Hearing aids when I think my hearing is ok

I'm a little different in that I knew my hearing was defective. I had mild problems since childhood measles.
However I was finding it increasingly difficult to hear DS.

I had a free test at Boots and they said I had low frequency hearing loss, which explains why I have no problem with female voices. They recommended hearing aids.
I didn't want them. Six months later I decided to try them.

Mindful of the many people who pay £1000s for hearing aids which sit in a drawer I asked for an NHS referral.

I figured I would try the free version first. I now have two very discreet aids and am pretty happy with them. I don't wear them all day every day but they are very useful.

As for subtitles - I use those anyway. Both DC with perfect hearing use subtitles, it helps with accents and mumbling.

I had a hearing test at Specsavers, but my branch is not one of those which does NHS work. They reckoned I had some high frequency hearing loss. As far as I am aware, my only problem is in crowded situations eg pub or busy restaurants, which, since Covid, I don't go to. So I am leaving it for now.
Another thing is that my tinnitus started straight after that examination! I can’t help but think there is a connection.

I have low and high freqeuncy loss in both ears, meaning I can't hear anyone properly.

I have tinnitus which is getting worse as I get older so several years ago the GP sent me for a hearing test. Apparently I was loosing the upper range and I was given NHS hearing aids. I've just had a fresh test (NHS with my optician) and had a choice of which aid to have and have opted for ones which turn up or down independently of each other. Smaller ones were available which work in sync. They're great as I can discreetly (at least I thick discreetly) turn one down and one up so as to hear someone sitting beside me better. All free including batteries.

Without them I can still hear well - except I can't hear some bird song, the tinnitus sounds louder as its internal and constant and everyone mumbles! With them in everything is so much more distinct and clear. I can even hear what DH is saying although he still mumbles! Hearing aids have just joined the specs, artificial knees and all the pills which keep me soldiering on!

I've got to start right back from the beginning again with my aids.
At first they absolutely overwhelmed me, so I persevered after a few false starts..then blooming covid came.
I seem to have added tinnitus to the mix, too, now.

My children kept telling me to get my hearing checked so I did eventually get an appointment at audiology department in our local hospital. Was surprised to be told that I needed two hearing aids. I've had them for just over a year now and they've made such a difference. Realised that I hadn't been able to hear the birds properly in the garden or woods for ages. Also noticed that I can hear cars from further away when walking on country roads so an important safety factor.

I ended up crouched over, with my hands over my ears when I heard some birds.
I didn't know what it was, or where it came from at first.

It sounded like something from a horror film.

Mine are from Specsavers and do help but such a palaver finding them, fitting them in the correct ear as they keep falling out and I can't see them on our brown carpet.
Most annoying=is when an itch starts deep down in my ear.
But I do make an effort eg at mealtimes when we have a chat.
Husband is starting to go deaf now so we have some funny conversations.

grannysyb

Specsavers are used by the NHS as hearing aid providers in some areas.

I was going to say that also. It depends if your health authority has decided to use Specsavers as a way of reducing the nhs audiology waiting times. I am now a hearing aid user and wouldn’t be without them. My husband is also a user since having chemotherapy which has caused hearing loss as a side effect. Unfortunately our hearing loss is at different levels and even with aids in some things I can hear and some things he can hear. We still use subtitles for the tv but not for the news. Why not give aids a try?

My DH became quite deaf fairly young, which was not surprising as all the males on his Father's side of the family were deaf, though spending his youth as the drummer in a rock band and using power tools daily at work may have contributed. We paid over £1,000 privately for each of 2 aids + £25 a month for batteries + something to insure them. When one broke there was a 3 week wait for a replacement to come from Germany. When he was ill in Hospital both HAs vanished, I was told that if his aids had been NHS ones, they would have had his prescription on file and would have been able to provide new ones within 24 hours.
Bearing this in mind, I was inclined to go for NHS aids when my hearing started to go, but there was a long waiting list for a first appointment and in the meantime I attended Boots for an advertised free appointment. The young man was more of a salesman than a medical professional - in a few minutes he announced that I needed aids for both ears and tried to book me in for a fuller examination costing £50.

Fortunately my NHS appointment came through sooner than expected. The audiologist scorned the Boot's man's diagnoses and soon had me fitted with 2 superb aids' Free of charge, as are the batteries, which can be posted out or picked up in any library.

I eventually got DH to go to the doctor about his hearing and he was referred to audiology at the hospital. He came back assuring me his hearing was fine and he didn't need hearing aids. After he died I found a copy of the letter the audiologist sent to our GP. It said he had some hearing loss but had decided he could carry on coping without hearing aids! Not quite the same as saying his hearing was fine!

One of my friends goes to U3A and told me she'd been sitting at the back of the room behind the rest of the audience at a meeting and realised practically everyone there was wearing hearing aids. Just like they were all wearing glasses.

It's a strange phenomena, not trying to manage without aids.
I can't explain why, but I do it myself.

Oooh. Nonsensical sentences.
Flipping hell.

I was borderline, unable to hear in crowded rooms and using subtitles for TV dramas and movies. But otherwise okay. Since having a hearing aid connected to the TV (so the sound links straight into my hearing aid) well hey presto! Nobody is mumbling on TV any more and I can hear what everyone is saying. It makes a huge difference to my TV viewing.

Just spent a week on holiday with DH and DD.

DD kept complaining that I kept repeating everything I said to her several times. As DH kept complaining that I hadn't told him the same things that she was complaining I kept repeating. She began to understand the problem.

However we are agreed that the priority is getting him to use his sleep apnoea breathing device, and his hearing aids can wait.

I realised my DH was not hearing as he should. He needed a lot of wax removed but also needed aids. I was told I was fine but was missing some sounds, like birdsong.
We both decided to have the aids now before it got too much worse as I believe the adjustment can be more difficult later on.

We now have the volume on the tv so much lower and he can hear me when I speak ( sometimes).

If you don’t see well you wear glasses so what is wrong with having hearing aids.

I've finally managed to get back to this thread. Sorry for the delay but my laptop died.

I've spoken to just about everybody I know and none of them considered me to have any hearing problem at all. None of them had noticed anything wrong. I approached the hearing test with an open mind. They said I have loss in both ears, at two different levels. I saw two audiologists, both of whom stressed how much easier my life would be with aids.

Anyway, I now have hearing aids from SS which are sitting in a drawer. When I wore them, plastic wrapping sounded like tinfoil, a newspaper sounded like very stiff cardboard and I could hear our local A road much more - something I definitely don't need.

I couldn't find a single thing that sounded better or clearer with the aids - apart from the fact that the dog's claws on the wooden floor sounded much more annoying than usual. Believe me, if I'd found any improvement in anything I would have continued wearing the aids, but I couldn't find one single advantage to wearing them.

I feel that although I've obviously got some hearing loss - SS showed me on their screens - it isn't enough to effect my day to day life, not yet anyway. If I'd had to pay for the aids I'd have had to think seriously about it, but because they're NHS and free I just took them to try. I really feel that it was a bit of a con on SS's part - obviously they are paid for every NHS referral and fitting of aids.

So in the meantime the aids sit in the drawer, not needed at all. What a waste of NHS money.

It was shown this week, Kaye Adams finally having her ears tested and although she thought she only need a hearing aid for one ear, she was told she needed one for each of her ears, She was very surprised how her hearing improved when she tested the aids.

Video: Kaye Adams 'shocked' after being told she needs hearing aids Loose Women

DH has had his NHS Specsavers hearing aids for a few days now. He has worn them all day, every day. The right one is very comfortable, he says he hardly knows it’s there, the left one not so good, the fit not quite right, will go back to get it adjusted.

He heard a bleeping noise, we thought it was the battery, only heard it when outside, turned out it was the birds chirruping!
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Cannot hear as well when on his mobile phone though.

All in all, quite proud of how he is persevering, as he never wanted aids.

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Hearing Aids take a week or two to get used to wearing. The fact Supernanal has found that wearing them has enhanced their hearing to a degree that they think is annoying, just confirms the audiologists result of hearing loss.
Put hearing aids in for a couple of hours for the first two or three days, then increase that to four or five hours for the next couple of days, and carry on in this way.

It can take a couple of weeks for the brain to cope with the increases in hearing and become compatable.

People are often far too polite to comment about your hearing loss, they have just got used to maybe speaking a little slower and/or louder in your presence. Do think that the electronic tests are rather more reliable than those comments!!!

Never understand why there is so much more resistance to hearing aids than there are to spectacles. The latter are so much more noticeable and a nuisance. I have only required the latter for reading since I had my cataracts operated on. Never uses any seeing aid before that and find the whole thing of remembering to have these with me, on and off all the time far more difficult.

The wonderful small hearing aids (NHS ones obtained now from my local SS), I have worn for nearly twenty years, seeing them get smaller and smaller and easier and easier to wear. In when I get washed and dressed each morning and out when i go to bed. Whenever I require replacements, I know I will have to go through a couple of weeks getting used to them. But am so very, very grateful for these. Loss of hearing can be one of the most debilitating and isolating of all things.

We had our aids gradually adjusted over the first two weeks so we got used to them. The audiologist could do this remotely! Supernanna you will find them much harder to adjust to when you do really need them.

That should be few weeks. It took about 6 weeks to get them up to full volume.

I was referred to the audiology department at the hospital after telling the GP I had tinnitus, I waited 8 months for the appointment which didn't bother me as I didn't consider I was deaf at all. I was amazed after very thorough hearing test to be offered two hearing aids straight away. I have now had them for about a month and still have to do the bluetooth stuff but my goodness how quiet the TV is now.

I was going to say exactly the same as Franbern! Aids do take a bit of getting used to as your brain has to stop listening to all those sounds which had become muffled. I hadn't realised either how much I was lip reading - until Covid and face masks came along.