Loss of hearing clarity: Solutions or strategies anyone?

Hi Irene. It sounds as if we have had similar experiences with progressive hearing loss. Diagnosed as a 21 year old college student, I was told by some of the best medical experts in the field that I would be 'deaf' by age 40. They could give me no reason for this happening to me. Today, after doing a lot of personal research on hearing loss, and meeting so many others like me through HLAA, I'm quite certain I had a genetic predisposition to sensorineural hearing loss, and that noise I was exposed to exacerbated it. I was told that there would be nothing available in my lifetime that would change that, and that hearing aids would not help me. That diagnosis was in 1962. Because my loss was mild at that time I didn't take it too seriously. It progressed significantly over the next 10 years.

Because I had been given no hope for anything to improve, I resisted getting help. It cost me my career, and turned an outgoing person into a semi recluse. Thankfully, I had supportive family. A turning point happened when a regional university communication disorders department gave me the opportunity to be retested. I was fitted with hearing aids that helped somewhat in quiet settings. A second turning point was when I learned about HLAA and became involved. Meeting other people who were going through this same thing let me know I was not alone. That truly gave me my life back, as I watched how people were able to cope with hearing loss by using technology and by truly understanding what was going on. I might add, that that add on technology can make a huge difference for most of us in many situations. Try it if you can

Today, I have a cochlear implant, which I use with a hearing aid. It has done wonders for me. I only wish I might have had the CI opportunity earlier. In my 40s, I returned to school for a graduate degree. In my 50s, I resumed my career, and worked past retirement age. I doubt I'd have had these successes without the support and education that HLAA made available to me.

Prior to the 80s, very little research was done on hearing loss, especially on the potential for cures and solutions. It was more about 'what should we do with these deaf people?', and deaf and hard of hearing people were all lumped together in research. Today there is a great deal of research being done, and the word 'cure' is mentioned in much of it.

Our experience is similar. Noise was a big piece of my life before anyone knew that noise damaged hearing. No ear plugs then. Sensorineural hearing loss leads us to believe that we have 'nerve damage'. Cochlear implants work because they bypass the inner ear where the damage really occurs, and stimulate the auditory nerve, which is just waiting to stimulated so it can send sound to the brain. It's pretty amazing stuff.

I hope you find the support you are looking for. Living WELL with hearing loss is possible. You just need to find the coping mechanisms that work best for you, along with the technology that makes a difference.

Keep us posted on your experiences.

Hello - I have been reading posts on this site for a couple of weeks, and wonder if others (besides JK) have encountered less than satisfactory service from hearing professionals at clinics. I have been using a very high-end clinic for about 12 years now, and have had different experiences ranging from satisfactory to barely acceptable to unacceptable. In the unacceptable bucket:

1. Customer service - HA company takes 2 weeks to do repairs that actually take less than a day to do, and charges extra for expedited service of 2-3 days. It's as if they don't care that a patient can't work or function without aids. Also, when I asked for a copy of the insurance agreement before being willing to spend money to renew, I was told they don't do that and don't have a copy available. Really! I swear.... I did not renew. Now, I'm extra vigilant with my $7000 HA's.
2. Respect - My feedback has been dismissed, diminished and ignored at times. The worst was when an audiologist suggested a different company's HA. I agreed to try (because how could I assess effectiveness without trying). Within hours, I was miserable. The sound was too harsh (I'd had HAs before, so I was pretty sure this was not just an adjustment issue); a series of 4 or 5 adjustments over a period of 5-6 weeks yielded no better success. Each time, I reported that the experience was like an assault on my system and I could not function in meetings or other typical settings any more. Finally, I begged to return to my original HA company, and when fitted with a new pair of those, got my hearing and sanity back. When I asked the audiologist why she had taken me so far down the road with the other company, she said she liked their sales rep and service better. Honest.
3. Training - Hearing professionals who sell HAs basically get their training from the HA companies. This is a travesty, as it is a total conflict of interest to only have the HA seller's education and not a professional course of how to work with hearing impaired adults to ensure the best product and service.

In the okay bucket:
1. Lately, the audiologist I have seen has treated me like a fully functioning human being. I guess that's something!

You probably wonder why I don't change clinics. I wonder that myself. I think I don't expect to get any better service anywhere else, tho that's probably flawed thinking. It's also that changing partners in mid-stream means learning to swim in tandem again, and I'm not sure I have the energy to do that. My current HAs need adjusting (I can tell my hearing loss is slowly worsening). I plan to go to the local (NW Washington, DC) HLAA meeting in a couple weeks to gear up for the next round. Perhaps I'll find more information there that could make this journey smoother.

I have had Opticon hearing aids for three years and have problems with loss of clarity. They have been adjusted many times but it has not helped. On my last visit, the audiologist suggested I might try the new Phonak Spere with the Roger. Do you know anything about them?

I got the Phonak Spere a couple of months ago. It is a huge improvement for me. It does help somewhat with background noise. I also have the Roger On Version 3 which is very useful in certain situations.

This is very interesting...I don't have hearing aids yet..20% loss in lft. Ear and about 50-70% loss in rt. Ear....and a lot of tintinius in both ears which makes hearing in noisey backgrounds impossible...but I have discovered by accident something quite neat...when my son has the electric kettle heating up and the radio is too loud the resultant noise is painful.....so he gave a pair of expandable ear plugs that rock guitarists use.....and once they were in place it was amazing....no noise AND NO Tintinitus!!!!Complete Silence...I almost wanted to leave them in(except I would have been totally deaf).. Has anyone else had this happen with earplugs?

Were you having problems with clarity?

My main problem was that my Resound hearing aids did not increase volume enough, not necessarily clarity. I tried a loaner prior to going forward with a purchase of the Sphere and the difference was dramatic.