Hi There
I am new to this forum and recently experienced hearing loss in my left ear. I have osteosclerosis in both ears and had stapes surgery in left ear about 17 years ago. My left ear has an ear infection and a ruptured ear drum. The rupture left a polyp on the eardrum. The ENT said I should get my hearing back in my left ear in about a month or so. The prosthetic looks good. ENT said I would also be a great candidate to do the surgery in my right ear. My question becomes I need a good hearing aid device as I’m in this phase of healing. I have a pocket talker which works but clunky. I also have air pod pros which I used for live hearing but if I talk it also picks up my voice. I’m also curious about the bone conductive head phone to be used as a hearing aid. Any advise would be much appreciated.
Thanks so much fo listening
Kelly
If your left ear healed and you got your right ear corrected, would you still need hearing aids?
I guess my question is, do you need hearing aids long term or just something short term?
Thanks for your reply. If I have surgery on right ear no I will not need hearing aids. However today I am unable to hear my family at the dinner table with out some sort of device. Tonight I watch a movie with my AirPod pros with the live hearing enabled which worked really well. I am just looking for other options. I do not know how long my hearing loss will last.
If your hearing loss is temporary in the sense of lasting a few weeks or even a few months I would not look to hearing aids. Hearing aids are thousands of dollars and require the initial hearing tests and fitting and then often adjustments to get them comfortable over a period of weeks or months.
Did your doctor have any suggestions for managing this period while your hearing is recovering? I’ve heard of pocket amplifiers and similar - no idea about them personally but might be worth looking into maybe?
If your hearing loss becomes long term then yes, definitely look into hearing aids and this forum is a great resource.
Edit: I just realized you said your air pods work well, if that is the case I would just stick with that until you have a better idea about your long term needs.
It sounds like your current hearing situation is fluid. Furthermore, you appear have a solution that may remedy the situation so that you will hear well unaided. With that said, I have a few thoughts.
I am not sure how long the charge lasts on the AirPods. If it covers a full waking day, then that is a good (and free) short term solution. If they only last a few hours, but longer than the time to charge and if your SO or kids don’t have a pair, getting a second set to get you through the day switching off and charging might be a way to go as when your situation is sorted out, the second set of AirPods will still have a use with another family member.
Once you get your hearing sorted out, if you need a permanent solution and HAs are appropriate, then spending the thousands of $$$ on them might make sense.
I’m sorry, that sounds frustrating.
IF there is an independent clinic near you that works with bone anchored hearing aids often enough to have a loaner that you could rent, that might be the ideal situation, but I expect that that might be hard to find. You’d have to call around. It might be easier to find a place that will rent a traditional hearing aid–many independent clinics carry loaners for their own patients.
Outside of that, you could look at getting a pair of Bluetooth Aftershokz headphones and some sort of little Bluetooth microphone to connect to them. I don’t have a good recommendation for the microphone.
It depends on how long it might last; maybe struggling along with the airpods is also a good option, but if it’s going to be a few months I might start calling audiology clinics to see what they have. If reception puts up a barrier, what you need to communicate is that you have a temporary conductive bilateral hearing loss that you expect to last a few months and you need a temporary solution, can they ask the owner and get back to you. Independent clinics will have more flexibility to help than chains.
Incidentally, this sort of unsupported temporary conductive loss happens all the time in children. It’s nuts that we don’t have a good solution for it yet.