Hard of hearing is where I'm heading, I know there are some hearing impaired and fully deaf folks around that can maybe give me some advice.
Are there good companies or is an ENT the place to go?
Are there real ways to reverse or slow the decline?
Does hearing continue to decline even with aids in place?
Those are the questions I've been pondering but what am I missing?
Last time this came up I mentioned that my mom was resisting them. She finally went to Costco and got some and is very happy with them. I had a laugh a couple of weekends ago when we were cutting down some trees. She said she's not supposed to wear them when around loud things so her with no hearing aids plus ear muffs on meant she couldn't hear a damn thing.
My mother's doctor recommended Costco. That's where she went and she has been very happy with them.
I will offer a hint. They don't do any good when you forget to put them in. My mother hasn't figured it out yet.
I went to Costco for a hearing test - it's free.
Start there - the Costco testing was impressive.
I should mention, I've already been to an ENT. I had some wicked vertigo a year or so ago and they tested my hearing at the time. They retested it two weeks ago and while I'm not in denial I'm acting as if I was deaf to what they said....
There is no way to reverse it. Once it's gone, its forever. Or in my case, can't be gone, because I never had it.
I haven't quite gotten to the point of needing hearing aids yet, but it's not far off. Here's what I know:
- An ENT's job here is to diagnose why you're losing hearing. There are some medical conditions that can be treated, but the most common causes are noise-related and general familial/age-related and those cannot.
- An audiologist will run the hearing tests and prescribe hearing aids. I think you can get the prescription filled at a number of different places, but they need to be set up and configured and the audiologist typically does this.
- For noise-related hearing loss, you can prevent losing more by using proper hearing protection (ear plugs in the race car!). For familial/age-related there isn't really anything they can do.
- Yes, age-related loss will continue even with hearing aids, you need to go back regularly to have them re-tested and adjusted.
- They will give prescriptions once your hearing loss proceeds beyond a certain point, but the decision about whether or not to actually get them is obviously a personal one. I have reached that point but not gotten a prescription yet because the environments in which I most notice the hearing loss (things like crowded/noisy restaurants) are not ones I often encounter.
I work in shops, managing people with the sound of equipment, tools and semis in the background has become to difficult to ignore.
MD Hearing aids......just purchased a pair on sale for $299.00
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