I’ve been wearing hearing aids for the last week. Of course, I can hear perfectly well without them. Just like I don’t really need glasses. Right. I’ve been wondering about hearing aids for about two years. Nope, I just looked it up – it will be three years in January since I had my first hearing test. What was putting me off was seeing other people in my life not wearing theirs, or not wearing them consistently. And the cost. The inconvenience was also a factor, but wearing glasses has been natural for me since I was 10, so I thought I’d be OK with that aspect. Anyway, as another birthday passed, I decided to do a 90 day trial and see what happened. I wanted to see, well, hear what I was missing.
In the audiologist’s office, the fitting and explanation was pretty straightforward, although the schedules for cleaning and switching parts seemed a bit complicated and getting the tiny plastic wire coiled inside my ear appeared to be something I’d never master. Driving home, I discovered the turn indicators on my Mini made a noise, as well as flashing. This was to be the first of many such discoveries, in fact, as I’m typing this I can’t get used to the clicking on the keyboard – I haven’t heard that since I used one of those 20lb mechanical jobs that IBM used to make.
The Sounds of not Silence
I was told that it would take 6-8 weeks before my brain started ignoring all the new sounds. I’m hoping it doesn’t ignore all of them, because I’m finding it quite a revelation. For instance, it appears that many of the doors around the house need their hinges oiled; the dog’s nails are not as short as I’d thought, and the insects outside never stop making a noise. Everything that rubs on something else makes noise: tissues coming out of the box, fingers on paper, head scratching.
This enhancement effect seems strongest first thing in the morning, just after I put on the aids. Peeing sounds like molten metal being poured from a great height onto a resonant tin plate. The first time, I swear I could also hear the bubbles bursting as they rose to the surface. When I brush my hair, it sounds like coarse wire wool on a rusty surface. Strangely, it also feels that way – my brain interpreted the sounds physically.
Speaking of interpretation, sudden sounds are now being interpreted as more of a threat, so it’s been a bit embarrassing when a pillow falling off a chair has led to me karate-chopping it into submission.
How’s it feel?
I think it was around day three when I was going to bed, and I realized I wasn’t noticing the aids in my ears at all, and maybe I should take them out before I went to bed. Occasionally, I will notice that something is in my ears, similar to the feeling of having ear buds in my ears for an extended time. Not uncomfortable, just a sensation that something’s there. Once in a while it will feel a bit itchy, and easing the plug out a bit and reseating it “scratches” the itch just enough.
Has it improved my hearing?
The jury is still out on this. As I’ve related, I’m hearing things again that I haven’t heard in a long time, but I didn’t get these things just to hear my keyboard clacking. I can now hear when I have incoming texts, and every other beeping beep from any other digital device in the house. I think I can hear dialog on TV better now. I’ll have to try a streaming service and see how that is. Before, I had real difficulty with something like the Mandalorian, and I used to wonder if the audio compression algorithms were taking away too much information. Meanwhile, my better half tells me I’m not hearing her that much better. Or maybe that’s not listening any better.
Luckily, I haven’t been able to test a phone call to a service call centre on the other side of the globe over a crappy VOIP circuit yet, but I can’t believe my comprehension in those circumstances could be any worse.
One of the reasons I didn’t wait any longer was being told that as time goes on, my brain would lose the ability to re-train itself to utilize the new information coming into my ears. At the end of week one, I’m pretty sure my brain is still working on this! [Edit – I had the two-week follow-up yesterday, and my (very patient) audiologist confirmed that it will probably be 8-10 weeks before my brain gets the hang of this.]
Convenience
By day three, I had mastered not only the plastic security wire coiling the right way, but also inserting the aids in early-morning semi-darkness. As I don’t shower until after I exercise, I have to remove them later in the day, shower, and then re-insert them. Not a big deal, and I don’t bother to pop the batteries to save power while I’m in the shower. So far I haven’t gone swimming, or run out of batteries when I’m out, but I assume I can cope with any of that. I did work out though, that if I was to trip and fall into the pool while chasing a butterfly with my camera, I’d probably have to declare bankruptcy rather than pay to replace camera, phone and hearing aids.
Technology
The biggest changes have been adapting to the technologies I’ve been using which interact with ears. Since getting my hearing aids, any time I have to put anything more complicated that a toque over my ears, I have had to adapt. As that story gets a bit technical, I’m going to break it out into a different post
Conclusion
As I write this, it’s now day 12. That would be two sets of batteries. Many of the technical details are getting worked out, and I’m getting quite used to the wearing hearing aids. At this early stage, I’m not sure that conversations are clearer, but that probably requires more time.
I’m thinking that I want to hear today, and not find out that my chance of future hearing has gone tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Yoga classes start tomorrow after an enforced 18 month absence due to Covid, and I can’t wait to see if I can finally lurk at the back rather than having to be in the front row just so I can hear.
