3 ms·
I've worn a hearing aid since I was 4. I'm now 37, and while I've become much more open about my hearing issues, I still struggle with the issue of my hearing a
by burntwater 9y ago
I've worn a hearing aid since I was 4. I'm now 37, and while I've become much more open about my hearing issues, I still struggle with the issue of my hearing aid's visibility. Sure, I now have short hair (forced on me by baldness, really), sure I've opted to select a gray color instead a flesh color (thankfully, the gray is NOT (yet) to blend with the remaining hair I still have), sure, I'm much more vocal about making people aware of my "good side" and my "bad side" when walking and sitting.
But I'm still strongly resistant to the idea of adding a hearing aid to my other ear (in which I'm deaf, but the additional hearing aid would link with my current hearing aid, providing "stereo" audio of sorts). I know doing so would be a significant improvement in life -- I would be doubling my hearing capabilities, in ways. But right now I have alternate "good side" and "bad side" modes; the mode for hearing better (you need to be on my left) and the mode for hiding my disability (you should be on my right, unable to see my hearing aid). If you're an attractive female, my instinct is to have you on my right. Of course, if you're an attractive female who sits down at the bar on my right side, I will ignore you, because conversation is futile. I have to forcefully override this instinct.
In an ideal world, given current technology, there would be in-the-ear hearing aids that could wirelessly sync to my current behind-the-ear hearing aid, but that doesn't seem to exist. So I keep plodding along, basically waiting for the day when technology will FIX my hearing instead of aiding it. I expect I will be in my 60s by then.
- Dunan 9y agoI envy your ability to be open about your (partial?) deafness. I have normal hearing in one ear but am almost entirely deaf in the other, and have looked into getting a hearing aid for it. (I'm also blind on that side, and there is no fix for that.) Society can be pretty vicious when you ask people to stand on a specific side of you, or turn your head 180 degrees so that you can point your good ear toward them, but I think if you have a visible hearing aid, people will be less surprised if you spring a request like that on them. Paradoxical, because the device means that you can hear them no matter which side they're on! I feel like in today's era of ubiquitous headphones you could have even a hearing aid that looked like something else, and it wouldn't look that out of place. If I get a hearing aid, I'll go for a gray (or white, or black) one like yours.
- rhubarbcustard 9y agoI guess you've looked in to CROS and biCROS hearing aids? http://phb.secondsensehearing.com/content/hearing-aid-reviews-cros-and-bicros http://phb.secondsensehearing.com/content/hearing-aid-review... I'm pretty sure you can get an in-the-ear version of these, which would mean you could wear and almost invisible aid in your other ear. https://www.phonak.com/uk/en/hearing-aids/phonak-cros-II.html https://www.phonak.com/uk/en/hearing-aids/phonak-cros-II.htm...