My Hearing Aid Woes Continue ...

Oh dear, where does one start with these danged hearing aids?

For those who aren't familiar with the saga, I have worn a hearing aid in my right ear for some seven years now.  It was only in 2008 that I graduated to needing one in my left ear.

And that is when the fun started.

I paid top dollar for high-tech hearing aids that would provide me maximum benefit in various situations.

It wasn't until John was being refitted for his high-tech hearing aids that I mentioned to the audiologist that "when I'm in that situation ..." and she offered to check mine out.

Turns out I hadn't been given quite what I had paid for, or at least what I had reason to expect I should receive.

Back to the drawing board for new hearing aids.

New moulds were taken and the original hearing aids were sent off to have their electronics installed in my new hearing aids.

On August 14th of this year, I received the hearing aids that I had bought a full year earlier.

Everything was going along tickety-boo until mid-September when the right hearing aid went kaput.

It was rebuilt -- the internal electronics had to be replaced (high-tech you know).

Now, since October 18th, my left hearing aid has not been working.

Every time I put it on, it feels like I'm putting a plug in my ear.  Not good.

Last Thursday, while we were in Ottawa, I dropped off the hearing aid to be checked out.

On Friday, I received a call telling me that they could find nothing wrong with it -- it seems to be working just fine.  Of course it is -- the tooth never hurts once you get to the dentist!

Yesterday, I went to pick up my hearing aid, popped it into my ear and guess what?  I put a plug into my ear.

The staff were fabulous.  Immediately, the clerk called on the audiologist who offered to check my hearing in case it had changed, because the device was definitely working.  The clerk knew that I was in town for another medical appointment so she was very accommodating and asked if I was able to wait to be tested or would I have to come back.  It worked out that I was way early for my physio appointment so I sat and waited and had another hearing test right away.

No change in my hearing.

Let's check those hearing aids while I'm wearing them.

No.   Their settings are fine too.

And now the hearing aid is working just fine!

"It must be an intermittent problem," offers the audiologist.

Obviously, it's intermittent -- it happened before and now it's not happening.

We decide that I will wear it and if it continues to happen, it will have to be sent back for closer scrutiny.

So I head home.

And every time I move my jaw, my head, my anything -- the stupid thing feels like I have a plug in my ear.

I've been testing.

If I hold my left hand up to my ear, and push every so slightly upward on the bottom of the hearing aid, it works as it should.

Obviously, the problem is positional.

I just talked with the audiologist.

She agrees with me.

So now the question becomes, what happened between August 14th and October 18th to cause the shape of my ear to change?

We have decided that I should first see the ENT specialist to determine if something wonky has gone on with my ear (I have a very narrow, twisty canal and it causes no end of problems).

I see the ENT doctor (he's in the same office as the audiologist) on Thursday afternoon this week.  Once he clears me (assuming he does), we will take another mould of my left ear and send it off to the lab along with the hearing aid (here I go again, earless for ten days!) to have yet another hearing aid made.

Let's hope that we get this frustration sorted out.

I'm really tired of going to doctors' offices!