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Hearing Loss: Come introduce yourself and connect with others
Hearing Loss | Last Active: 6 days ago | Replies (1521)Comment receiving replies
Hi, I'm new to the group as well. Last week I went for what I thought would be a baseline hearing test and was shocked to learn I'm a good candidate for two over-the-ear hearing aids! I'd noticed some minor shifts such as not hearing the ice cream truck tune as soon as my husband could and sometimes seeing one of our cats meow but not hearing anything. My husband can't hear those meows, either, and we joked they were "silent meows." Both my father and his mother had significant hearing loss but I didn't expect this in my late 50's!
I'm happy to "meet" you all and I may be back when it comes time to decide on which hearing aids to get. I don't know yet which ones are covered by our insurance.
Replies to "Hi, I'm new to the group as well. Last week I went for what I thought..."
Hi @christyj Welcome to Connect.
I started wearing HAs in 2004. My family had made me notice how often I was asking them to repeat what they said so I got tested and sure enough, I had a hearing loss that was not severe but bad enough to be helped by HAs. I have been wearing them ever since.
When you and your audiologist decide what HAs will be appropriate for your hearing loss you will get a trial period to see how well they work for you. You may even find that the help they give you is not significant enough to get them right now, or that they are just not the best ones for you.
Good luck with choosing some. A good audiologist is so important for this. I will be interested in hearing what you end up with. I have always had either Oticon or Phonak but my daughter who has a totally unrelated hearing loss (hers was present at birth) currently has ReSounds and she loves them. I know Widex is highly regarded also.
JK
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@christyj Nearly 20% of the population of the USA has some degree of hearing loss. The incidence is higher as people age, but noise induced hearing loss has increased greatly among younger people since the 1970s when wearing headphones, earbuds, etc. became popular. Noise induced hearing loss is preventable but not curable.
It's especially common in individuals also have a genetic tendency towards it. Getting a baseline audiogram is wise. Like you, I was shocked when my first audiogram showed hearing loss. I was in my 20s. I was not warned about the dangers of noise way back then, and I was exposed to a lot of it via music, hunting, and spending hours in a noisy gymnasium. It progressed, and by the time I was in my mid 30s I needed hearing aids.
Decades later, I am the benefactor of technologies I never dreamed of when I was diagnosed back in the mid 60s. (I'm in my late 70s now.) I'm so thankful for the technology I have access to, which includes a high powered hearing aid and a cochlear implant.
If you can benefit from hearing aids, I encourage you to try them. When you are ready to do that, ask the provider to give you plenty of time to try them in every setting possible.
You will find joy in hearing your cat's meow. I hope you'll feel free to ask questions of others in this group who use hearing aids. We are more common than people realize.
Did the person who tested your hearing give you any suggestions about what to do next?