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Hearing Loss: Come introduce yourself and connect with others
Hearing Loss | Last Active: 2 days ago | Replies (1517)Comment receiving replies
@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?
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@julieo4 Thanks for your reply, Julie! It sounds like you’ve had quite a journey. I’ve been vigilant about not damaging my hearing since my father blamed much of his hearing loss on working in a loud automotive factory without hearing protection. I do plan to try the hearing aids because I want to preserve my brain’s ability to benefit from them.
I’m scheduled to learn about my HA options on July 16th. Supposedly I’m to select them during that 40 minute appointment and they will arrive two weeks later at which time I’ll have another appointment explaining their use and then I’ll come in another two weeks to discuss how it’s going. They said they couldn’t share any info about the HA options before the first appointment.
The original audiologist (where I got my hearing tested but they don’t take my insurance) gave me some literature but my insurance works with True Hearing (not sure if that’s how it’s spelled) and the original person does not. She mentioned ReSounds works well with Apple devices and True Hearing does work with ReSounds. It doesn’t sound like I’ll have the option to try them in different environments as you suggested.