I want to thank Jenny and all of the posters to this thread.
I have read all of the discussions of getting, adjusting to, and getting the instruments fine tuned. I have some questions for members, even though it appears that there haven't been many posts recently.
First, an introduction: I was born with bi-lateral nerve loss hearing--severe to profound. 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with a vestibular schwannoma (a benign??? )tumor of the balance nerve that also compromises the auditory nerve. I had radiation on the tumor (surgery has so many potential side effects that are horrible that I chose radiation) As a result I lost the hearing in my left ear and now have hearing ONLY in my right ear.
I need to get a new hearing aid as my old one has 'bit the dust' and I am using an even older backup. I just had a hearing test done at the U of Penn audiology center in Philadelphia and the instrument the ad suggested I look at was the Phonak Naida.
I have been surprised by the trouble everyone experienced with their instruments. Now, some of that appears to be due to audiologists not being familiar with the instruments and doing poor fittings.
But others appear to be quality issues, such as having them cut out repeatedly , having the sound slowly diminish and disappear (silence!) and several of you had to send the aids back and get new ones.
Since it has been several months since everyone got their aids, I would like to know how things have turned out for you? Are your hearing aid problems resolved? Are you still using your Naida or are you using something different?
If you can take the time to reply to this, I would be most grateful.
Jim Woods
Well, I've had my Naida V UP aids since June, and the only real issue I've seen is the time it takes to get the aids configured properly. I finally have a great configuration setup, with a minor adjustment to introduce music to the hearing system.
I would suggest knowing your configuration of your aids and what it has the capacity to do. I asked for and got a hard copy of my configuration settings. This helped me research and ask the questions I needed to get ahead of the game, since if the audiologist has not had a few good Naida configurations under his/her belt, it might take a little while to train. I did have some demands for noise abatement on certain backgrounds. When the previous adjustment made me go back one step, I figured out my issue was too much bassboost. I was maxed out in the beginning, then had none at all to reduce the hums from the a/c and fans. I did get it reduced (by increasing BassBoost by only halfway), but not eliminated. The background noise is still lingering, but it's bearable and able to be ignored. The sounds I want to hear drowned the annoying sounds.
In all the configuration issues, my aids never had to be returned for repair. Some weird noise issues were a result of excessive sweating, which saturated the filters and caused the funky warbling sounds. A simple package to replace the mic filters (with extra to last for future replacements) was given to me by Phonak to solve the issue.
I also had a FM system (transmitter and 2 receivers) added to my arsenal, which added to the length of time to finally getting the correct aid configuration. The extra program added to the auto mode caused annoying beeps that I was scratching my head trying to figure out...once my audiologist turned it off from auto, the issue was solved. I can still access the FM with my two manual programs.
In summary, to have a successful fitting, I would do several things:
1.After initial fitting, get a hard copy of the Naida configuration
2.Go to the Phonak website (Professional is more detailed) to read up more on the settings
3. If in doubt about some of the configurations, email or call Phonak. I was in touch with a swedish audiologist from Phonak, he was extremely helpful and was one of the reasons my configuration was successful.
4.Document everything that worked or didn't work after each configuration. Sometimes it may take a few days for the brain to adjust to a setting. It's easier for the audiologist to adjust to another setting when they can see what your issues is on paper.
5. After the aids are finally about where you want it to be, ask for a second hard copy of your settings. Here you can compare and see what had changed and maybe you can have more suggestions to help tweak your aids into a better adjustment. (This one is what I plan to do this Tuesday- Nov 4th, with Phonak)
Hopefully this helps a little bit...
Leo