This is my running commentary on my experience with getting a set of Lyric hearing aids. For those of you who aren't aware these are "invisible" and only available in certain areas.
Sometime soon when I figure out all the "blogging" stuff I will post some links and a picture of my audiogram.
For background my hearing loss is moderate to severe however if you check with friends and family they would say more severe then moderate. But on to the Lyrics.....
I got them for all the reasons I kept putting off getting something before, inconvenience, concerns about how I would look, not wanting to feel old, you now the usual suspects.
Fitting was quick and relatively painless. About 30 minutes and I am a good candidate meaning that I have canals that will accommodate them. Currently I have some uncomfortable feeling from pressure in my right ear that I think is from the fitting and I am waiting to see if it goes away. The left ear I barely know that it is in..
I have no previous history with hearing aids so I can't compare them to anything other then the way things were. Let's call it PL for Pre-Lyric's... This is as good a time as any to admit that I absolutely knew I needed something long before this day I just wouldn't man up until there was something that wasn't so obvious.
Funny..right now the keys make any incredibly loud "clacking" and it is tough for me to know if that is how they should sound and I just haven't heard it for years. Same for rattling paper and plastic...
The Lyrics don't seem to have much "audio shaping" or if they do the audiologist didn't do much adjusting. I am getting a general "everything is louder" feeling but not in a negative way...scratch that.. some things are better not being so loud. Outside I hear the wind and trees and it is a bit distracting..the audiologist says my brain will start to adjust and block some of it out as background noise....we shall see.
My own choices for customization are "ON" "OFF" "SLEEP" and a couple of levels of volume. That's it so experimentation with different effects is negligible. After six hours I have a slight headache partly from the right ear pressure and partly I think from all the new sounds. I'll swallow a couple of Ibuprofen and cross my fingers.
The experience is generally positive so far. I notice that there is a definite change as to room conditions, pitch of who is speaking, also that my family has been talking loudly at me and are somewhat amazed as I break it to each of them...force of habit will die hard for them.
They are absolutely correct when they say you do not get your regular hearing back..while I can hear much "better" it is an amplified semi-natural "better" although not the kind of stuffed up, unnatural sounds from the one CIC pair I tried a year ago and rejected.
My own voice does sound odd and amplified and there is a bit of an incosistency that changes the way I hear others and myself. It is as if certain pitches or sounds in combination or in surroundings play though positively or negatively. I'll need to see if there is any pattern to it...
If you found your way here welcome...feel free to ask anything at the moment I'm just trying to figure it out.
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