Hearing Loss: Come introduce yourself and connect with others

@sputnik904 I never personally researched hearing aids before getting them, but I have a great audiologist and I trust her recommendations for me. I went to a very highly regarded audiologist in NYC at one point and her assessment was exactly the same as my audiologist here. Given all of that, I would just find a great audiologist with whom you are comfortable and confident and have that audiologist recommend the right aid for your loss. It can vary depending on your personal hearing profile. My daughter also wears hearing aids and she loves hers but they would not be appropriate for my loss.
I have Oticon Opn1. She has ReSound.
JK

Not sure I am posting this in proper location of the board.
re: Can you explain more how your hearing aids are customized for birding?
The first audiologist I saw (2016) was awesome! Wanted to know about my activities and how hearing loss impacted me. Very collaborative. From the beginning doing something to help my "birding by ear" skills was on the list. I had a number of species I expected to hear but missed. I'd be in good habitat, or with other birders, and I didn't hear kinglets, or cedar waxwings, and other species with higher frequency calls. I downloaded spectrograms of calls of calls of these species. I use Widex Unique Fusion 440 bilaterally. My audiologist adapted the "Quiet" program to:
Impulse off
High-frequency boost
Wind attenuation on
Omnidirectional microphone
Soft noise set to standard
This program has been awesome for me. I don't always get complete calls but enough for identification. Even localization works pretty good. Made an enormous difference in my quality of life!

I have genetic early hearing loss. Started in my 30’s. My father had it and my neice has it. Like everyone else, I use cc all the time on tv. Some live theater venues offer hearing assisted devices. Those have been somewhat helpful. I use hearing aids in public. Very happy with the bluetooth feature that syncs them with my iphone.
I just retired but had been struggling at work with the office phone. Not hearing aid compatible and my loss is at conversation level.

I retired a few years ago and the phones were getting hard for me also. My hearing aids had bluetooth and made the phone easier. I got a cochlear implant in my right ear last summer and really enjoy it, but the Bluetooth is not compatible and I miss it. I am looking into a compatible hearing aid for my right ear.

@robinraig @debbiefili Landline phones are impossible for me. When ours rings I don't even bother to answer it. I do well with my iPhone and my aids streaming into it. I understand that there are Bluetooth landline phones now that can do that but at this point, everyone knows to call me on my cell, even all of my doctors.
JK

My cell service is sketchy so I still have to use the landline. But I’ll stand outside in winter in order to keep a connection. I tried several portables until I found one I can hear on. The bluetooth with my resound ha and iphone is the best. Such a relief when I got the upgrade.

@robinraig which portable (I presume you are referring to cordless phones) did you purchase? We really need a new landline phone even though we use it very infrequently. I am hoping that a new one might work better with my HAs too.
Thanks.
JK

I think we should start a topic about this. My landline portable is ATT Cordless answering system crl32202 but it is not HA compatible. My other landline phone is a ATT trimline. Also not HA compatible. Every phone I tried that was listed as HA compatible just emitted a buzz whenever I set my HA to the T coil feature.

I am a 72 year old man with a profound hearing loss in one ear and a total loss in the other. I wear a Resound aid in the one ear. I function okay with family as they speak loudly and I lip read somewhat. But I am basically deaf outside the house.

Other than that I function predominantly by the written word...captioned tv and caption apps for Cell and land phones. I tried tv streaming directly to the aid, but it was not of any major benefit. I am now looking into speech to text apps.

So I am basically just reading posts, looking for any ideas I can use.
Thanks.

I had profound hearing loss in both ears. I had hearing aids for many years. I suddenly lost most hearing in one ear and the other ear got worse. It was recommended that I get a cochlear implant in one ear. I did get one and do not regret it. I know I will never be able to hear as a normal person, but I can now hear speech better and can deal with the public without all the apprehension I had before. I still have a hearing aid in my other ear, and it helps balance the sounds