Hi Barbara

I tried new Phonak aids for about a week. I heard mid-range sounds more than I do with my older Phonak aids, but I’m not sure it changed my overall speech recognition enough to carry me forward. I’m trying to arrange to try ReSound aids as that’s what I’d have if I do the Cochlear implant. These are loaner aids from my local audiologist. I may decide to invest some dollars to order new aids so I can try them for 4-6 weeks.

You should be able to try new aids for $ expense before you expend $$$$ to actually buy them. With my longtime audiologist where I used to live, the investment would have been just the cost of new molds. My current audiologist works in a smaller setting and they charge an additional $500 if you decide to return the aids. I actually don’t think that’s unreasonable given the time she’ll spend with me to set them up and tweak them along the way.

I forgot to mention that I really liked the phone app that I could use to control those new Phonak hearing aids. I still had program control on the aids themselves, but I could make real-time adjustments through the app. For example I was in a fairly noisy restaurant and was able to experiment with increasing and decreasing the level of noise reduction to find a good sweet spot for that particular situation. I liked that level of control that used to be only available via programming by the audiologist. Maybe today all the aids have this.

You say you are a 'likely' candidate for a Cochlear Implant.

Have you been to a cochlear implant center for evaluation?