Many people in this group are getting on in years - maybe not all as old as I am (81 and counting). Now I had expected medical problems should I ever reach this age but to be honest I was unprepared for severe hearing impairment. Of all my problems, deafness and associated distortion (like listening to an off-tune radio station) are utterly infuriating.
I have NHS hearing aids but they are frankly useless. Do any of my fellow oldies have experience of expensive private hearing aids? I might be prepared to fork out - perhaps up to three grand - if I could be sure they would work. Meanwhile, life can be very tedious.
Contact me here - it's just an anti-spam, image not a clickable link. Or via the forum if you think others might benefit.
I'd love to help but sadly I can't. I can't even get my dad to wear his NHS ones (most of the time I think he prefers the peace of not hearing). But just out of interest, is this an occupational hazard of your flying career - proximity to aircraft and pressure changes in the cockpit &c.? If it's a thing with pilots, perhaps there's a potential solution within the profession too.
Obviously we all differ and my problem isn't quite the same as Padfield snr.
My hearing is so bad now that in a crowded place, like a supermarket, as my brain attempts to decipher, all I hear is an annoying roar. Check out beeps seem to be at the frequency where I can still hear and they drive me crazy. I have had useless discussions with Sainsbury's about turning the beeps off (or at least to a minimal level) - and not just for the benefit of people like me but to protect staff. I have suggested that the supermarket might even face claims for industrial injuries as staff become deaf in old age. I have given up trying to fight the supermarkets so now I have my own solution - very good ear defenders.
I even tried a commercial company but their honest conclusion was that their products offer no benefits over NHS.
I am supposed to have annual reviews but of course with the Covid panic, these are on hold. One extremely tedious aspect about my disability is that it is not obvious to others as would be a white stick or being in a wheelchair. Most people simply do not understand the problem (and I hadn't until it hit me) and in some ways, treat it almost as a joke: "Arizona or Garage Owner". These days at a check-out, I always start by saying: "It's no use speaking, I am seriously deaf". I tried wearing a badge but nobody ever noticed.
I don't doubt that my flying career couldn't have helped. It's not the noise inside aircraft cockpits (that is usually fairly benign - except the Hercules) - but the general din around airfields.
I'm the same age, and similarly afflicted although not as badly as you are by the sound of it. I have spent many hours with ear guys and tried various aids; none was the remotest use, simply magnifying the extraneous noise, which I didn't want to hear anyway. The problem with audiologists is that they don't know what it is like to be deaf! I fear you may have to put it down to one of the tribulations of living past one's sell-by date and grin and bear... The alternative is not to be considered. I remember going butterflying with the then 16 year-old UK member Emily Halsey, and she could hear butterflies flying five metres behind her!
Ah, me!
Hi Jack. Your description of your issues with NHS hearing aids really rang a bell with me - my granny (roughly your age) has been having almost exactly the same problems, and describing them to us in exactly the same way, for a number of years.
About nine months ago she went down the private route via Boots and it has changed her life. She reports that her new hearing aids are far clearer, and it's been noticeable to us as well that she's much easier to communicate with. I emailed her yesterday and her advice is as follows:
if is still possible get a free assessment at Boots,but only if he really has the spare money to go down this expensive route. I say this with feeling as once I had tried out what they were able to do for me I had to do it. It would have been hard if I really didn't have the money.
Her new hearing aids are made by a company called Phonak but we're not sure what specific model she has.
For what it's worth, she also insists that I tell you to make sure your ears are clear of wax before shelling out for a better hearing aid. I suspect you might have tried that already!!
One reply tells me I'm past my "sell-by-date" another tells me to make sure I keep my ears clean. Cheeky blighters
CallumMac. If you can find out from your grandmother what model of Phonak she has, then I can make some enquiries.
It's quite true. If audiologists could experience (needs a simulator) just how we hear things, maybe there might be some research into the problem. For example I could never have imagined that I would find it better to wear very powerful ear defenders when shopping in a supermarket to cut out the background roar that I perceive. It really is bizarre - being severely hard of hearing (I don't think the word "deaf" is appropriate) - that using something to cut down noise would be helpful.
Jack Harrison wrote: ↑Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:02 am
CallumMac. If you can find out from your grandmother what model of Phonak she has, then I can make some enquiries.
Sorry, Granny's not terribly technologically-minded and it was hard enough to find out the name of the brand from her - I'm not sure I'll be able to extract this additional detail!
In any case, from discussing further with her, I think her advice would be to go for a consultation without having a particular model already in mind. Different models may be more suitable for different people's circumstances, of course. She went for a consultation, was given an aid that the consultant thought would be best for her, to try for a period of time (with no obligation to buy if she didn't feel it improved things), and was so impressed that she felt she had to go ahead with the purchase in spite of the cost (hence her comment about not even going for a consultation if you can't afford the final product!).
Thanks CallumMac. I suspect that Boots will be closed for such consultations for the time being. It is a reassuring thought that you can try for a period before being committed.
Hi Jack,
at a mere 65 y.o., I finally had to resort to testing / hearing aids. Ultimatum from my wife! Root cause was over-driven P.A. systems, at gigs, in my early teens (The Who, Chicken Shack, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, The Nice, etc., etc. - all before I was 16 y.o.). P.A.s in those days were not dB-limited, and frequently radiated full-power square waves (= high frequencies). My ears rang for days afterwards.
Bit the bullet & went for free consultation @ local optician/audiologist. Plumped for the top-of-the-range Oticon Opn S 2 miniRITE-R. In addition to the hearing-related technologies, these are powered by rechargeable batteries (highly recommended); work really well with iPhone (hands-free calls); and whilst they cost me north of £5k, I pay on a budget plan, and get free accessories (domes, wax filters, replacement rechargeables), as well as annual consultation / hearing checks (the response curve of these devices is tailored to your hearing), and wax clear-outs.
Whilst not magically giving me 'perfect hearing', they have massively improved conversation intelligibility - especially in noisy environments, cars, etc. I've been using for almost a year now (about to make final payment!), and generally pleased that I did what I did. (Initial experience was sub-optimal - I was warned it would be - somewhat akin to waking up in strong sunlight; a bit overwhelming!)
One bit of advice - if you use an Android phone, these (& most current hearing aids) do not let you do the audio bit of calls. (There's an app, but it just lets you alter volume levels, etc. - slightly easier than using the rocker switch on the aids.) However, Google recently introduced a new bluetooth streaming format, that will gradually be incorporated in to new Android devices (already in the latest Google Pixel phones). So, if you have an Android phone, and making calls would be important to you, then you will have to do some further research!
I have never bothered with a smartphone and at my age, don't intend to. I have a simple "stupid phone" that makes and receives phone calls - and does nothing else. That's all I want. From my observations of others, smartphones are often the most important thing in a person's life - apart from the dog. Much further down the list is the spouse. Neither wife nor I have a smartphone or a dog. But she does have two cats...... I have about three million cameras
I have about three million cameras 