mouths.

I'll try and get a copy of the chart from the man when I see him again.

Cheers for taking the time to write it all and I'll have another (third read) tomorrow.

[barakta]

I think taking it all in would be hard irrespective of head injury...  It is there to read whenever you can and I'm also happy to take anything to PM if that's ever easier.  Allow yourself space to think and grieve if needed, it's a shock even when people half expect it.

[hellymedic]

I believe Danish has a higher number of different vowel sounds than English, so lower frequency sounds are more important.

[Aunt Maud]

Thats right Hellymedic there are an extra 3 tricky letters in the Danish alphabet. They are æ,ø,å and to me i&e sound the same and u,y&ø sound very similar too.

It's a subtle language and a chap on the Swedish brevet a fortnight ago told me that Danish children start speaking 6 months later than other Scandinavian children, but Swedes find Danish impossible anyway so it might be a myth.

[hellymedic]

[OT] I don't remember my young cousin speaking late.
Her father only spoke Danish to her, while everyone else in her native Stockholm was speaking Swedish.

My Mum didn't seem to have much trouble with Swedish as a kid in WWII.

[Aunt Maud]

I don't know how true that anecdote is and it may just be one of those cultural myths.

My eldest now 15 was bilingual from the start, but she's got a knack with learning languages and is good with German too. The youngest is a different story altogether and she took a while to get to grips with Danish.

[offcumden]

My hearing loss is not severe (mainly high-frequency), but my hearing aids help considerably in social situations, and they avoid having to turn the radio and TV up to levels uncomfortable for the unaffected.

However, I don't wear them while cycling.  The wind noise is awful, and I suspect that my copious sweating would damage them. I know someone who wears her aids while riding, but always wears a headband to keep the wind out.  And I've never even seen her hot and bothered, let alone dripping with sweat 

This is my second set of aids; the first set had ear moulds, which I found made my ears sweaty, itchy and sore.  Since changing to a set which have light plastic fittings within the ear  (looking a lot like slightly heavier duty versions of the plastic thingies which attach labels to new clothing) I have been much more comfortable, but I do have to be careful that I don't knock them out when taking off specs, or pulling jumpers over my head.

[barakta]

I'd forgotten that those not born deaf would find the knocking the HAs out to be a thing... I'm so used to that, it's kinda been a thing all my life  

Wind noise is APPALLING through hearing aids.  I've heard good things about Ear Gear protectors for that but a lot depends if you actually get any benefit from them in windy situations even with them.

[wajcgac]

Apologies for hijacking this but I would be interested in the opinions of the hearing aid users on here.

I have an 86 year father in law who struggles with his hearing aids supplied by the NHS.

They are digital aids that were only supplied by the NHS about 6 months ago. He is I believe almost totally deaf in one ear and has moderate hearing loss in the other.

Would he get better by going private? I guess the more difficult question not knowing his exact range of hearing is would the difference be significant?

[hellymedic]

Apologies for hijacking this but I would be interested in the opinions of the hearing aid users on here.

I have an 86 year father in law who struggles with his hearing aids supplied by the NHS.

They are digital aids that were only supplied by the NHS about 6 months ago. He is I believe almost totally deaf in one ear and has moderate hearing loss in the other.

Would he get better by going private? I guess the more difficult question not knowing his exact range of hearing is would the difference be significant?

I know next to nothing about hearing aids but don't think anyone can give a useful answer to this question without knowing the nature of FiL's struglle with his hearing aids.

Do the ear pieces irritate or fall out?
Does the sound through the hearing aid irritate/get too loud/ fail to make sounds clearer?

WE NEED DATA!

The Kim/barakta duo may be along soon...

[barakta]

I think private can appear to do a better job on customer service, but I am skeptical about how much better the hearing aids themselves are.  One issue is that I think older people NEED a lot of time to adjust to hearing aids, earmoulds, faffing etc and the NHS can appear very rushed even when staff are kind and helpful. I know folk who say, for them the cost of private is worth every penny for the sales/service but if someone isn't really loaded I'd say hold onto the cash and give the NHS a proper try.

As Helly has said, some more data about exactly what FiL is struggling with would help. Also if you are able to say "where" approximately he is e.g. North London or Southampton as there may be local hard of hearing organisations which could provide him with free face to face peer advice.  A friend of mine volunteers for Action on Hearing Loss in London and is able to show people battery changing, and chat and just help them work out what's a problem and what can be helped by non-pros and what needs to go back to audiology.

Adjustment IS hard, I wish people warned folk that it can take up to 18 months to get used to aids if you've just started wearing them. A moderate loss is gonna knock out speech almost entirely and "total" could mean various things but won't help.  I'm happy to interpret and provide a user's explanation of audiograms if those are available as I can identify what sounds may be harder to hear.

Hope that helps. Happy Deaf Awareness Week too!

[wajcgac]

I think private can appear to do a better job on customer service, but I am skeptical about how much better the hearing aids themselves are. 

That sums things up very well.

I have no data on the actual state of his hearing unfortunately.

A little history.

He has used NHS hearing aids for >5 years. About 6 months ago he had gone to a private hearing aid supplier in Lincoln after much cajoling because of not being able to hear very well with his existing hearing aids.

He was told that they couldn't do an awful lot with his worst ear as the level of amplification required was such that he would experience some ear pain. It was however possible to improve the hearing with his better ear compared to his existing NHS hearing aid.

Someone else in the family then got involved and suggested that he go back to the NHS as they were now supplying better digital aids and to save his money (he was using the older NHS analogue hearing aids) and this is what he ended up doing. But I don't think he has actually seen any improvement.

He does find it more difficult to hear someone if other conversations are going on in the same room. I guess most hearing aid users find that the case though. His hearing aids always seem to be making a whistling noise. Not sure why this is but he is one of those people who can't leave things alone and is always fiddling with it.

I'd rather he spent his money on making his quality of life better but he make take some convincing and there is no point in paying for something that isn't going to improve matters.

One issue is that I think older people NEED a lot of time to adjust to hearing aids, earmoulds, faffing etc and the NHS can appear very rushed even when staff are kind and helpful.

I think this is very true of him, and his generation if anything, feel that they are taking valuable time up or being awkward if they ask lots of questions or say things aren't right.

[tiermat]

If his hearing aids are constantly whisltling then they are badly fitted, as sound is leaking out from the output side and being picked up by the input side (feedback).

If they are earmould type, maybe the earmoulds need redoing, if they are otherwise then the actual way they fit needs looking at.

I would suggest a long discussion with the ENT specialist would be in order.

[barakta]

Ouch re worse ear, I wonder if that is due to extreme high frequency loss but reasonable lower frequency losses making it difficult even for programmables to do much...  I know for profoundly deaf people a hearing aid is lucky to bring you into speech range pickup zone which is why cochlea implants were SUCH a revelation there...

If he's still on NHS analogues then he definitely needed switching over but it is a change a lot of people find difficult and takes time. A lot is going to depend on what he's expecting from any hearing aid. If he's SO deaf on one side he's losing out on funky "paired hearing aid" tech and won't benefit from even pseudo-stereo location or much improvement in noisy places.

The noisy conversational background is hard cos the undesired sound (noise) is similar to the desired sound (signal) so keeping the signal to noise ratio higher is hard.  Hearing folk need about 6dB difference between desired sound and undesired sound. HOH and deaf people can need 15-25dB difference which is A LOT in amplification terms.  I suspect with such an imbalanced loss that this could be even worse.  I've never had hearing so I don't know how good brains can be, but this ability-loss is the one deafened people I know of complain about most bitterly.

I agree with Tiermat about the whistling aids, that's a sign of badly fitted moulds and tubes and should be fixable. It might be worth trying to identify what causes squealing, is it when he laughs, eats, talks, etc...  I have sometimes helped older people by sitting with them beforehand to work out questions and taken a list to audiology so he knows he has got some answers.  If there's a drop-in service another trick can be going for a cup of tea and seeing how his aids are settling cos if they're definitely not right that can show up and you can go straight back...

It is sadly a matter of persistence, probably also with private but as previously said you feel entitled to it cos you're paying upfront for it and they have posher swankier less busy offices.  It may be worth telling him that he will cost the NHS and society lost overall if his hearing is aided as best as possible as we know from extensive research that hearing aids are incredibly cost effective in terms of general health and wellbeing cos people who can't hear get more isolated and get more ill and "expensive".  Also presumably he's paid his taxes all his life, he's entitled to good NHS care which is what current tax payers are paying into the system for. 

Good luck, I hope he finds a solution which is as best as possible.  He might find local hard of hearing or lipreading groups. They can be an invaluable source of tips, tricks and knowledgeable local people in the area who may be able to support him too. Little things like knowing how to control the conversation or teach family how to include him.