Not hearing with hearing aids

Yay! It's the middle of the week and the sun is shining! What more could
I ask for?!

I had a brilliant evening with Fab Friend last night - regular readers will know she actually wears her hearing aids, and yesterday, she'd been to the audiology clinic to see about the new hearing aids she's been trying out.

Apparently, they transpose the pitch of high sounds into frequencies that you can hear. But it turns out, they may not be a great as first thought, and I really felt for her when she expressed her disappointment about this. But luckily, she does have a pair that do help. In fact, I think with them on, she actually hears more than me.

For me, realising that hearing aids don't help me was quite a painful process. It's hard not to place expectations on the aids. I mean, I'm shortsighted, and yet I spend every day with perfect vision. I think I, and many people forget that hearing aids don't achieve this - you don't get perfect hearing with them.

I remember the high expectations I had the first time I got digital aids, I was so excited. I was warned it would be different but that I should persevere through that. But even with (OK... mediocre) perseverence, I just could not see how my life was better with them in it. Everything was so loud... and this, made me fall over.

And I still stand by that. It's not so bad not hearing birds sing, babies cry and cats meow. With my hearing aids, I only get these as a white noise crackle anyway, and a cat emitting white noise is not a pleasant thing.

And if not hearing white noise in the place of high sounds means I'm saved from the unpleasantness of falling over at loud lower frequencies when my aids are in, then I'll take that over babies crying anyday.

Wouldn't you?