Howard,

I started wearing hearing aids about a year and a half ago.  My hearing is 
down about 50 DB in each ear but my left hear had an infection a couple of 
years ago so I have some tinnitus left in that ear.  The hearing aids of 
today are amazing.  You have to get used to hearing things differently. 
Water running into the sink sounds metallic to me, for example, and until 
you get used to different things sounding differently, you may be somewhat 
frustrated trying to get used to them.  The thing I do not like about them 
is the reduced spatial awareness.  In other words, it feels like you are 
wearing a football helmet because your ability to be aware by feel of 
objects around you is greatly reduced.  You won't notice this as much 
indoors walking around your rooms as you will outdoors.  You should try 
various hearing aids to see how they sound relating to this aspect of 
mobility and especially in outdoor conditions.  For example, at the school 
for the blind in Nebraska, we were 10 blocks from the main downtown area of 
the town of 8000 people.  When walking back to school from downtown, it was 
easy to lose track of how many blocks you had cover during the return trip 
but there was one very noticeable indicator and it was a large tree right on 
the edge of the sidewalk as you passed by it.  You could feel it spatially 
as you walked by it and it even cut off some sound it was so big around. 
That was the signal that the next corner was the school for the blind 
crossing.  Hearing aids reduce this ability of feeling objects further away 
but there are so many high end digital hearing aids these days, it pays to 
take your time in trying various aids out before deciding on one.  Plus, 
most of the newer hearing aids today use bluetooth to allow you to be 
directly connected to the hearing aids.  You hear the phone inside your ears 
and not on the outside.  It is in stereo, too, for music.  Plus, those 
hearing aids that are high end, also get their software upgraded frequently 
because the companies are out to improve them in every way possible.  Each 
year when I go in for a new hearing test, my software gets upgraded because 
they are always coming up with new tricks to improve the quality of sound. 
When I first got mine, I went back several times during a year to have him 
fine tune the hearing aids.  My hearing isn't all that bad but when I first 
went to get hearing aids, my left ear, with the infection, was another 10 DB 
down compared to where it is now so I really felt I needed them.  Don't 
spend your money on low end hearing aids because you will be discouraged 
right off the bat.  You are going to get a lot of other input with people on 
this list who have lived with hearing aids a lot longer than I so take all 
that information under advisement when considering your purchase.  Finally, 
in spite of what I've said, I sat on my deck swing last summer and enjoyed 
the crickets that were a long ways off and I could hear the birds around the 
neighborhood singing, too.  So, it is getting used to how to hear with them 
more than just about anything else.

Phil.
K0NX





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "howard kaufman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2015 1:27 PM
Subject: off topic


> My apologies, because this is very off topic.
>
>
>
> I am beginning to think seriously about hearing aids.
>
> Women's voices with foreign accents are really giving me trouble on the
> phone.
>
> The problem is that all my mobility is done on facial vision, or sound
> shadows, or what ever you want to call it.
>
> I tried my friend's $6,000 hearing aids, and they were amazing.
>
> Amazing that is until I couldn't hear the sides of a door jam, or the
> widening ambience of the stairs in front of me.
>
>
>
> Is it possible to have hearing aids, and still hear the things or lack of
> things that I need to hear to be a good traveller?
>
> So far, I am able to hear cars soon enough to cross the street safely.
>
> Its just the things I use like trees and poles that I don't want to loose.
>
> Its not sound, as much as the absence of sound that I listen to.
>
> I am sure many of you do the same, and I am sure many of you have never
> heard what I am talking about.
>
>
>
>
>
> Howard Kaufman MSW LCSW
>
>
>