An analog to digital hearing aid newbie with Oticon hearing aids.

[Ant]

Hi all!

I have finally gone to digital (Oticon Sumo DM BTE) from my old analog
Oticon hearing aids (380P, E38P, etc.) earlier today. I still wear bone
conduction type with their oscillators (even the same model I used with
my old analog models!). It has been about nine/9 hours so far. I am
still NOT used to the hearing changes. Everything sound different. I can
still recognize some sounds. Some things are really soft (hard to hear
like some people, my HDTV, etc.) and others are loud (cardboard
scratches, hitting wood walls, tapping feet and rolling chairs on chair
floor, doors opening/closing, etc.).

From what I was told and read, this is normal and it can take a long
time (e.g., half of a year!)? Is this true? I noticed my audiologist
using complex Genie software in Windows 7 to configure my programmable
hearing aid with a very long thin cable. That was interesting and
complex compared to analog types that I grew up since the late
(19)70s/early (19)80s.

It looks like I will need to go back to my audiologist to do more
tweakings. He did tell me to try it for a week until then.

Thank you in advance. :)
--
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that single straight line, a long, a long, long mile of ants. Sometimes
they will walk over and pick up their dead friends and carry those
around. I'm pretty sure it's because they can get in the carpool lane
and pass up that line." --Ellen DeGeneres
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[Dogbertd]

Post by Ant
Hi all!
I have finally gone to digital (Oticon Sumo DM BTE) from my old analog
Oticon hearing aids (380P, E38P, etc.) earlier today. I still wear bone
conduction type with their oscillators (even the same model I used with
my old analog models!). It has been about nine/9 hours so far. I am
still NOT used to the hearing changes. Everything sound different. I can
still recognize some sounds. Some things are really soft (hard to hear
like some people, my HDTV, etc.) and others are loud (cardboard
scratches, hitting wood walls, tapping feet and rolling chairs on chair
floor, doors opening/closing, etc.).
From what I was told and read, this is normal and it can take a long
time (e.g., half of a year!)? Is this true? I noticed my audiologist
using complex Genie software in Windows 7 to configure my programmable
hearing aid with a very long thin cable. That was interesting and
complex compared to analog types that I grew up since the late
(19)70s/early (19)80s.
It looks like I will need to go back to my audiologist to do more
tweakings. He did tell me to try it for a week until then.
Thank you in advance. :)

Ant,

I can't tell if you're wearing a bone anchored aid from the description
above, but I've had a bone-anchored aid (Cochlear/Entific) for about 25
years (how time flies) and went from analog to digital only about 2
years ago. Frankly I thought I was going to go mad I hated it so much,
and I decided that I'd drive my audiologist as mad as me: tweaking the
settings and coming to terms with it certainly took a full 6 months. I
have bilateral microtia, so, like you, I have no ear canals and have
been relying on technology for longer than I care to remember.

Adjustment from analog to digital was made more challenging in my case
because I love music and both listen to plenty and play the piano
(badly, FWIW). It was pretty clear that manufacturers program their
aids with speech in mind and pretty much everything else can go to
hell. It took a looong time to make my aids tolerable. There's no doubt
that it's a combination of endless tweaking and letting your brain
adjust to the new sound world.

Unfortunatley there was no option in my case, because the manufacturers
decided that they were not going to support analog aids any longer. I
still have an analog BAHA as backup, but it's getting a bit long in the
tooth (like its owner).

Good Luck!

Dogbertd

[Ant]

Post by Dogbertd

Post by Ant
I have finally gone to digital (Oticon Sumo DM BTE) from my old analog
Oticon hearing aids (380P, E38P, etc.) earlier today. I still wear bone
conduction type with their oscillators (even the same model I used with
my old analog models!). It has been about nine/9 hours so far. I am
still NOT used to the hearing changes. Everything sound different. I can
still recognize some sounds. Some things are really soft (hard to hear
like some people, my HDTV, etc.) and others are loud (cardboard
scratches, hitting wood walls, tapping feet and rolling chairs on chair
floor, doors opening/closing, etc.).
From what I was told and read, this is normal and it can take a long
time (e.g., half of a year!)? Is this true? I noticed my audiologist
using complex Genie software in Windows 7 to configure my programmable
hearing aid with a very long thin cable. That was interesting and
complex compared to analog types that I grew up since the late
(19)70s/early (19)80s.
It looks like I will need to go back to my audiologist to do more
tweakings. He did tell me to try it for a week until then.

I can't tell if you're wearing a bone anchored aid from the description
above, but I've had a bone-anchored aid (Cochlear/Entific) for about 25
years (how time flies) and went from analog to digital only about 2
years ago. Frankly I thought I was going to go mad I hated it so much,
and I decided that I'd drive my audiologist as mad as me: tweaking the
settings and coming to terms with it certainly took a full 6 months. I
have bilateral microtia, so, like you, I have no ear canals and have
been relying on technology for longer than I care to remember.

Is that the implant with a hole on the head? Then, no. Mine is a thin
headband with an oscilliator to put over my head. I was born with ear
holes and canals. I also didn't want implants.

Post by Dogbertd
Adjustment from analog to digital was made more challenging in my case
because I love music and both listen to plenty and play the piano
(badly, FWIW). It was pretty clear that manufacturers program their aids
with speech in mind and pretty much everything else can go to hell. It
took a looong time to make my aids tolerable. There's no doubt that it's
a combination of endless tweaking and letting your brain adjust to the
new sound world.

Ugh. Yeah, I am still not used to mine after about 1.5 weeks. I need to
go back to my audiologist because my hearing is worse than my analog
like I mentioned in my original post. People's voices and some sounds
are still soft compared to other sounds. :(

Post by Dogbertd
Unfortunatley there was no option in my case, because the manufacturers
decided that they were not going to support analog aids any longer. I
still have an analog BAHA as backup, but it's getting a bit long in the
tooth (like its owner).

Same for Oticon and other brands. I was forced as well since the old
ones were breaking down. I was hoping that digital would be a lot better
by now and I never get the first new releases. I also kept my analog
hearing aids (started wearing them like 35 years ago!) as backups too
even if they have issues (hence why I get new ones when they start
breaking down).
--
"I once heard the survivors of a colony of ants that had been partially
obliterated by a cow's foot seriously debating the intention of the gods
towards their civilization" --Archy the Cockroach from Don Marquis'
"Archy and Mehitabel" book ("Certain Maxims of Archy" poem)
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
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[Ant]

Post by Ant

Post by Dogbertd

Post by Ant
I have finally gone to digital (Oticon Sumo DM BTE) from my old analog
Oticon hearing aids (380P, E38P, etc.) earlier today. I still wear bone
conduction type with their oscillators (even the same model I used with
my old analog models!). It has been about nine/9 hours so far. I am
still NOT used to the hearing changes. Everything sound different. I can
still recognize some sounds. Some things are really soft (hard to hear
like some people, my HDTV, etc.) and others are loud (cardboard
scratches, hitting wood walls, tapping feet and rolling chairs on chair
floor, doors opening/closing, etc.).
From what I was told and read, this is normal and it can take a long
time (e.g., half of a year!)? Is this true? I noticed my audiologist
using complex Genie software in Windows 7 to configure my programmable
hearing aid with a very long thin cable. That was interesting and
complex compared to analog types that I grew up since the late
(19)70s/early (19)80s.
It looks like I will need to go back to my audiologist to do more
tweakings. He did tell me to try it for a week until then.

...

Post by Ant

Post by Dogbertd
Adjustment from analog to digital was made more challenging in my case
because I love music and both listen to plenty and play the piano
(badly, FWIW). It was pretty clear that manufacturers program their aids
with speech in mind and pretty much everything else can go to hell. It
took a looong time to make my aids tolerable. There's no doubt that it's
a combination of endless tweaking and letting your brain adjust to the
new sound world.

Ugh. Yeah, I am still not used to mine after about 1.5 weeks. I need to
go back to my audiologist because my hearing is worse than my analog
like I mentioned in my original post. People's voices and some sounds
are still soft compared to other sounds. :(

Post by Dogbertd
Unfortunatley there was no option in my case, because the manufacturers
decided that they were not going to support analog aids any longer. I
still have an analog BAHA as backup, but it's getting a bit long in the
tooth (like its owner).

Same for Oticon and other brands. I was forced as well since the old
ones were breaking down. I was hoping that digital would be a lot better
by now and I never get the first new releases. I also kept my analog
hearing aids (started wearing them like 35 years ago!) as backups too
even if they have issues (hence why I get new ones when they start
breaking down).

Today was more tweaks with my new Oticon Sumo DM hearing aid. Wow, that
took about an hour to finish to do tweakings and stuff on my new digital
hearing aid. It is still not perfect, but better (no annoying low bass
feedbacks so far like before) and that Oticon Genie software is sure
complex and buggy (e.g., I think I saw it crash and his save data failed
-- I told him don't trust computers so we took a screen shot to print
out (he learned something new from this SQA tester ;)) and blurry
picture on my iPhone 4S!). :D Wow, $200 for a headband and insurance
won't pay for it, but will for my $2K hearing aid. :/
http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/HearingTestResults/ for my hearing
aid reports.
--
--
"It is said that the lonely eagle flies to the mountain peaks while the
lowly ant crawls the ground, but cannot the soul of the ant soar as high
as the eagle?" --unknown
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
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