hearing loss/hearing aids/tinnitus/the like (it fucking sucks)

Basically I'm trying to figure out where to start going back and re-listening to everything I've ever heard in my life

That is really great! I'm happy for you.

that's awesome!

my dad is dealing with the same issues, but i don't think he's considered using aids yet. decades of music-listening has apparently caught up to him, and his hearing's been going over the past couple years, and he has a bad case of tinnitus. which drives him crazy.

do these miracle aids have a brand name? pardon if i missed it, i couldn't find any proper nouns here regarding them. and do insurance companies mostly not help out? i'm hoping maybe the family could gather our funds for father's day or something. i think he's also having a lot of trouble not hearing music like he used to, and it blows.

Not hearing music like I ought to was one of the things that always really bugged me about HA's, but technology's caught up apparently! These sound great. The ones I have are Widex Clear's, the BTE model, and they actually also have a tinnitus setting, too\. They were something like $3500 each, and insurance mostly does not help out at all, but mine were covered entirely through a program from the state's Dept of Workforce (in NJ; not sure if other states have similar programs). Definitely look into it to see if you can get assistance from the state.

Nice one mate.

Can nyone recommend a good place and make for earplugs - suitable for clubs/concerts that won;t block too much music but still protect my ears?

I'm so glad you found a solution, Stevie. I didn't see this thread until just now, and your initial description of your problem broke my heart. It's a cautionary tale for all music lovers.

Congrats on the hearing aids -- the thought of rehearing so much music sort-of for the first time is really cool.

Sounds really positive, Stevie! I'm glad you're being reunited with music.

dog latin, a lot of musicians I know use Etymotic ER-20s, which have quite a flat frequency curve (i.e. they quieten all frequency ranges almost evenly, so you don't get a muffled sound, and you can still understand e.g. people talking). They're about £15 per pair iirc and come in 2 or 3 sizes for smaller/wider ear canals. Etymotic also do custom-made ones if you're really serious and want to spend more (custom-made = better fit = better soundproofing).

Think there's been a thread before; if you search for "etymotic" you'll probably find something.

Having said that, as a non-musician I don't mind a bit of muffling - I find it reassuring that it is actually doing something. So at gigs I wear Hearos foam earplugs, which are a lot quieter and kill more high frequencies, but still have a better frequency curve (and are softer and easier to get in/out) than the foam ones you get from Boots etc.

If "not blocking too much music" is your top priority, though, the ER-20s are probably a better bet. (Though I think Hearos also do some non-foam ones with a flatter frequency curve, but I haven't tried those.)

thanks! just ordered some ER-20s and they were nowt too pricey too. Been meaning to get round to that for a while.

I'm on what is probably my 4th pair of ER-20's and I absolutely swear by them (I actually keep them in my bag/carry them with me at all times). There really is nothing like them (it's kind of mind-blowing the first time you wear them!), and at $20 it's an incredible value. I've ranted to great length on other threads how foolish it is for people regularly attending concerts not to use them.

pro-tip: if you wear a carabiner on your belt loop, don't hang the little earplug case from it (at least, not with the tiny metal chain provided) because it WILL get caught in a park bench or on a seat or whatever somewhere and you WILL lose them.

They were something like $3500 each

yeesh! thanks for the info. it doesn't seem like maryland offers any coverage for adults, and he isn't a government employee, so this probably isn't a possibility.

it's absolutely weird that insurance doesn't cover them. of all the things to not deem worthy? in this day and age?

Yeah, they are a pretty penny. Mine were through NJ's Dept of Vocational Rehabilitation; MD's equivalent seems to be http://www.dors.state.md.us/dors . I would highly recommend giving them a call and asking if there are any HA programs. And yeah, don't even get me started on insurance coverage. It's really frustrating.

zach, is he a veteran? If so, try the VA.

I am now the proud owner of a set of hearing aids. It began for me 126 days ago with tinnitus starting suddenly one night, a few days after a medication change. I went to the ENT, got an audiogram and my hearing is mostly fine, just so high frequency hearing loss. Regardless, I was approved for hearing aids. I got the kind that I can have play random fractal tones in my ears, in hopes that it helps the tinnitus, but I’m not too hopeful about that. Mostly, I’ve just come to accept it. It’s very annoying though.

But these are very interesting devices, I definitely hear differently than before. I’m assume my hearing loss will only get worse as I age, so might as well get started using them.

i'm reading David Lodge's novel Deaf Sentence. about a guy losing his hearing. its very interesting.

good luck with your hearing aids!

i have tinnitus and as of about 6 months ago now have a new and improved tinnitus diagnosed as pulsatile tinnitus. so, along with the ringing that i always have, i now hear my pulsing heartbeat in one ear. sometimes its louder than other times. my telltale head.

Best of luck Jeff! I've been putting off getting my hearing checked for a while now; I feel like I've lost maybe 50% of the hearing in one ear. It was quite odd, I actually felt it go. I was sitting with my family and could hear this weird sound; I kept asking them what it was and they said there was nothing, but it was like a muffled murmur echo while they were talking. I thought it was coming from next door. By evening, that had stopped, but then I noticed while putting an airpod in I could hardly hear the little sound it makes when you stick it in your ear.

(UK) I'm waiting for hearing aids, after some loss in hearing that is "not that abnormal but a bit early". It seems highly related to having gone to loads of gigs in my youth(ish). Wrote for music magazines so went to lots of gigs and never gave a thought to any kind of hearing protection in those days (If someone had suggested it, I'd have probably ignored ... standing next to speakers at My Bloody Valentine gigs seemed like fun). Strangely, I only really noticed anything was wrong when a phone system at work was changed to a digital one and I found myself having to ask people multiple times what their names were. The hearing specialist seemed surprised I hadn't had issues in group settings (ie. the pub) and I did find myself wondering if ... I just stop listening to people and zone out. I've mostly stopped listening to music from an MP3 player or similar - it has to be so loud to counteract the noise around me (eg. the bus).

I am having surgery next week to fix the hearing loss in my left ear. They’re gonna put a prosthetic bone in to replace one of those tiny ones that apparently got damaged after an ear infection. The doc said it should get a lot but not all of the hearing back so I think a hearing aid is in my future. Better than nothing. It’s very disorienting hearing out of only one ear

good luck heez!

I’ve had hearing aids for over 5 years now and it was easily the single most beneficial decision I’ve made in my life. get your hearing checked and try some hearing aids!

Good luck with all your treatments folks. I've recently started wearing hearing aids after a test found I had moderate hearing loss. Like djh it's likely to be down to exposure to loud music over the years - at least in part. While I started wearing ear plugs in my 20s (I'm 43 now), some damage had probably been done before that - and there was the odd time I'd forget to take any hearing protection and end up regretting it - a Melt Banana show in 2006 was particularly painful. Heavy headphone use from a young age probably didn't help either. There may also be genetic factors.

I can have slight ringing at times, but it's never really bothered me. The main issue has been struggling to make out individual voices in loud situations, eg pubs. I've also found picking out detail in echo-y rooms quite tricky, which can be difficult when I'm teaching. This has been an issue for several years and it could be pretty frustrating because it could be difficult to fully engage in conversations and I'd worry that people would think I wasn't really paying attention. I'd been putting off getting tested for years, but the turning point was when I realised my wife could hear high frequencies that I couldn't e.g. my Casio watch beeping. That was pretty freaky.

So I've been wearing them for the past few months. Like glasses or dental braces, they can take a bit of getting used to and there have been times when I found it too uncomfortable. Wearing glasses with them takes a bit of adjusting too. It's been a journey, but I'm mostly pretty comfortable with them and the benefits in terms of hearing are immediately noticeable. I can hear that Casio! And bird song sounds amazing now - so much richer and detailed. I can adjust the settings via a phone app to suit particular situations, e.g. if I'm in a noisy space, I can narrow the focus on speech and reduce background sounds. Sometimes they're too good: my mum was visiting at Christmas time and the sound of her rustling the wrapping paper was doing my nut in. I had to discreetly turn them off haha!

What brand/model do you have? I’m trialing the Widex Moment 440s.

I've got Phonak L70. Not a cheap option, but I've got finance so it's affordable. They're very discreet and they connect to my phone so I can adjust the settings. I've found that really helpful.

The Widex seems to work great as a hearing aid, but my main issues are that it is mediocre for Bluetooth streaming. I seem to be getting a lot of interference, from my watch, other wifi devices, etc. The L/R sync isn’t great and it breaks up a lot. Maybe I’m asking a lot from a hearing aid, but it would be nice if it was better at that.

This is probably a dumb question, but when you go to a concert, do you just remove the hearing aids and wear earplugs as usual?

I haven’t been to a show in years, but I would just remove them. Since I only have high frequency loss, mine are pretty open and wouldn’t do well in protecting me from that loud of a noise.

I really wish I had worn ear plugs at that Ghost show I went to in 2004. The absolute worst my ears have felt after a concert. Young and dumb.

I really wish I had worn ear plugs at that Ghost show I went to in 2004. The absolute worst my ears have felt after a concert. Young and dumb.

Now I’m old and can’t help but double post.

Depends on the concert. For Sunn 0))) the other week I took them out and put in ear plugs. Lost some of the harsh frequencies that kicked in towards the end, but it's all about the low end with them anyway.
Jazz/small club gigs, I just leave my hearing aids in most of the time. Might turn the volume down a little but it's been good with them in.

pulsatile tinnitus. so, along with the ringing that i always have, i now hear my pulsing heartbeat in one ear.

hmmm this might be what happened to me in my left ear after a particularly brutal Gary Numan show, probably 6-8 years ago now?

Picked mine up today. Found it strangely fascinating though I also feel a bit weird and self-conscious. Typing on my keyboard sounds too loud at the moment and the clock in the hospital room sounded too intrusive. Currently testing whether music sounds different and am definitely hearing things I've never heard before.

A Notwist song sounded too busy for me, today.

Also, I'm prone to doing big sad sighs and they suddenly sound a bit epic.

My perception of the world around me did shift when I started using them. Not good or bad, but different. Most alarmingly was my own voice sounds different to me now.

I feel like I'm having to turn my down quite often ... like the world is too loud.

Was away on holiday [for most of my first couple of weeks of having them] and found wearing hearing aids fairly normal but at home and more "real life", I'm finding the adjustment weirder, I think mostly related to using the phone and finding them loud or perhaps just different.

But every now and then I'll think something like "The Microphones in 2020"! I've only heard that a bit deaf ... and feel a bit of joy as to what I might discover.

Even though I'm only wearing them to compensate for a small bit of hearing loss, I do (for the most part) slightly miss them when I take them off ... in a way that I hadn't really anticipated.

Isn’t that weird? It’s like you don’t know what you are missing, but you miss it when it’s gone.

I ended up trialing a new device, now using a ReSound RU961. It has much better Bluetooth connectivity than the Widex ones. And just generally a nicer app and more options for tinnitus relief (which still don’t relieve very much, but at least there are options). Of course these are a couple of hundred bucks more.

"It’s like you don’t know what you are missing, but you miss it when it’s gone."

Yeah, that. I wasn't absolutely certain that I needed them (and maybe don't * need * them much of the time). I'd kind of imagined wearing them occasionally without really noticing that I needed to wear them a lot (to get used to them).

my hearing loss is pretty severe, but I wear mine all waking hours (unless it’s a day off work and I’m just drinking coffee in the morning or something). the difference in QOL is insane

remembering to bring my earplugs to watch basketball at the bar tonight, places are so loud nowadays

I'm really terrible at wearing mine consistently. Watching TV or a movie and long car trips is pretty much it, and even then I sometimes forget.