Oh noooooo Mr. Billl (that has to be too old for you)
1. What are your speech recognition scores?
2. Do you have any bone conductive hearing left? If you do, we can explore that route but with caution.
You have to be very, very careful when considering a HA vs a CI. I still have Oticon 380s and 390s but don't use them. While digital sounds are better than analog, it's nuts. Many insurance companies will cover CIs that surgery + hardware can run you @$100k (not kidding). My total is warped due to the other surgeries I had to have (three others plus the implant). I don't know what that added.
IF you look at a CI, you cannot view it as regaining hearing. It is called "processing sound." While people say they can hear music, I do not know if it's normal music sound (like not having a CI but a HA) or a CI processed sound.
At my last audiology meeting early in December, my audiologist told me I have to stop comparing hearing sound vs processing CI sound. THEY ARE DIFFERENT. HAs don't require a process or tons of mapping to get it right but they do require programming .
HAs have their drawback as well but if I had ears that would accept earmolds, I'd go with a digital aid. You can get them discounted and god knows, I'm not starting a battle over this one either . Digital aids are expensive and you can absolutely get them cheaper over the internet.
Things and I mean do not knock me for the internet stuff because I have been through just about everything in the book by now.
1. ahearingaid.com was one of the first internet and legal sites. In 1997ish, I tried a digital through them. But due to my ill-fitting earmolds, it just didn't work. The owner was in a motorcycle accident and the webite is out of commission. They also outpriced themselves in later years and I stopped using them.
2. There are other sites. I bought two analog aids for $525 or $550 instead of $1100 (with a telecoil) and the higher price is what I paid locally.
3. There's a Dr. who warns of buying over the internet but she actually posted my comments. They are no worse than buying them locally. She understood me, thank goodness.
-- She said "face-to-face" was better than not. I said that wasn't true. I had seen too many people get burned face-to-face. You just don't do anything stupid like use eBay (I know you wouldn't do that).
4. Do you have earmolds that fit well?
Anyway, let me know where your brain takes you with this. I will say this one more time a little differently. I understand some of your loss that you shared but you don't give enough info. IF YOU CAN GET A DIGITAL AID, go that route. CIs are irreversible and I personally don't know if I can tolerate the sound produced but I likely have the rock of ages over you and may be less flexible (and if we go there and it's another very bad story BAHAs and they are cheaper and irreversible).
I'm not talking you into anything. I'm pushing aids because they are cheaper and even with a profound loss, you may be able to get a power blaster that will be okay for you.
Be careful.
I am not knocking you at all. That used to be a very old saying out of Saturday Night Live. I understand your hearing pure tone loss but with a HA (I don't care which):It was only after the death of my analog hearing aid this year as well as the sudden loss of certain sound waves in my left ear that had prompted me to seriously ask myself such a question as this: will I be ok with a cochlear implant?
A little background:
I was born hearing but at 18 months old, scarlet fever came into my life (or rather my parent's life as I recall none of it) and turned me into the color of a tomato. It was only by the attention of nurses around me that saved my life by throwing me into an ice bath full of ice, literally, after the doctor said I was only having a typical fever. And so starts my lifelong deafness.
On my left ear, I have 99% severe profound hearing loss and on the right ear is 97% severe profound hearing loss. But here is where the story gets a little wee strange (and the reason for this thread). During all my audiology testing, my left ear can only hear all the deep tones while my right ear can hear a more higher tone while missing the deeper tones. But when I put on my hearing aid I was able to hear almost all of the sounds except the very high tones.
And so for the next 30+ years I've been wearing analog hearing aid in my left ear exclusively (wearing in both ears makes my head spin due to the differences in hearing losses). Until one day, in 2012, my memories suddenly told me that I was supposed to be hearing certain sounds that I no longer can hear anymore. That was when I realized that my hearing, whatever I had left, was much less than any time in the last 30 years. Not even my right ear can hear or process as much as my left ear did. And then my analog hearing aid broke...Great.
So for the last one year, I've been without sound. At first I thought my skill in lip reading and my near-photographic memories for things can hold me up indefinitely, I found that I was wrong. It's been in a steady decline as I got more used to being fully Deaf (I have full use of ASL as well as full ability to speak).
So here I am, seriously thinking about Cochlear implant(s) or even digital hearing aid(s).
I'm not sure if having digital hearing aid will do me any good with my recent new hearing loss (presumably from wearing hearing aid for 30 years constantly). So that leaves Cochlear implants as an option. But my doubt is this: Due to the nature of my hearing loss, I already had one doctor shake his head in a resounding "no" without even taking a test. He said that due to the death of my cochlear hair nerves, that the implants will not work.
So here I am, asking to see if such avenue is possible, realistic, do-able, and worth the effort...or not. I will be first to admit that I don't have a single clue on what I should do or what to research on based on my type of hearing loss. Any direction or kick in the pants or advices, etc would be appreciated.
I just miss listening to music...
"Sorry
Is all that you can't say
Years gone by and still
Words don't come easily
Like sorry like sorry..."
~Tracy Chapman
1. What are your speech recognition scores?
2. Do you have any bone conductive hearing left? If you do, we can explore that route but with caution.
You have to be very, very careful when considering a HA vs a CI. I still have Oticon 380s and 390s but don't use them. While digital sounds are better than analog, it's nuts. Many insurance companies will cover CIs that surgery + hardware can run you @$100k (not kidding). My total is warped due to the other surgeries I had to have (three others plus the implant). I don't know what that added.
IF you look at a CI, you cannot view it as regaining hearing. It is called "processing sound." While people say they can hear music, I do not know if it's normal music sound (like not having a CI but a HA) or a CI processed sound.
At my last audiology meeting early in December, my audiologist told me I have to stop comparing hearing sound vs processing CI sound. THEY ARE DIFFERENT. HAs don't require a process or tons of mapping to get it right but they do require programming .
HAs have their drawback as well but if I had ears that would accept earmolds, I'd go with a digital aid. You can get them discounted and god knows, I'm not starting a battle over this one either . Digital aids are expensive and you can absolutely get them cheaper over the internet.
Things and I mean do not knock me for the internet stuff because I have been through just about everything in the book by now.
1. ahearingaid.com was one of the first internet and legal sites. In 1997ish, I tried a digital through them. But due to my ill-fitting earmolds, it just didn't work. The owner was in a motorcycle accident and the webite is out of commission. They also outpriced themselves in later years and I stopped using them.
2. There are other sites. I bought two analog aids for $525 or $550 instead of $1100 (with a telecoil) and the higher price is what I paid locally.
3. There's a Dr. who warns of buying over the internet but she actually posted my comments. They are no worse than buying them locally. She understood me, thank goodness.
-- She said "face-to-face" was better than not. I said that wasn't true. I had seen too many people get burned face-to-face. You just don't do anything stupid like use eBay (I know you wouldn't do that).
4. Do you have earmolds that fit well?
Anyway, let me know where your brain takes you with this. I will say this one more time a little differently. I understand some of your loss that you shared but you don't give enough info. IF YOU CAN GET A DIGITAL AID, go that route. CIs are irreversible and I personally don't know if I can tolerate the sound produced but I likely have the rock of ages over you and may be less flexible (and if we go there and it's another very bad story BAHAs and they are cheaper and irreversible).
I'm not talking you into anything. I'm pushing aids because they are cheaper and even with a profound loss, you may be able to get a power blaster that will be okay for you.
Be careful.
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