tim4, some of the advice you get is really good and other, not so much. You have an unusual situation with the Menieres so the el cheapo route of Costco or Sam’s Club are probably not in you best interest. As far as a practitioner, they may be bundled (all service included) or unbundled (pay for service piece by piece). If it is unbundled, switching to another provider should not be a problem. If it is bundled, “you pays your money and takes your chances”. I wish there was a better answer. Your gut feeling is good but make sure they use “Best Practices”. When I was consulting, I saw some really awesome practitioners, irrespective of their degrees and I saw some terrible practitioners with the whole alphabet behind their name. As long as you have a good trial period, you should have a good feel about the practitioner and the product. If you are not happy, DO NOT proceed. As consumers, we need to accept some responsibility for the final outcome. I wish there was a better answer, but in the real world we have to accept some of the responsibility.
Thanks gorgeguy and Chris, very valuable information. I feel somewhat well prepared, thanks to some good members here in this community forum.
Just to report back, I had a really good first meeting this morning with MY AUDIOLOGIST. I can say that now because I was very much impressed with her. From the moment we walked in until we left. I felt very comfortable and relaxed and she answered all my questions, very professional but casual and laid back at the same time, which I like.
After she looked over my hearing history, she recommended an ENT visit very strongly. She had a few recommendations with one specializing in just ears and memieres.
After the audiogram she explained in full detail what was going on and what problems we faced. The biggest is the narrow range I have from hearing low speech, to the point where it’s to loud. Very small margin there. My word recognition was 0% left 53% right.
She recommended OPN (I think) and the new Widex Moment hearing aids for my type of loss. I told her I had been researching and new about the Moment. I asked if she had good experience with Widex programming, she said that was one of the first companies she started working with and new all the ends and outs very well. After I told her I had no problem with gadgets and fooling around with settings, she definitely said Widex would be a good fit for me, especially the way my tinnitus changes from day to day.
So, she’s hoping the Moments will be in by the 11th so I can try them for 45 days. Then she wants me to try CROS for 45 days so we can decide which is better for me. The quote she gave me was much lower than than Miracle Ear and another HAD (that had Phonak only) I checked with, so that’s a good thing. Only downside is the 90 mile round trio to her clinic.
Hopefully I won’t be looking for an audiologist for a long time.
She sounds like a “keeper” to me. Worth the 90m RT.