By now I’ve been using
my new hearing aids for a few weeks.
They are the Joy V-Slim BTE model by Rexton, from Lloyd Hearing
Aid. BTE stands for “behind the
ear.” My favorite thing about
these hearing aids is they can take rechargeable batteries. Anyone who’s ever worn hearing aids or
cochlear implants knows that the batteries cost an arm and a leg. And for anyone who’s never worn them,
I’ll tell you, the batteries cost an arm and a leg. So rechargeable batteries that can last 8-12 months are
pretty sweet. I’ll still keep some
non-rechargeables on hand “just in case,” but it’s great to have the option of
saving money and the environment at the same time.
The Joy V-Slim model has
4 channels, whereas my previous hearing aids only have 3. I have the normal acoustic, background
noise filter, and telecoil, and now I have a TV/music channel. Honestly, I’m not sure what I think of
the music channel. I don’t really
use it for music. I either just
keep my hearing aids on the acoustic channel or plug in my neck loop and put on
the telecoil. For me, that channel
makes music louder than my baseline decibel level without really making it
clearer. And as for using it for
TV, if there’s any kind of background noise at all, everything just sounds way
too loud. Because of the negative
experiences I’ve had using that channel with background noise, my desire to use
it has gone down. But maybe I just
need to give it another shot sometime if I’m watching TV and there’s no
background noise.
I happened to be due for
new molds around the time I got these hearing aids, so I got those from Lloyd
Hearing Aid as well. I’ll have to
do an entry on making your own mold impressions, since I’m sure people will
have lots of questions about that.
And in a year or two, when I’m due for molds again, I’m going to have
the hubby make a video of me taking my own impressions so you can see how
quick, safe, and easy it really is.
The one thing that’s
still taking some getting used to is having a volume control on one aid and the
channel changer on the other. This
means adjusting volume for both hearing aids with one volume control. I wouldn’t say I hate this arrangement,
but it’s definitely taking some getting used to. With my old aids, if I needed to make a phone call I would
take out the aid for my bad ear and use the phone with the hearing aid on my
good ear. Because I use my left
ear for phone calls and the volume control is on the right aid, I have to leave
them both in when I use the phone.
Since I now have to have both aids on t-coil to use the phone, this
means I can’t hear ANY environmental sounds outside of the phone (except for
maybe a smoke alarm!) I guess this
isn’t really good or bad, it just is what it is. I’ll get used to it eventually.
If anyone has any questions about these particular hearing aids or about earmolds or ordering online, please feel free to leave your questions in the comment section! You can read my blog entry on purchasing online here.
