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Hearing Loss: Come introduce yourself and connect with others
Hearing Loss | Last Active: May 16 7:36pm | Replies (1456)Comment receiving replies
The candidacy for cochlear implantation has been changed a great deal in the last year. CIs are no longer available only for profoundly hard of hearing people but can be an option for people with less profound hearing loss. The time to consider a cochlear implant is when hearing aids are no longer providing the help a person needs and expects. I use both a CI and a hearing aid. They work very well together. Without the CI, I hear virtually nothing. The CI has been a miracle for me.
Because of my involvement in HLAA (www.hearingloss.org), I have met many other people who have chosen to have cochlear implants. Lives change dramatically when someone is able to remain in the hearing mainstream comfortably with this remarkable technology. It's important to know that cochlear implants are covered by insurance and by Medicare.
If hearing aids are not working well for you, ask your provider about cochlear implants. If they discourage you, ask why. I hate to say this, but there may be a few out there who don't like the possibility of losing a hearing aid customer.
It may be worth the time and trip to schedule an appointment and testing at a cochlear implant facility to see if this is an option for you.
Aside: My other thought about your hearing aids no longer doing all you expect them to, is wondering if your audiologists have counseled you on the assistive technology that can work with them. Hearing assistive technology is way more than BlueTooth. Telecoils, which are usually in those costly hearing aids, but sometimes are not activated, can connect you to assistive technology in venues like theaters, performing arts centers, worship centers, etc. If you are not using that feature, you are getting 1/2 the value of your hearing instrument in my humble opinion. NOTE: BlueTooth and Tcoils can connect to streamers that can be used in noisy social settings.
Do you use hearing assistive technology that goes beyond your hearing instruments?
Replies to "@revbobcoulson and @kmseay The candidacy for cochlear implantation has been changed a great deal in the..."
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The only assistive device my audiologist has offered was a TV transmitter made by Widex. I purchased (more than $300), brought it home and tried it, and in order for my husband to also be able to hear the TV also, we needed a splitter to attach the device to our sound bar, which we were told by several stores we went to try to buy it, did not exist. I returned the device.
I do have an MT setting on my hearing aids, which is supposed to work with technology in theaters, etc, but I have found very few places where that technology is available. It also seems very dependent on presenters, etc. knowing how to use mikes to optimize the sound quality on such systems.
I think I need to find a new audiologist with either wider knowledge of hearing aid brands and their strengths or a greater willingness to explore all brands and technologies with me rather than promoting her preferred brand. And then I need to take advantage of trial periods to find a brand that works best for my hearing loss and tinnitus, plus the assistive devices that will help me most.
One of the biggest practical life lessons I have learned in the past 20+ years is that we Americans as patients of health care providers of all kinds MUST learn to be our own advocates. Health care, including hearing care, has now become so complex, fragmented, and is SO heavily profit-driven that patients must insist on being listened to and seen rather than treated as just the next problem in the door. Each provider seems to focus only on the problem s/he is trying to fix, without regard for the whole person and what the solutions they propose may be doing to harm some other part of the patient (e.g., MRIs damaging hearing and exacerbating tinnitus - most doctors aren’t even aware this can happen). They also fail to take into consideration differences in the way people live their lives and, thus, differing needs from person to person.
I am very grateful to this forum for making me aware of the fact that I need to educate myself and take the time to seek out providers who listen, who are equipped to know the full range of possible solutions, and who are not so wedded to personal profit that they cannot recognize and offer what is best for the patient, and then to advocate for myself in order to take advantage of what is best for me and my own situation.