Check out Costco.
I guess you don’t have insurance to cover? I just got new hearing aids this month from the VA. I really like them because of the remote control for the volume. I can adjust them for any situation quickly.
Huh? Speak up!
grandfather was hard of hearing.
grandmother took him for his physical.
doctor said he needed a semen sample a stool ample and a urine sample.
grandfather asks grandmother “What’d he say”?
grandmother: “Doctor says he wants to see your shorts”.
ba-dum-dump.
I found decent hearing aids from here:
https://www.mdhearingaid.com
good luck.
My sympathies on your hearing loss. I got a hearing aid from the VA. It’s a phonak brand. Works good. I could not tell you the price.
In the meantime here’s a joke to lighten the situation. Share it your wife.
*********************************************
A man goes to the doctor and complains that his wife can’t hear him.
“How bad is it?” the doctor asks.
“I have no idea”, says the husband.
“Well, please test her. Stand 20 feet away from her and say something. If she doesn’t hear you, get closer and say the same thing. Keep moving closer and repeating the comment until she does hear you. That way we’ll have an idea of her range of hearing loss.”
So the man goes home and sees his wife in the kitchen chopping up vegetables for dinner.
From 20 feet: “What are we having for dinner?” No answer.
From 10 feet, same thing.
From 5 feet, same thing.
Finally he’s standing right behind her ... “What’s for dinner?”
She turns around, looks at him and says “For the FOURTH time ... BEEF STEW!!!”
Not far behind you ... lately been putting the phone on speaker and turning it around backwards (backside towards my ear)
Looking forward to the info
My wife says I just do not use mine often enough. They make my ears sweat internally, and I have to consciously remember not to shower or swim with them.
FWIW, they do amplify sounds, but for me, it comes with crashing amounts of background clatter. In a noisy restauant, my companions voices are plenty lud and clear, but the background is also often so loud it does me not good.
Wife says it is because I have lost the brain’s ability to filter. I dunno....................
Like you....I had one particular range that had issues. In a pub or large room with people talking....if people were within four feet of me....I barely got 60-percent of the conversation. In a room or car....with no background noise, no problem.
I made three exams. Two with private doctors, and their ‘salesman’ would lead me to a $4,000 or higher hearing aid. One even wanted to demonstrate a $6,000 device. I admit....sound was crisp. But I just couldn’t go with this amount of money (my health insurance would cover up to $1,500).
So, I took advice from a guy who’d gone to Costco. I did the test with them. Their primary model which did everything I needed and offered several ‘channels’ was great. Price? Around $1,900. The exam was free. They did a fair deal with me, and this model works with the limited loss that I have. If you have significant loss....then these higher-end choices are probably the only way to go.
If you are a vet you should apply for help. I was approved last week, shooting those quad 50s when I was 16 did me in.
I am losing the high end, mainly the speaking range. I use the Kirkland brand from Costco. It was less than 2 grand for both and they are supposed to last for at least 5 years. You can go in anytime for adjustments/tweaks. The newer ones can be controlled via smartphone; I use the small remote.
My M.I.L. wasted $6000 on a pair that never worked properly and paid $5000 for another pair. And they aren't covered by her insurance or S.S.
I bought them because the insurance would pay for them, but I rarely use them. She didn’t get the adjustments right. I think it’s hard to get the adjustments right, but I don’t think she knew what she was doing.
If I’m watching a movie on television, I will sometimes try them. Usually I can’t hear any better with them on. I can hear the news just fine. No music playing in the background like they do in the movies.
See if you can get some sort of guarantee that you will be happy with them. I may try again in a few years I can hear most people fine, but can’t hear those with soft voices.
The hearing aids are Siemens.
Somewhere in my 50's I started noticing the tinnitus (self-generated noise in the inner ears) was louder, constant, never going away. Made it hard to sleep. Also drowned out most soft sounds. And the high frequencies were gone -- cymbals were muffled, horns sounded like they were under a blanket. And I could no longer could hear birds or crickets chirping.
By the time I turned 60 I knew I would have to do something because I could no longer understand words in business meetings, and my daughter's lovely voice was disappearing under the barrage of tinnitus.
I tried the low-end "amplifier" type of hearing aid. Yes it made things louder, but the background noise level was unbearable.
So last year I broke down and got real hearing aids. I have Oticon Alta-2 models, very high-end DSP (digital signal processing) types. They provide variable loudness and treble boost, multiple "programs" and best of all they suppress background noise. I can hear conversations in noisy restaurants.
The bad news: $3000 each ear, thankfully my insurance paid half.
The good news: I cannot adequately explain how completely they have changed my life for the better. It's such a difference in ease of conversation, and confidence that I'm not missing important information.
While I totally understand the concerns about cost, my opinion is that it's worth stretching as far as you can to get really good hearing aids. Cheap ones are a waste of money, IMO.
Good luck and God bless.
Hearing loss ain’t funny as some might think on this thread. Been there most of my life.
I’ve had hearing aids for years (got’em in 1979), but I don’t wear them. They are the old type that fit in the ear, but are volume enhancement. Drive me crazy as my problem is pitch. One ear different from the other. The volume hearing aids make my hearing problem louder.
We live in rural area, and I don’t communicate with anyone but my wife, and she has a Lucille Ball type of voice that breaks the sound barrier :)
Someday I might go to Costco, get another hearing test, and try the new computerized hearing aids. They can be set to match the pitch situation I have. Only reason I haven’t is another old fart like me said his were OK in the beginning, but within a few months he was leaving them at home, cuz they weren’t worth wearing.
Til that day I remain an aggravating old guy people have to yell at.
I bought some really good Bluetooth enabled Starkey hearing aids from an audiologist in Fairfax, Virginia. I still have issues in crowded noisy environments, but overall they’re life changing.
Another Freeper mentioned perspiration behind them in the ear, I just carry some Q-Tips in my pocket and discreetly dry them out once or twice a day. I also live alone, and I don’t wear them when I’m not talking to anybody or watching a movie or something.
Are you a veteran? Even if you don’t qualify for extensive medical coverage, you may qualify for hearing aids through Veterans Administration.
I had exactly the symptoms you describe. They fitted me with in-the-ear-canal Siemens. They are almost invisible and are a big help for our type of hearing loss. They included more than a year’s supply of batteries.
Good luck.
Can’t get out of my mind that a smart phone technology goes for less than 1K but hearing aids are north of 3K. I smell (hear) a rat.
later
Costco hearing aids are equal to any available, better than most, and the prices are reasonable.