Deafness & Hearing Loss

I went for my HA fitting on Tuesday and I am going to be trying a Behind The Ear aid. I have had In The Ear for 4.5 years now and my audiologist suggested I try the BTE this time. Sge said it will give me much better clarity and when I tried them I could not believe the difference. The aids I have now no longer are helping me as I said before, but I had no idea how "bad" they were. The aids I have now are maybe giving me 5 decibles. The new ones can give me 50 decibles or as high as 80 if need be. They can be adjusted as my hearing loss worsens and my Audiologist said they will help me for the next 7 to 10 yrs. Depending on how fast my hearing loss is. I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to having these new hearing aids. I heard my husband Brian's voice clearly for the first time in .....I don't know how long, but it was so nice to hear that voice again. He can't wait either. This has been hard on both of us and he has been losing patientce slowly. He was amazed at how well I could hear him in the office too. Just 2 weeks and I should have them. Just wanted to share that with you guys.

I have been busy this last week celebrating my 41st Birthday on last Sunday and my 8th Wedding Anniversary on last Tuesday plus the Fourth of July. This whole week flew by and I finally got a chance to be online tonite. I did not foregt about all of you and I hope you had a Fabulous Fourth. Have a great weekend everyone.

Congratulations!

I've had two colleagues go for or get new hearing aids in the past month and they are absolutely amazed by the new technology. I'm glad that your audiologist was able to find something that worked for you!

Have joy!

Dawn

I had my hearing retested last Friday for the first time in 3 years. Not so good.

I went from severe/profound loss to completetly profound loss in my left ear, and from moderate/severe in my right ear, to severe all across the board in that ear.

I need new aids, because they can't boost the ones I have enough to meet my new needs. But the new ones will cost about $4000!

I will have to to wait. My adult kids are needing help from me right now, so I need to hold on to money for them. If it turns out that I can deduct them from my taxes next year, though, I will try buy them in late December. I might be able to deduct them, since the only reason I would get them is so I can hear my students in class and function in departmental meetings I have to attend. I am not social enough to really need them for anything else.

Since about 1/3 of my income comes from self-employment, I lose 40% of everything I earn that way to taxes. If I could get a $4000 deduction from my taxable income next year, that would help a lot! But if I can't get a deduction, I will just wait at least until December of 2008.

Tina,

I spoke to my colleague today and asked her about her VR experience as a person who is presently employed and she "reminded" me that the mission of VR is not just to help people find employment, but to maintain employment. You should investigate that avenue to get your new hearing aids. Please don't wait until 2008.

Good luck!

Dawn