Hi Stephanie,
Thank you for the suggestion. I asked about a Cochlear implant and I was told by the audiologist that my hearing wasn't bad enough. Is what you are describing a Cochlear implant?
Thanks again. Very nice to meet you. - Denise

another response to @denisemarys
I have Meniere's, haven't heard anything useful from the right side for nearly 40 years. Three years ago, I bought a hearing aid from Costco for my "good" ear, due to age-related deafness (almost $1,600, but far less than the $3,500 the same aid would have been elsewhere, without the Costco brand name). Two years ago, Meniere's went bilateral, and I spent a year nearly totally deaf, unable to wear my one aid due to recruitment, which is part of the "fun" of true Meniere's. It took a year for me to find a doc willing to prescribe large doses of hormones to someone in their late 70s. Once I did, hearing returned to where it had been before going bilateral, and the hell of recruitment ended. I went to the Vestibular Center at Portland's Good Samaritan Hospital for a brush up on vestibular rehab, which I've done every day since Meniere's became a problem to long ago.

Recently, two things occurred to me. First, I knew that I had heard some slight sounds with my bad ear while nearly deaf. Second, the hormones had reversed the Meniere's recruitment in my good ear, so my useless ear should also have far less recruitment, be aidable. Wednesday I went to Salem Costco for another hearing test. The woman there who prescribes aids (not an audiologist but extremely knowledgeable, more than the two audis I've seen) will have a pair of new aids ready for me to try out in two weeks. She has recently fitted someone else who was nearly deaf in one ear, hadn't heard out of it for years, with some success. My present aid is working at the very top of its usefulness, as age-related deafness has increased further. The new aids, thanks to increasing work to improve them, are not only better/stronger, but the pair will only cost $1,800! In addition, Costco charges NOTHING for hearing tests, adjustments, repairs, maintenance parts like wax filters and extra domes--a clinic with an audi charges for those things. I'll have as much time as I want to spend walking around inside the store for a first try out--I'm taking a woman with me for the in-store trial, since high voices are hardest for me. If the try out works, I'll buy the aids and have a full 30 days to return them for a full refund. Even though I may only wear this older aid for two weeks before buying the new pair of aids, the fitter adjusted them to match the changes she saw in my hearing test--at no charge, of course. All this just as the total warranty on my present aid will come to an end! That warranty includes stupid things I might have done, like yanking off a mask and stepping on the aid while searching for it or forgetting to remove it before washing my hair, which is pretty surprising. Since my present aid will need to be replaced before too long due to my increasing level of HOH in my "good" ear, I don't see that I have a great deal of risk involved in buying the new pair...unless they flat just don't seem to do the job.

She also told me that I'll need to go to a speech pathologist to maximize the benefit of the new aids, to help me understand what I hear. That should be covered by my really great medical insurance.

Even if there's not a Costco in your town, it's well worth driving to one! On top of everything else, they sell batteries in packs of six cards--for less than it costs to buy one card at a drugstore. The nearest Costco to me is 60 miles away, with a half-dozen others within a hundred miles.