Hearing Loss: Come introduce yourself and connect with others

@mckinney3 You say there is no hearing aid app that will work with AirPods. One thought that comes to mind is that the AirPods would be used instead of hearing aids. I could understand why a hearing aid app would not support AirPods. Regardless, we would think that the connection mechanism, BlueTooth, is a standard so it should not matter. Each hearing aid manufacturer has used proprietary communications between their hearing aids and the auxiliary device that communicates with them. I am hoping that the new, upcoming Bluetooth standard will change this. During the last virtual HLAA convention, there was a workshop that talked about the new BT standard. We should start to see products with the new standard coming in the first quarter of 2022. I'll wait for the new standard to be adopted by the hearing aid manufacturers before I buy a new hearing aid.
Tony in Michigan

i' hello, I'm bob and I'm profoundly hard oh hearing i'm living on medicare so 3,000 dollar hearing aids arent doable. been looking into personal listening devices but open to any suggestions

Hi Bob and welcome. Jump on over to this discussion:
- Help! I can't afford to buy hearing aids https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/help-11/

Hi. I’m a female,69 years old. Went totally deaf in my right ear about 18 years ago now? And have mild loss of some sounds on my left. My deafness happened within hours, and was accompanied by severe vertigo and vomiting. Laid in a fetal position for days, took 3 weeks to regain my balance enough to return to work in a grade school as an LPN. I have very good hearing aides, one of course is a transmitter. I’m so glad this happened before I was on Medicare. As they don’t pay for hearing aides. ( ridiculous) I still have tinnitus in that ear, which my brain has adjusted to but that took years. My name is Linda . Looking forward to hearing your stories, it’s refreshing to know someone understands ❣️

Here I am 😊

Hi Linda: I am Linda also. Like you I am completely deaf in one ear (L). It happened when I was 16 year old. All at once. Though I had a bubble in my ear as I had just gone swimming. It last too long for a bubble so Mom took me to the Dr. He said I had nerve deafness. It obviously has never returned. Never suggested an aid as my right ear was fine. So the nerve never got any stimulation. I am now 73 and am wearing an aid in my right ear as the hearing has been declining in that ear for years. It very bad actually. So I do the best I can, even with a cross hearing aid in the (L) that transfers sound to the RIght aid. Very difficult and frustrating. I know how you feel Linda. I wish there was a group near by where we could actually "socialize" and compare notes. Reach out to me any time Linda. Be well.
Linda

What an awful way to join the hearing loss community. Hope you continue to do well.

LOOKING FOR ACADEMIC RESEARCH - When hearing impaired (especially at a young age), whether it is from loud music or being in a noisy environment (a soldier in NOISY AREA for years),
Does the hearing continue to deteriorate even after you stop being in a noisy environment? Or if noise stops also stops a continuous decrease?
Is there a difference, regarding the continued deterioration in hearing, between acoustic damage resulting from a sudden noise (explosion for example) and which has not disappeared,
And permanent acoustic sabotage after several years of exposure to noise and the hearing deterioration continues though slowly?

Hi Linda and Linda! I am Barb, and also deaf in one ear (sudden total loss of hearing with vertigo and dizziness 15 years ago). My hearing has gradually decreased in my other ear and is now considered a severe loss. I wear a powerful aid plus a cross aid in the deaf ear. I really struggle in noisy environments…it is hard to hear/converse with others. That and all the noise of others chatting are exhausting. Do you find this to be true also?

In response to Linda (linlizard69):

If you're 79 now and initially had severe vertigo and sudden deafness in one ear 18 years ago, that means that you were 52 at the time. It sounds very much like an initial attack/crises of Meniere's, which happens most often to post menopausal women. Only question is why the vertigo went away, didn't recur from time to time--although I'm sure you're very pleased to have it gone. <g> FWIW, I had Meniere's most of my life but it only became a problem in one ear when I quit taking birth control pills in my mid-40s. For me, the loss of all useful hearing in that ear wasn't nearly the problem that the recurring vertigo crises were. Because the initial crises always happened within a day of the onset of a period, it was easy to see what triggered crises, but in this part of the country there's a great reluctance on the part of docs to prescribe HRT (hormone therapy). For four years, my doc and I tried various mild types of HRT that were considered safe (didn't cause cancer), but I had ever-increasing crises, each lasting 12-15 hours, up to three times a week. Finally, a friend who was part of a big OB/GYN practice in Houston, TX (where HRT is commonly prescribed) told us the correct ratio, which is 2.5 times Progesterone for each part of Estrogen. Less than a month after starting HRT, I quit having crises! Unfortunately, it had gone on too long for any recovery of hearing. I continued the HRT, but gradually cut back on the dosage, per my primary doc. As soon as the crises ceased, I learned VRT (vestibular rehab therapy) and have practiced it every day.

Then, over two years ago, my disease went bilateral. I think it may be because I had cut back too far on HRT. At any rate, I had not only deafness but recruitment and distortion in my sorta good ear, so was almost functionally deaf for a year while I sought a doc in my small town willing to prescribe large amounts of HRT. After a year, I got started on large doses, and, within two weeks, hearing in my "good" ear was back to where it had been before going bilateral, and the recruitment/distortion were gone so that I could wear my aid in that ear again--the recruitment had been so painful that I hadn't been wearing that aid most of the time. Recently, I asked for a hearing test of my long-useless ear (I'm 79 now, so it hadn't heard for over 30 years) to see if the hormones had lessened the recruitment in that ear which had made it unaidable. Recruitment is now mostly gone, and I just tried out new aids for both ears...and can hardly wait until I can pick them up next week! It was as though the woman who was fitting the aids was shouting in the soundproof room when they were both on! I could hear from both sides for the first time in decades! I don't have good understanding of what I hear from the right side, so I may be head toward a speech therapist once I get the new aids.

Linda, if you haven't been doing VRT, go to someone who specializes in it and learn to do some easy stuff every day. As we get older, our inner ears become less efficient, and just one of yours is doing the job of keeping you upright. VRT doesn't need to be exercises that are done every day but can simply be incorporated into your daily life. For example, my mailbox is a quarter-mile away along our one-lane gravel road, so I walk most of the distance every day with my eyes closed, thinking about what my feet are feeling: this teaches me to use my third balance system, proprioception, and makes a real difference in having confidence in moving around in the world. I also do NOT turn on lights late at night when I'm getting ready for bed, but walk through the house in the dark, again, thinking about what my feet have to say. I also have a few exercises to do if I feel less stable, but, for the most part, this little bit of VRT keeps me upright and confident.