Hearing aids. Anyone wear them, contemplating needing them?

**Waihou Thumper** · 7th December 2015, 18:55

So expensive! I have had to sell toys to even get to the point of affording used ones!
I know I need them and my life/work/survival/mortgage depends on my ability to communicate...
What about you guys?
I recall that in 1981 I had severe concussion whilst in the RNZN, but how do I prove that the head injury MAY have caused the loss, or is it congenital or is it the fact that Mum really dug down deep with those cotton buds till I screamed?
OR when flying over from the UK in 1974 I had a cold and my ear drums were harmed? All of the above perhaps?
OR when working in the NZFS with pumps and the fireground I was exposed to more than the normal levels? Acute or Chronic?
OR when working as a Flight attendant, the noise on take offs and landings, the environment inside the aircraft harmed my hearing more......
Geez, just thinking about it, I am fucked!
Where to next....?

Thoughts, opinions.....Noticed a OMFG moment the time you heard someone whisper?

**Ocean1** · 7th December 2015, 18:58

Originally Posted by Waihou Thumper

So expensive! I have had to sell toys to even get to the point of affording used ones!
I know I need them and my life/work/survival/mortgage depends on my ability to communicate...
What about you guys?
I recall that in 1981 I had severe concussion whilst in the RNZN, but how do I prove that the head injury MAY have caused the loss, or is it congenital or is it the fact that Mum really dug down deep with those cotton buds till I screamed?
OR when flying over from the UK in 1974 I had a cold and my ear drums were harmed? All of the above perhaps?
OR when working in the NZFS with pumps and the fireground I was exposed to more than the normal levels? Acute or Chronic?
OR when working as a Flight attendant, the noise on take offs and landings, the environment inside the aircraft harmed my hearing more......
Geez, just thinking about it, I am fucked!
Where to next....?

Thoughts, opinions.....Noticed a OMFG moment the time you heard someone whisper?

Eh?.......

**Waihou Thumper** · 7th December 2015, 19:03

Originally Posted by Ocean1

Eh?.......

Oh that's right this is the Kiwibiker who gives a fuck as long as it isn't me site.....

**Hitcher** · 7th December 2015, 19:04

I've got hearing aids. Apparently it's contracted by listening to fuckwits.

**Motu** · 7th December 2015, 19:16

I've had hearing aids for the last 6 years, but hardly wear them. ACC are sending me for a hearing test next week, then they'll give me a new set - funded by my 45 years of unclaimed ACC payments. They can tell if it's industrial hearing loss by the frequencies damaged, usually higher frequencies. So you need to get a hearing test to see if you qualify for ACC funded hearing aids. Only industrial hearing loss, and only for old fullas because no one told us we could damage our hearing and earmuffs were for girls. I have a 25% hearing loss, my wife thinks it's 95%.

**Ocean1** · 7th December 2015, 19:48

I'm on my second set of hearing aids. The first set cost $9k, were fucking useless and lasted a year before I lost the remaining good one on a mountain in Japan.

These ones live inside my ears, cost a fair bit less and have been worked better for me.

If you read between Motu's lines you can probably organise to be deafer in the mid-high range. I wasn't that clever and ACC told me to fuck off.

It is one of "those" markets I'm afraid, the cost of manufacture is a tiny part of the price, which pisses me off rather a lot. I can only hope that a decent supplier rocks up one day soon and does for hearing aid suppliers what spec-savers did to the previously hugely overpriced optician's market.

Good luck eh?

**Voltaire** · 7th December 2015, 20:00

I've got tinnitus from years of low level plant room noise and bike wind noise...and Led Zeppelin and so on....
I'd spring for this.

**awa355** · 7th December 2015, 20:12

Got my 1st pair in 2004. ACC coughed up because 12.7% loss was work related, the other 7% was age related. 2014 and I went to look at replacement aids. Crusher Collins had changed the rules and Acc would only pay for the percentage caused by work. (fair enuf I suppose). So it was cap in hand to the credit union, hearing loss now 27%. Wolfe hearing was way cheaper than Bay Audisomethingorother.
The pair I have now are far better than the 1st pair, if only I would wear them.

They don't like dust or water. Batteries seem to barely last 5 minutes. I find in the heat they make my ears sweat. These were over 4G. I think I don't need them that much, until I put them in then I notice how much difference they make. They are programmed to pick up the pitches that my natural hearing has lost. I should be wearing them at work but feel a bit self conscious with them in. With grey hair and hearing aids, I feel I am not 'measuring up' compared to the younger gungho set. Have worn them a few times and to be honest, no one has even noticed them.

**Ocean1** · 7th December 2015, 20:37

http://www.hearingaidforums.com/archive/index.php

**Motu** · 7th December 2015, 20:37

Originally Posted by Ocean1

If you read between Motu's lines you can probably organise to be deafer in the mid-high range.

I went for a prelimary test a couple of months ago - the telling part is when they give you a word recognition test at reduced levels. I didn't have a clue what they were saying! The girl said ''Just take a guess , I have to write something down!'' but I couldn't recognise a single word. Amazingly she said there is no change from my last test. Which is good, because I spent the last couple of years in the same working conditions that caused the hearing loss in the first place...but I guess I know now and wore protection at the correct times. I was told if I don't wear them at work I should wear them at home....but what's the point? I wear them to funerals and weddings, and sometimes familly get togethers....or more often just forget and act normal, they are used to it.

**R650R** · 7th December 2015, 21:34

My grandfather had several and kept comprehensive notes on their performance just like the various brand VHS tapes.... (guess you have to do something when you get old)
However all that data which would now be pertinat to your cause is gone along with him....

I was fortunate very early in my linehaul career a company health nurse picked up a slight drop off in my right ear of industrial deafness. She said it would be from the wind noise of drivers window open at 90k.
I now drive with passenger window open instead and wear earplugs on bike. Tested again at new job and it hasn't gotten any worse than it was then some 15 years ago so that's good.
A lot of people don't realise but bass and low frequency noise like helmet and window wind noise is the most damaging.

**Oakie** · 7th December 2015, 21:49

Originally Posted by Voltaire

I've got tinnitus from .... bike wind noise.

Me too. Fortunately I realised in time and now always ride with earplugs in. The ringing in my ears is managable. Just took one noisy helmet, 5 years time and me prefering to ride with my visor up which made the vents whistle.

**Moise** · 7th December 2015, 22:04

Hearing aids are a very expensive Band-Aid. WEAR EARPLUGS when you ride on the open road.

**awa355** · 8th December 2015, 05:01

In my original application to ACC for funding, years of motorcycle helmet wind noise and rifle shooting were listed as contributing factors along with my occupational circumstances. The doctor said to expect a struggle with ACC but they came to the party quite quickly.

The threshold for ACC funding was work related loss amounting to 7% of the total deafness. The goalposts have probably been shifted a few times since then tho'. Back then ACC staff were possibly still under the illusion that they were there to work with you, for the most part.

One of my let downs on using aids for the first time was, I had thought everything was going to be louder. It isn't. Just the frequencies that I have lost, and the aids are tuned for are amplified. Some sounds seemed to be tinnier. They show their worth when trying to listen to a conversation in a crowded place. Without them at work a number of people can be talking to each other at the same time and I am not hearing the full sentences. I'm picking up every 2nd or 3rd word and putting the full sentence together in my head. If I go a few days without them I think my loss isn't too bad, then wearing the aids I realize how much I have missed.

**Flip** · 8th December 2015, 08:15

Go to the Bay Audiology and get tested. Don't mention motorcycles, hunting, racing cars or any other noisy hobbys, just discuss work related exposure.

I did my informative years as a boiler maker, then did a stint in the engine room of a ship, this along with firing naval weapons, motor cycling, sports cars and many years of small arms fire has stuffed my hearing. I have lost 84% of mine. Hearing aids make a big diference. ACC pay for mine for life.

Its actually all the mid range for me that has gone. I wear hearing aids when I have to but I don't find the current set that comfortable. I wear ear plugs when riding 100% of the time and I have two sets of electronic hearing protectors, one cheap grade 4 and one expensive grade 5 which both work brillantly.