ORL availability

[L Austin France]

Correction... Batteries €14 for 30 weeks

That's cheap. Where do you buy 'em?
My tiny in ear aids use size 10 batteries which last about 5 days each the pair.
The last lot I bought on line cost 40€ for 120 ie about 40 weeks worth

[L Austin France]

As his hearing loss is only in certain frequencies, and he only wants to capture / follow conversations, he wasn't at all happy about everything being amplified up to the hilt, all the time. I can sympathise with that. I did a week of one month's trial too and was horrified by the results. We live in a lovely, peaceful rural setting but would quickly become nervous wrecks with amplified Mirage jets, garden tool noise and even insects bombing by our heads! Even after supposed 'adjustment' to the lowest setting, he expected the aids to be a lot more adaptable to various situations than they are, but it's blanket coverage or nothing! Even in restaurants and social situations, it's blanket amplification, despite the promises of selective tuning.

My tiny in ear aids are 'programmable' with an app on phone.
they have 6 programmes for different environments with each having volume & tone progs. with one even having direction'
They automatically adjust for loud noises so normally, once set to universal prog. I don't have to alter things.

[Quiksilver]

They sound much more flexible and above all under your own control! Sadly, he was told that his hearing was just over the limit for 'in ear' types.

[Wilbro]

@Quiksilver and
Growing reliant on them? That's seems an odd thing to say as one is reliant on them to improve one's hearing.

I've just put my finger on the bit in your post that jangles, @Wilbro. These things don't improve your hearing, in the best case scenario they enable you to hear. Not the same thing at all I can't help feeling that for anyone with moderate hearing loss, they speed the impression if not the medical fact of actually making your hearing worse than it was before.

Well I can only quite my experience. My left eardrum was damaged beyond repair diving and swimming when I was in my twenties. The right is as it should be given my age. My hearing is certainly not worse and I can now comfortably listen to tv when before I often missed a lot. I also love that I can properly hear birdsong and the pleasant buzz of insect life when outside. I have two neighbours who totally agree with me and have had aids fitted in the last year or two.I
How can your hearing be worse?

[L Austin France]

They sound much more flexible and above all under your own control! Sadly, he was told that his hearing was just over the limit for 'in ear' types.

Did he actually try some in ear aids.
My test showed I was on the limit for a couple of frequencies but in real life they work fine.

[Pathca]

I remember an optician saying to me years ago that people who got glasses would say they made your unaided vision worse,they didn’t ,but when people saw the difference between their aided and unaided sight they thought that was the case when really it was just a matter of seeing so much better with ‘normal ‘ vision

[Quiksilver]

I think that you've hit the nail on the head, Pathca. He's resisting eye care too on that very principle. Problem is, as we've discovered since coming to France and much to our surprise, healthcare here seems to be all about profit or at least money, from the MTs upwards. Perhaps just bad luck or a badly-endowed area, or simply the way the system is organised, but apart from a couple of surgeons all the practitioners we've dealt with have been far more interested in generating income than quality care. It instills a certain cynicism and lack of confidence....

[Loup-garou]

Just some observations.

Mrs Garou got some aids earlier this year. They were very expensive and rechargeable - they even play a little tune when you put them in to indicate that they are set correctly or another if they are in wrongly. For background, we made an error when getting our mutual and pay top dollar so we thought, "Why not claw something back".

She had serious difficulties at first. For two weeks she would only whisper or mumbled at me and I could not hear a word she said in the car. It took many visits to Amplifon and these were better or worse depending upon the technician she had - I think their personal opinions played a more important part than what she said or complained of.

It's been around 6 months now and, apart from when in large gatherings, they seem to suite her needs. She sits about one meter nearer to the TV than me and now often accuses me of having the sound too loud! Before if I asked if the TV was loud enough she would say she wasn't really listening.

So, I think some of the issues can be the fault of the technicians or advice offered rather than the equipment. The one complaint I have is that if she takes them out and puts them together in the palm of one hand the scream resulting in the rush of the dogs to get out of the room or behind a sofa is a danger to life. One dog is an exception ............ he barks and barks and barks thinking the Bread Van has arrived!

[MAD87]

It's difficult living with a deaf person - OH has become profoundly deaf and is on his 3rd (and most expensive) pair, rechargeable jobs that hook round the back of the ear and also disappear into his lughole. He seemss to produce enormous quantities of wax. He had a checkup last week with the technician who sent the whole gubbins off for 'repair' and was told that his hearing had ddeteriorated. My problem is that he doesn't put them in to speak to me, just for the weather/news or for other folk, which doesn't induce much sympathy on my side. Sigh.

[Wilbro]

My sister used to refuse to wear her specs and then her hearing aids. "They make me look old" she would say. I would remind her that she was in her seventies and was entitled to look old! Too often it's a vanity thing but modern aids and fashionable specs should have stopped all that.
I prefer to use well adjusted specs and hearing aids from qualified people as they improve my daily life no end.