I wrote yesterday about my decision at the beginning of this year to get hearing aids. When I was trying them out before ordering them, my audiologist, Ryan Matoon, said that he had configured the hearing aids to provide only an 80% correction of my hearing loss because most people found that experiencing a full correction right away was hard to take. Fully hearing all the sounds one hasn’t previously been hearing can be distracting if not overwhelming. He explained that he would boost the correction to 100% over the first couple of weeks that I was wearing them.
But while I could definitely tell the difference with the hearing aids in, the sensation seemed innocuous, and I speculated that I might be OK with a full correction right out of the gate. So when I went to pick up the hearing aids a few days later, Ryan set the correction to 100%. The effect was fascinating and not at all distressing. As I walked down the long corridor leading away from Ryan’s office, I was struck by the sounds of my footfalls on the tile floor — so much so that when I got to the end of the hallway I turned around and walked up and down the corridor again just so I could continue listening to the sound.
As I drove home I realized that I could hear the click-click-click of my turn signal more clearly than I ever had before. Without hearing aids I’d sometimes not been able to tell when my signal was on.
And when I got home and decided to turn up the heat in the house, I realized that the thermostat made a quiet ticking sound for each degree as I turned the dial. I had never heard that sound before.
Of course, the biggest benefit of having hearing aids was understanding what people said to me more easily than I had before. The frequency with which I had to ask Jennifer to repeat herself dropped from about half-a-dozen times a day to one or none.
When I need to, I can raise and lower the volume, which has comes in handy during the pandemic when I often finding myself conversing outdoors with someone who is 10 feet away.
My hearing aids have different presets, or “programs,” for use under various conditions. In addition to the “Universal” program, which is suitable under most circumstances, I was able choose up to five additional programs from a selection of ten or more. The most useful of these is “Noisy Environment,” which ratchets up the noise reduction in places like restaurants and cocktail parties, making it easier to understand the person you’re talking with. I discovered that it’s even helpful when I’m chatting with someone on the deck and the crickets and tree frogs are making a racket.
Another program, called “Stroll,” is optimized for walking outside with another person. It emphasizes speech coming from your left and right rather than in front of you. Other programs include “TV,” “Outdoor Sports,” “Live Music,” and “Recorded Music.” If I were still playing the piano I could have included the “Musician” program, which is optimized for when the hearing-aid wearer is the one making music. All of the programs can be further customized by the audiologist to accommodate my personal preferences and circumstances.
I confess that, with the exception of “Noisy Environment,” I don’t find most of the programs to be different enough from each other to make it worth the fuss of using them. It’s not difficult to select an alternative program, but then I have to remember to change it back when I’m finished, which I often fail to do. So I tend to keep my hearing aids on the “Universal” setting 99% of the time.
I like the fact that the hearing aids integrate with my iPhone. I can control not only the program selection and volume but even the directionality. I watch TV while I use my elliptical trainer, and have a fan blowing on me to stay cool. With the hearing aids’ directional controls I can suppress the sound from the fan and boost the sound from the television. Also, when I talk on the phone, or listen to music or watch a video, the sound from the phone is piped directly to my hearing aids via Bluetooth. It’s as if I’m always wearing AirPods, although the bass response on the hearing aids is not as pronounced as it is on Apple’s earphones.
My audiologist has been exceptionally responsive and helpful whenever anything about the hearing aids isn’t quite to my liking. I saw him every few days for the first couple of weeks and then, once I was satisfied that the sound and the fit of the hearing aids had been optimally adjusted, we dropped that down to every three months.
It’s now gotten to the point where I sometimes go for hours without noticing or thinking about the hearing aids. But I’m often reminded of what a difference they make as I’m getting ready for bed. My wife sometimes says something to me after I’ve taken my hearing aids out — something like, “Does the dog have water in his bowl?” or “Did you close the window in the bathroom?” Invariably I have to pick my head up off the pillow and say “What?”