Hearing aids

Hello!

My wife has mild hearing loss and we finally can afford hearing aids , but the way things are going if I can save some cash good.

When you get the test, do they determine what grade of loss you have like a scale? do you have to buy the aids from the audiologist who evaluates you? Do the aids come in different rates or is it one size fits all.

Im a buyer by trade and I specialize in getting stuff for very low price and also Siemens is one of my costumers.

Im am willing to spend about 2K at all since my insurance does not cover anything

Just want to be informed before we go.

thanks
Ed

[Wear/a/Jimmy]

Who is they and what is stuff?

Here is a tip, if you walk in to an audiologist's office with the "lets bargain" attitude, you will not get very far.  If you think better hearing is all about "stuff" you may want to shop e-bay or Cost Co.

[Marin600]

Hi, Ed.  If your wife is working, and needs hearing aids for keeping her job, or securing a promotion, or, if her hearing loss is a really big factor in her not being able to find a job, your local (part of your state) Vocational Rehabilitation office may be able to help with securing hearing aids.  Different states have different eligibility criteria.   Also, they should be able to tell you the name and contact info for your state's Hearing Commision for the Deaf (or a similar name), normally in the capital city of your state.  Find out what services are available, if your wife is hearing impaired.  (They may also provide telephone, doorbell, alarm assistance if she has a significant loss.)  Also, call the nearest Easter Seals chapter, to see if they operate a retail outlet.  You will pay more at an ENT (eye, nose, throat) office.  You might want to check the hearing clinic at a university hospital or the speech and hearing professional in your school system.

If I could give myself several shakings and good, hard kicks for delaying in securing hearing aids, I would.  Hearing aids definitely fall into the category of "you get what you pat for."   A friend had a friend who ran a hearing aid business (that is, after all, what it is), and wouldn't quit carping on my giving him a try.  He sold me a pair that were cheaper, but supposedly everything science had to offer.   AAAARRRRGH!   I should have listened to my gut instinct when it told me that he acted like a used car salesman in a sleasy lot.  But I got my bargain!   And paid, and paid, and paid.  Because I continually had to send the things in for repair; get new molds because he did a poor job fitting them; and repeatedly go through the hassle of getting my work schedule changed so that he could do what I've already mentioned, or adjust them.  The things whistled, and bugged bystanders, friends, and co-workers, but, blissfully, I am so hard of hearing (profoundly deaf) that I couldn't hear the whistles!  I don't hear high sounds nor most consonants.

Here are some things that you and your wife need to understand.  Hearing aids will not restore her hearing to normal.  They are AIDS.  They can ASSIST her hearing; they cannot restore it.  Here's the part that makes my heart ache:  the longer an ear doesn't work the best that it can WITH a hearing aid, the less well it will work when it finally gets one.  If you required a cast on one leg for six years, with no ability to move that leg, when the cast finally came off, your leg would appear withered and wouldn't work like it should, and you might never fully recover the mobility that you once had while walking.  If you don't stimulate the nerves by assisting them with hearing aids, they wither, and let me tell you, you finally get to the point that you can't hear your own voice when you aren't wearing them.  As long as I could get the gist of conversations with no hearing aids, that's what I did.  My motto, helped along by my lack of finances, was make do; don't spend money if you can get by without it.  I was 42 when I finally got my first hearing aid,  although we can now trace my loss back as far as age 5, a result, we think, of what at that time was called Old Fashioned German Measles.  I was having a tough time squeezing each month to the last dro of money, and was grateful for Voc Rehab's help, but at that time my state would only pay for one aid.  I didn't think that I could afford one for the other ear for another 6 years, and that ear became worse, and worse.  The day I received my first hearing aid, I had one shock after another, and my heart was pounding so fast from all the noises around me, I felt guilty for wishing I could lose it.  The agitating noises? Everything, but especially the toilet flushing (no wonder it scares little tykes), the sound when I swallowed, or chewed, the noise from traffic when I was on the sidewalk, the loud roar when I rode in the car, the can opener, the water running out of the faucet, the blender.  Everyday noises that you no longer notice would make my heart stop as yours does when you just miss having a car wreck.  I have to latch onto your lips, in addition to what I hear, and I still screw up a lot of what's being said; each day my eyes are so tired from trying to hear by trying to see who's talking and what they're saying!  Do the aids help?  You betcha!  But my hearing isn't even close to normal hearing, and slowly gets worse all the time.  I had been told that I would be totally deaf, unable to have any sound even with hearing aids, many years ago, so I guess I'm living on borrowed hearing time.

How can you learn from my mistakes?  The most important thing is not to wait any longer.  I'll bet that you've paid on at least one car during the time your wife's needed hearing aids.  So did I.  After I started using them, I realized how much of my life had passed me by, or that I had tossed aside, by not investing in hearing aids sooner.  Hearing is far more important than a car!  I've now had 5 pairs of hearing aids, one of which was Siemens.  My current ones are digital, by Phonak, and, with $200 off, cost me $6200.00, and worth it.  I'd pay that again.  I can hear better with them than with any previous pair.  One of the most important features in hearing aids are what you can't hear:  static, noise, feedback.  The expertise of the person who fits the ear molds and adjusts the sound is crucial.  My current technician is top notch.  She instantly corrected the sound (by computer) on the model I was so unhappy with from the ragtag guy, and showed me how to use the hearing device on my phone.  She made several molds, until she finally stopped the feedback.  How?  She made them so that the piece that fits down into my canal, really goes down, and fits well into the canal---a much longer section than any previous technician had made, and the part that can be seen fills the area within the ear shell.  Result?  No static for me, and no feedback for those near me.  Now, guess what?  As soon as I get these paid off (seven more months!) I'm getting ANOTHER pair!  This new pair represents another technological leap forward and will be able to take a higher sound and put it into a lower range, so that I can hear it.  I can only hear lower register sounds.  I hope that I'll be able to hear birds again, even if at a lower register than what the normal person hears.  This pair, also digital, can help me even better than my Phonaks!   I haven't asked what they cost.  Whatever it is, I'll manage, no matter how long it may take to pay for them.  

Ed, I challenge you to find out the things that your wife can't hear, then stuff your ears with cotton until you can't hear those same things, and wear that much cotton in your ears for one week.  Then remember that even after the hearing aids are purchased, your wife still isn't going to be able to hear perfectly, so you be nice!  Don't delay any longer on that purchase, buy on time if necessary, don't buy analog, buy digital, buy insurance on them against loss or theft (check homeowner or renter policy and with the dealer) and cherish this woman in your life!

Wifiepoo, you treat these little treasures as the wonderful miracles that they are: clean them each night as recommended by the manufacturer, put them in the electric dryer that you should buy (or the dealer should give you) because it's essential to keep moisture out of the works, cover your head or put the hearing aids in your purse when you're in the rain, make absolutely sure that Fido and Kitty can't get to them (dogs and cats LOVE to eat the molds, and the aids along with them), and cherish Ed!

Whew!  Hope you're not as worn out from reading as I am from typing!  Guess that you can tell that this is a topic close to my heart.

[Wear/a/Jimmy]

Typical thought process....   "get the right brand"  and all is well, and see the right "technichian"

Sorry folks, but if you want to see a person that you know as a fact has a some college training in the area of hearing aids, that would be an audiologist. To be a hearing aid dealer, the requirement is a GED and that about sums it up.

Audiologist understand hearing loss, ramifications of hearing loss, causes of hearing loss, identification of the causes of hearing loss etc etc.

But to each his own.

[Orca006]

Siemens is one of the bigger manufacturers of hearing aids among other things, we manufacture parts for them.I buy all for my co. from a microwave to a private jet i bought last Dec.

anyway....


Marin600,

Alot happened since I posted this, I went to a doctor, they performed a hearing test and she had a MRI done, all fine, he prescribed hearing aids gave us the chart so we could send to the audiologist.

The pople from siemens gave me the artis life for a very low price but the ear doctor had a "test drive" for Azure Resound she loved them and with a contact from Siemens I got a pair for 1500 with 2 year warranty and all needed adjustments for life, i was qouted 5000 here for the pair.

Thats one or the best replies  had ever gotten in a forum

Bless you and thank you so much
Edgar

[Wear/a/Jimmy]

Hard to believe you got GnResound Azures from Siemens, seing how the two companies compete agains each other and all