Music To My Ears

Well sort of.  Today was my appointment with the private hearing clinic and as a result I'm two weeks away from a pair of hearing aids and hopefully a degree of "restored" hearing.


This hearing test was slightly different to the others I've had in that after the "normal" bits (which produced results that were remarkably in line with the test done by Mr Morrissey), I was given a couple of dialogue recognition tests.


The problem with my hearing is at the high frequency (2kHz and above) and this causes issues where there is background noise that simply gets in the way of me being able to hear properly.   The first test was very interesting.  A male voice speaks a series of words and the volume changes along the way (getting softer).  I have to repeat back what I hear and, if need be, I'm to guess.  As the volume drops, so does my ability to hear/guess the words correctly.


It seems that my hearing loss means I have trouble with consonants and only hear parts of some words.  Hmmm.    On to test 2.  In this one a woman speaks sentences and I have to repeat what I hear.  The twist is each time there is more background noise - in the form of people talking.  After a couple of sentences, it is all just noise and I have no idea what "my" lady is saying.


The audiologist then moves on to what type of hearing aids he thinks will best help me.  There are low, mid and high ranges as far as prices goes and a surprising number of different types.  Given my hearing is only affected in the upper range, the full in ear type is discounted (this would effectively suppress my existing hearing and place all the work on the aids.  The behind the ear type (technically open-fit  canal receiver technology) is apparently most suitable, so based on my needs a model (and colour) have been selected.


I will have them for a 2-8 week trial period and at the end of it, assuming they do the job, I'll need to stump up the $6,000 odd for my hi-tech aids.

They are actually quite a technological marvel, and tiny.  They use wireless technology and effectively talk to each other.  You can program one to increase the volume and the other to decrease the volume, and it will then adjust both aids.  They also have blue-tooth technology, so if I was to buy the right accessories, they could be paired to my phone.  This would mean I could play my music directly via the hearing aids and they would also provide the speakers for answering the phone.  Me thinks one step at a time though - get used to them before trying to do all the extra stuff.


I'm actually looking forward to getting them and ticking off what is effectively the last of the major side effects of my treatment.