>> I have finally gone to digital (Oticon Sumo DM BTE) from my old analog
>> Oticon hearing aids (380P, E38P, etc.) earlier today. I still wear bone
>> conduction type with their oscillators (even the same model I used with
>> my old analog models!). It has been about nine/9 hours so far. I am
>> still NOT used to the hearing changes. Everything sound different. I can
>> still recognize some sounds. Some things are really soft (hard to hear
>> like some people, my HDTV, etc.) and others are loud (cardboard
>> scratches, hitting wood walls, tapping feet and rolling chairs on chair
>> floor, doors opening/closing, etc.).
>>
>> From what I was told and read, this is normal and it can take a long
>> time (e.g., half of a year!)? Is this true? I noticed my audiologist
>> using complex Genie software in Windows 7 to configure my programmable
>> hearing aid with a very long thin cable. That was interesting and
>> complex compared to analog types that I grew up since the late
>> (19)70s/early (19)80s.
>>
>> It looks like I will need to go back to my audiologist to do more
>> tweakings. He did tell me to try it for a week until then.
> I can't tell if you're wearing a bone anchored aid from the description
> above, but I've had a bone-anchored aid (Cochlear/Entific) for about 25
> years (how time flies) and went from analog to digital only about 2
> years ago. Frankly I thought I was going to go mad I hated it so much,
> and I decided that I'd drive my audiologist as mad as me: tweaking the
> settings and coming to terms with it certainly took a full 6 months. I
> have bilateral microtia, so, like you, I have no ear canals and have
> been relying on technology for longer than I care to remember.
Is that the implant with a hole on the head? Then, no. Mine is a thin
headband with an oscilliator to put over my head. I was born with ear
holes and canals. I also didn't want implants.
> Adjustment from analog to digital was made more challenging in my case
> because I love music and both listen to plenty and play the piano
> (badly, FWIW). It was pretty clear that manufacturers program their aids
> with speech in mind and pretty much everything else can go to hell. It
> took a looong time to make my aids tolerable. There's no doubt that it's
> a combination of endless tweaking and letting your brain adjust to the
> new sound world.
Ugh. Yeah, I am still not used to mine after about 1.5 weeks. I need to
go back to my audiologist because my hearing is worse than my analog
like I mentioned in my original post. People's voices and some sounds
are still soft compared to other sounds. :(
> Unfortunatley there was no option in my case, because the manufacturers
> decided that they were not going to support analog aids any longer. I
> still have an analog BAHA as backup, but it's getting a bit long in the
> tooth (like its owner).
Same for Oticon and other brands. I was forced as well since the old
ones were breaking down. I was hoping that digital would be a lot better
by now and I never get the first new releases. I also kept my analog
hearing aids (started wearing them like 35 years ago!) as backups too
even if they have issues (hence why I get new ones when they start
breaking down).
--
"I once heard the survivors of a colony of ants that had been partially
obliterated by a cow's foot seriously debating the intention of the gods
towards their civilization" --Archy the Cockroach from Don Marquis'
"Archy and Mehitabel" book ("Certain Maxims of Archy" poem)
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