The last few weeks have been some of the hardest weeks of my life. As it turns out, having a newborn is quite stressful and exhausting. However, that is not the only reason these weeks have been long and hard.
When I was in labor with my baby, my hearing aids decided to break down. I was literally in the middle of labor, and all of a sudden I could hear basically nothing with my hearing aids in. When they turn off and you are wearing them, they act as ear plugs blocking sound around you. I replaced batteries, turned them off and back on several times, and replaced my filters and domes hoping to regain use of them. All of my labors were in vain, and the hearing aids never did regain function. I turned them off and put them away, continuing through labor with my broken ears. Luckily for me, my husband was there to interpret everything for me. I truly do not know what I would do without him.
After going back home, I still had no use of the right hearing aid (HA). The left HA was working, and had to pull all the slack of not having the right one in. I made an appointment with my doctor, who was booked several weeks out.
After finally seeing the doctor, she took the right HA to send off to Oticon for replacement. The problem I was having was that the HA’s were coming on, staying on for anywhere from 10 seconds to 10 minutes, and then shutting themselves off. My doctor took the right HA to send off for repair, and sent me home with a loaner. For two days, my hearing aids worked great. Then, the loaner and my left HA began acting up with the same problems. I emailed the doctor to update her. She called Oticon tech support, and we were told that it was faulty software that was downloaded onto the hearing aids from the beginning. Oticon sent two brand new HA’s to the doctor to replace the faulty ones. My doctor wrote new programs for my hearing aids, with the settings that I needed them to be at.
I received my new hearing aids a little over two weeks ago. The first weekend with them was amazing. After two months of not being able to hear well, what a godsend these new beauties were. After the weekend, I started having issues. I could hear basically nothing out of my left ear. I was having issues with allergies and my sinuses that weekend, and I felt like there was fluid in my right ear. I emailed my doctor and they made an appointment to look at the ear, and redo my hearing test as it had been over a year since the last one. A couple of days later, the new left hearing aid began doing the same thing as before, shutting itself off randomly throughout the day. I emailed my doctor again, and my husband called the office to see what we could do that was sooner than my original appointment for September 15th.
Luckily, my doctor was able to get us in to see her first thing this morning, 8 am. She redid my hearing test, and found the left ear to be stable. In other words, my hearing in my left ear is holding steady, and there is no more loss than there was a year ago. The right ear, however, showed a significant amount of decrease in hearing. This would be a cause for concern, but there was also fluid behind my ear drum from my allergy and sinus issues. My new left hearing aid, however, is a problem. My doctor was able to call tech support again to find out why we are having this issue, and she will be sending the hearing aid off to be replaced again this week.
I am so happy that I have a good doctor, but I am ready to be done with these issues. Hopefully after I get the NEW new hearing aid, I will stop having issues altogether for a while. Wish me luck!
Love to all,
Tiffanie
Tiffanie Talks 