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Educating others about hearing loss and deafness
Hearing Loss | Last Active: Mar 16, 2020 | Replies (17)Comment receiving replies
Hi,
I hear pretty much all sounds also but they are not and shouldn’t be distracting. There are noise suppression programs and hearing aids like my Phonaks that are automatically supposed to self adjust. My favorite is the manual directional program which really diminishes the sounds around me and is great in a noisy restuarant or shopping mall. I turn my aids down, not off, when driving.
You shouldn’t be uncomfortable with everyday environmental noise and I remember when I first got up my upgraded Phonaks how I hearing too many unnecessary sounds. My Audi adjusted that.
My loss is profound and I have been told by many hearing aid professionals that they are surprised I do so well....also that my loss is a “difficult” one. I told my Audi that speech discrimination is my primary goal but so is listening comfort. Give me both without sacrificing either one...and she was able to get that balance.
A quiet brain leads to a longer healthier life . Go back to your Audi and demand an adjustment. I left a hearing aid specialist once because she threw in the towel and said she couldn’t help me anymore. All that noise is not doing anything positive for your overall health. Get a new Audi if necessary.
FL Mary
Replies to "@arrowshooter Hi, I hear pretty much all sounds also but they are not and shouldn’t be..."
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Thanks Mary, I've pretty much tried most of what you suggest without success. My loss is severe above 1K hz and profound above 2K hz. I recently went from Starkey to ReSound (2 pair) to Oticon (2 pair) and the biggest difference I can detect is that the ReSound were the worst. And, yes, there were many adjustments along the way by several VA audis and one private practice audi. I don't think I have to tell you how frustrating it is to hear but not understand. The different noise suppression programs just produced different sounding noise to me. The Oticon produce the best sound for me and allow me to hear some birds and crickets etc, but they do little to improve my speech understanding. I can enjoy music (instrumental) through HL and streamers, and when using an induction loop or streaming device I do very well with lectures and TV. (I generally use t-coil only program)