Aging and Hearing Loss: Can You Talk About It?

@carolee888

Hi,

You do need to be a member in order to buy hearing aids or glasses at Costco. They only allow non members to buy wine. If you know someone who has a membership, maybe you can use their card and reimburse them but you may need to have their card in order to go for follow ups because you show the card at the entrance.

FL Mary and Costco member

Thank you for the information.

Hi @carolee888

I hope your recovery from eye surgery goes well. I just called my local Costco and the pharmacy does not require a Costco membership, however, the optical and hearing aid departments do require membership.

I purchased my hearing aids from an audiologist. I had a doctor referral and that helped because some of the cost was covered by insurance because of the referral. I purchased my hearing aids about 3 years ago and control them on my iphone for situations such as hearing all sounds (like outdoors and birds singing, water running, etc.), speech clarity and filtering out some noises. You have the ability to increase or decrease sounds yourself and this is extremely helpful. I only paid $1200 for my hearing aids from Audiology. I have a friend who received hearing aids free because he was a Federal Civil Service employee. I am unable to post a link here, but search: No Cost Hearing Aids for Active and Retired Federal Employees

Yes, the cost of hearing aids is a problem. However, the VALUE of being able to hear is priceless. Sometimes we have to 'find a way'.

FYI, The Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), a consumer based non profit, is working hard to get this issue to the legislative level with medicare coverage. HLAA's mission is to share information, to educate, to provide peer support and to advocate. It's an organization well worth supporting. http://www.hearingloss.org Prior to the founding of HLAA in 1979, very little attention was given to hearing loss. The National Institutes of Health didn't even have an institute within to study communication disorders. The prevailing attitude was that 'nothing could be done about it'. That has changed, and we've come a long way since then with technology and attitude. There's still a long way to go.
Have you ever checked out HLAA?

Thank you for sharing your experience. Many hearing instrument providers have programs that will allow a customer/patient to pay for their products over time. That can take some of the sting out of that high cost.

Hearing aids do help a lot. Some are controlled by cell phones, and others by controls built into the product. I always encourage people to purchase hearing aids that have manual volume control capability. There are times when more volume is needed, and many more when you'll want to turn things down a bit. Automatic sounds good, but it's not always best.

🙂 We've heard a lot of excuses for not getting hearing aids, but 'fiddling" is a new one! Well, not really. There are a lot of old jokes about absent minded elderly professors who 'fiddle' with hearing aids. Not exactly funny but typical.

Far too often hearing loss is associated with aging and senility. Also with lack of intelligence. Many people are indoctrinated with that association, and it prevents people from getting the hearing help that will keep them in the hearing mainstream. When we can't hear well in conversational situations we can easily misunderstand. Sometimes our responses to that misunderstanding give people the false message that we are senile.

Recent studies from Johns Hopkins and Stanford University relate earlier cognitive decline in older people to untreated hearing loss. Studies also show that people who withdraw socially for whatever reason, often experienced depression due to isolation.

Do you know people who have stopped participating socially?

@hopeful33250 Thank you for sharing this information. Most hearing aid providers, including ENT practices, clinical audiologists & hearing instrument specialists, allow a 30 - 45 day trial period for hearing aids. This is often in 'the fine print', and needs to be understood. You have that much time to try the hearing instruments in every possible situations where you want them to help you. You can return them during that time frame, but not a single day afterwards. If you find they aren't helping, go back to the provider and ask them to make some adjustments. Keep trying. Sometimes it takes a while.

Yes, Costco provides the advantage of a 6 month trial time frame.

Some other providers will extend the trial time if you are proactively seeking their support for readjustments. ASK.

It's wise to have a doctorate level audiologist (AuD), do testing to determine your hearing needs. Request a copy of your audiogram so you can shop around if you choose to. Most fitters at the 'big box stores' are not 'audiologists'. They are 'hearing instrument specialists' who have apprenticed under an audiologist, but do not have college degrees. People with mild to moderate hearing loss are more likely to find help there.

Most important, be open to experimenting with new hearing aids. Ask yourself: Am I willing to do that?

I started losing my hearing at 50+. I finally got hearing aids and it was the best thing I have done for myself.
They are expensive but worth the cost, a person is so isolated from people if you cannot hear them.
First get a good hearing test, if your hearing loss is not severe then you might do well by getting the hearing aids that they will sell in drug stores. If your hearing loss is more severe I suggest getting fitted for the real hearing aids, you need to enjoy all life has to offer.

I wish I could but fate has stepped in causing irreversible damage. I’m going to be 80yo next year but back in 1962 I was working in a heating boiler plant. I was doing some work in one end of a the combustion pipe, 25 foot long and 48” in diameter. Another worker was going to use a sledge hammer and metal stamping numbers on the other end. It was as loud as a large church bell and you’re standing inside it. He didn’t see me and I didn’t see him. He hit the metal stamp and for a millisecond there was noise and then nothing. I screamed in agony, cupped my hand over my ear, felt something warm and sticky coming out of my ear. It was blood, he had ruptured my eardrum and ever since, I have tinnitus in both ear and distorted hearing in my right ear.

The left ear is just as bad, if not worse because 44 years later in 2006 fate stepped in again. I took my then 8yo grandson to the Mouse House in Florida. I won’t bore you with all the details except to say I picked up a drug resistant Super Bug and got very sick. My ENT doctor was mystified by my symptoms and tried every drug the medical profession had, nothing killed it (sound familiar) He even contacted the CDC, yeah, that CDC who said they had one “Drug of last resort!” It kills 99.99% of every bug inside the human body. I took it for 30 days and all I can say is the side effects were worse than the bug symptoms. The bugs were smart, they traveled to the most remote spot in the body to evade the medicine, the back of the inner ear. They died all right, from starvation and blocked my ear so that a muffled sound is all I hear in my left ear. I imagine there is a delicate procedure that could be done to resort hearing in both ears but as my health is so fragile, I don’t have much time left on this planet to care anymore.

I’m glad you were able to help your hearing loss. It must sound peaceful to walk thru a forest of animals and birds on a nature walk. Take care.
@becky1024