New molds, part 2

Hey all,

I got my new earmolds today. I sat there with them in my ears for 15 minutes, without the aids attached, to see if I would be allergic to them. I wasn't, or at least not yet, you never know with me. Though I don't seem to be allergic to them there are several initially obvious problems with them. First, the left one hurts. The left mold always hurts the first time around. I don't get it. The remakes have always been much better but the initial mold never is. I emailed my audiologist about it and we will see what she says. The second problem is that they aren't vented. Without the vents I may get a whole lot of ear infections. It is a double edged sword though, one way I get ear infections, the other I don't have as much gain to use because of feedback issues. Which is more important to me right now? I don't know. Third, and this isn't important, they are pink. Not very pink but they are pink regardless. I don't think it is noticeable in my ear but it is outside of my ear. They are pink...

It is late and I am sleepy! So no more for tonight!

-Jenny

New molds

Hey all,

Well, tomorrow morning I am going to get my new earmolds. We are hoping these ones will fix the feedback issues I experience. I am also going to ask her about some making some adjustments, not necessarily tomorrow but in the near future. She had changed some stuff because I had been feeling off balance between my two ears. She solved that problem, for the most part, but now my ability to pick voices - or anything really - out of the other sounds is almost non-existant. I initially thought I would adjust but I haven't. It is truly possible that this has everything to do with a change in my hearing and not the hearing aids. It is hard to tell at this point. I will ask her tomorrow what she thinks. In the mean time I am looking forward to getting new molds, kinda. I am not sure what exactly I am getting but I will find out tomorrow. She had mentioned a whole slew of different materials they could be made out of and I don't remember which one she had picked. I did research the ones I could remember though and several were not hypoallergenic which scares me a little. I am known to have allergic reactions to earmolds!

Anyway, I want to read a little and then go to bed...short post for today!

-Jenny

Pictures!

Hey all,

I have decided to post a few pictures of my hearing aids. I like to decorate them with stickers and stuff since I have short hair and they stand out anyway! Here are some pics!

Yes, I realise they are all my right ear, I can't really take pictures of the left side of my head easily on my own! hehe

I have it back!

Hey everyone!

I went and got my right hearing aid back again today. They ended up just sending me a new one which is fine I guess. We still aren't sure exactly how my hearing aid broke. She changed the battery and then the battery door was broken. I think we have decided it was faulty from the start and something she did just made it evidently faulty. It works now though!

I don't like the sound at all. I have actually sent my audiologist a few emails saying that I hate them and if I never had to use them for speech again I would be better off, and then there were a few saying I missed them and wanted them back. I mostly missed music and being able to hear it. Actually I have been listening to music all night but when I am listening to something that isn't music, IE ambient noise, I am miserable. I hate the sounds. I think it is because I can understand the music. I can't understand the noises and environmental sounds very well anymore. I think with time and practice I could but I don't really have anyone to help me with that. I need someone who can devote an hour a few times a week to helping me learn sounds. I need someone to quiz me with different sounds, and someone who can explain what all the sounds are. If I am alone in my apartment and I hear something I don't understand it can be near impossible for me to trouble shoot what the sound is on my own. I can't always tell the direction of sounds or the volume of them so I basically have no perception on where, how loud, or what the sound is. It can be very frustrating sometimes to simply not understand the auditory world at all. I can understand the visual cues, and I can understand the tactile information but sound just doesn't make sense anymore. I think that is more frustrating for me than not hearing it. I am happy in my silent world, though I miss music, and then someone comes along and tells me I need to wear these plastic things on my ears that makes everything seem loud and foreign. I slowly start to get used to the sounds and then somebody takes them away for some reason. Then when I get them back I don't understand anymore and I need to start over again.

Then there are the adjustments! Every time my audiologist adjusts my hearing aids I can't understand anything for a long time. This is especially annoying if I had already adjusted to them enough that they were helping with speech reading. Then if my audiologist changes something I can't really communicate easily for any specified period of time. It is annoying!!!

Anyway that is all I have time to write. I am hoping to have a VLOG up in the next few days!

Jenny

It broke again...

Hey all!

I am hearing aid free for a few days! I am still trying to decide if this is good or not. I like not wearing them and that scares me a little. Every time I adjust to something, something else changes. I had just adjusted to wearing them again and then the right one broke. Still not sure exactly what caused it to break though. On Monday the battery in the left aid died and I was about to go to a meeting in an building very close to my audiologists. I had no batteries on me so I ran to her office to buy some I bought a pack and because it is me she wanted to change the battery and test the aid before I left just in case it was more than just a dead battery. My audiologist took both aids and changed the batteries and all was fine so I left. At my meeting my right aid started turning on and off again. I changed the battery again but it kept happening. I dealt with it for a day then went to her office but she wasn't there so the receptionist made me an appointment for this morning. I don't know exactly what is wrong but it was something with the battery door. She sent it in today so hopefully I will have it back early next week. My theory is that she broke it when she changed the battery. She didn't refute it so we are going with that! LOL.

She didn't have a loaner Naida for me which means I can't use any aids until the other one is back. Since they are so loud I need to have both or I feel off balance and can't really walk in a straight line. One of my jobs requires that I have my hearing aids on, so she gave me another loaner aid so I have something to put on and make it look like I am using my aids. Basically I have them on but there aren't any batteries in them. It makes the appropriate people happy and that is all that matters. I aim to please.

I went in this morning planning to be there for 30 minutes max and I ended up being there for an hour and ten minutes! We just got talking about a lot of stuff which was good because it was a lot of stuff that needed to be talked about. A little about past things, a little about the future. I think one of the things that I really respect about this audiologist is that I can be honest with her and she doesn't mind. I think we have a really good ongoing communication that allows for honesty on both ends and I trust her 100%. I really don't know how I could have done all of this without her. Now, 5 months ago I would have said something different but she has earned my respect and trust. I even like her which is more than I can say for any other medical professional in my life at the moment.

What else is new in the world of my ears? OH! This isn't really ears but well, kinda. Anyway, I have a few V-Logs that I want to get around to posting on here. Mostly just ranting about some stuff but still I would like to get them up. Now that it is written here I will have too!

I have to go to bed though!

Jenny

Long Time, No Post!

Hey all,

I realise I haven't written in a long time. I have been very busy with work, friends, life, and of course - my ears.

Since the last time I wrote my audiologist was able to fix the off/on problem. It was a frimware problem that she was able to update and it has been much less frustrating since that has been fixed. My hearing has also changed again. I don't know the exact numbers now but I can say that my right ear more or less matches my left ear. As a result of the drop my audiologist adjusted my hearing aids and I started having an uneven feeling. I also hated the way everything sounded after she adjusted them and it was much harder to speech read as I had adjusted to having sound to support me. As a result, I stopped wearing my hearing aids. It had been about a week since I had stopped wearing them and I went back to see my audiologist to have new impressions taken for yet another set of earmoulds, and she adjusted them again. Since the new adjustment I can tolerate the hearing aids again. She made them a bit quieter and adjusted something else and I like it better. I told her to slowly adjust the volume back up to where it is supposed to be for my loss and hopefully I will be able to adjust if it happens slowly.

I have become a lot more shy about using my voice since the last drop too. I think I sound different, though everyone else has told me I don't. Regardless, I am nervouse to use my voice. When I was at my audiologists last week she said she was going to search out an SLP for me. She said that once before and forgot. Maybe she will forget again. She said it would be good to get on a waitlist so that I can start in the fall. I don't know about it though, I hate SLP's. When I mentioned that to her she reminded me I used to hate audiologists, but I like her. I don't think I like having an audiologist that knows me! Hehehe. I don't know - maybe it will be good and I will get over my fear of speaking. Who knows.

That is all I have time for right now!

Jenny