OK, the blog muse struck me again! I've been mulling on this topic ever since I took the first step to create this blog...
I want to describe my very first experience with digital hearing aids...
Most of my life, I had been wearing bilateral analog hearing aids. For a while in college and after college (3 years), I only wore 1 analog hearing aid. I remember being at a real discomfort only using 1 hearing aid, so as soon as finances allowed, I begged the audiologist to give me TWO hearing aids. I need two. I can't survive with just one. The audiologist suggested digital hearing aids. Of course, they were expensive. But I tried out three different sets of digital hearing aids. I settled on Widex Senso P38 digital hearing aids. The first time I had my digital hearing aids programmed, I heard this humming noise. I'm like, "What's that?" The audiologist said that was the computer humming. My reaction was "Wow, how can hearing people STAND that? All that noise around them." The audiologist replied, "They learn to tune the noise out". I was highly skeptical of that. I never thought that I'd EVER tune out that annoying humming sound from the computer. I remember being really amazed at how much I could actually hear with my digital hearing aids. The digital hearing aids were a vast improvement over my old analog hearing aids.
Now, having analog hearing aids had a big disadvantage for me. I liked to turn those suckers up so loud that I ran the risk of damaging my hearing further. Luckily, with digital hearing aids, I don't run the risk of causing any further hearing loss.
Well, did I ever learn to tune the computer humming noise out? Well, yes, I did. Now I understand what the audiologist said that hearing people learn to tune certain noises out. But at the same time, I appear to be more sensitive to other noises, more than hearing people. Which is probably why my last job didn't work out too well. I did mention in a previous post that it was too noisy for me, making it difficult for me to understand people. At least I've gained a better understanding of what hearing people hear. I remember when I was younger, that I thought that I could never really imagine what it was like to have normal hearing.
I don't want to be hearing. I don't need to be hearing. I'm blessed, because I don't need to hear everything that goes around me. I don't have to hear all the crap around me :-) So, being deaf is a blessing :-)
2 comments:
Congrats on your recent purchased the digital hearing aids. I have never experienced with them before, only the analogs pair. I am looking forward to try the digital hearing aids soon. I am lending toward the Open-Fit models. I am curious if you did consider or try them before you made your purchases with the Widex models.
kydeafie, thanks for reading my blog! Open-Fit models were not presented to me as an option. I got my first pair of digital hearing aids in 2001. I'm now on my second pair of digital hearing aids - Widex Senso P38. I recall trying on Siemens. I didn't like that. I liked Widex the best. Hope this helps.
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