Last summer I went to get my hearing checked after a couple of years, and it turned out my left ear had gone worse. It had happened so gradually I hadn't even noticed. I had my doubts, but never really believed it until I saw my audiogram on paper. I've now lost the high pitched noises, like bird singing, and struggle to hear people in crowds. After the results last summer I went to see an ENT, and told him I need a hearing aid. He, at first, said I was a borderline case, and doubted whether I needed a hearing aid since my right ear was perfectly fine. But then he took a look at my previous audiograms and figured if my hearing continued to deteriorate at this speed, it's better to get a hearing aid sooner rather than later, and so he put me down for one. Since I wasn't an acute case, I needed to wait about six months to get to my actual hearing aid appointment.
That appointment was on the last day of January. Since I still had an infection in both of my ears, we were unable to test my hearing and make a mould of my ear canal, but I did get to pick a color for my hearing aid and it was ordered for me. My appointment for a hearing test and mould making was moved to the following week, this week, and fortunately my ear infection had ceased from my left ear. My audiogram showed little to no change to last summer, and I was also pleasantly surprised that my hearing aid had already arrived! I'm now wearing it with a receiver in my ear, a very basic one, until I get my own personalised ear piece in about a month.
The first time I tried it on everything, including my own voice, sounded like talking to a microphone. With a few adjustments we were able to minimise that. And then I started noticing how I can pick up consonants better than before, especially the S's sounded sharp and clear. I put all my new documents and things to a plastic bag and it ruffled so loud. Did they always make that much noise?
I now have a month to get adjusted to living with my new piece of accessory before I get the final receiver. So far I'm liking this thing. It's way smaller than I thought, practically invisible. I wouldn't have minded a bigger one, either, but granted, this one is pretty sweet. I'll update you guys later with more experience.
Before I left my audiologist's office, she played me bird singing from her computer with the hearing aid off and on. When it was on, I could hear the birds :)
That appointment was on the last day of January. Since I still had an infection in both of my ears, we were unable to test my hearing and make a mould of my ear canal, but I did get to pick a color for my hearing aid and it was ordered for me. My appointment for a hearing test and mould making was moved to the following week, this week, and fortunately my ear infection had ceased from my left ear. My audiogram showed little to no change to last summer, and I was also pleasantly surprised that my hearing aid had already arrived! I'm now wearing it with a receiver in my ear, a very basic one, until I get my own personalised ear piece in about a month.
The first time I tried it on everything, including my own voice, sounded like talking to a microphone. With a few adjustments we were able to minimise that. And then I started noticing how I can pick up consonants better than before, especially the S's sounded sharp and clear. I put all my new documents and things to a plastic bag and it ruffled so loud. Did they always make that much noise?
I now have a month to get adjusted to living with my new piece of accessory before I get the final receiver. So far I'm liking this thing. It's way smaller than I thought, practically invisible. I wouldn't have minded a bigger one, either, but granted, this one is pretty sweet. I'll update you guys later with more experience.
Before I left my audiologist's office, she played me bird singing from her computer with the hearing aid off and on. When it was on, I could hear the birds :)
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