Hello Betsy. It's good to ask questions. People who share your experiences can offer a lot of help, sometimes the kind of help and support we expect from the hearing healthcare professionals who serve us but who don't provide the supportive help we need. We need to have our feelings validated rather than minimized! Not just by those healthcare professionals, but also by our friends and family members. Moderate hearing loss is a challenge.

Hearing loss can affect every facet of our lives, and it hits us hard in social settings. Adult-onset hearing loss is complicated. It's a major life loss, not a mere inconvenience.

Do your hearing aids have telecoils or BlueTooth? Did your audiologist explain telecoils and the wonderful technology they can connect with to you? Accessory devices that can be used with our hearing instruments can make a huge difference in noisy social settings. Special phones can help in work settings, as can other hearing assistive technology. Unfortunately, audiologists don't always tell us about what is available.

A cookie bite diagnosis affects a different range of sound than a more typical loss does. The skill of the person who is fitting and setting your hearing aids is always important, but possibly a bit more challenging with the 'cookie bite diagnosis. Is your audiologist using 'real ear measurement' when fitting? Here's a bit of information about REM. https://www.healthyhearing.com/report/53319-Real-ear-measurement-hearing-aid-fitting

I always encourage people with hearing loss to check out The Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) for information and support. See if there is a chapter in your region. Learning from other people who are going through the same experiences you are is a positive approach to adjustment. http://www.hearingloss.org