Miracles of Technology
It's not often that I think about it, but technology has really given me a chance at life. I've been wearing behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids in both ears since I was about three years old (I'm 26 now). Last year I upgraded to the latest n' greatest (3rd pair I've ever had) and I've found them to be extremely fragile. I'm not sure if they're just becoming too complex and too small or if, like everything else, they just don't make them the way they used to. I current pair are Phonak Supero 413's and I must admit I LOVE them.My first two pair were regular analog BTE hearing aids -- basically it was set using a tiny screwdriver and a few little knobs and had one microphone that faced forward. Since I'm nearly 80% deaf without them, they literally gave me my life. I often wonder what would have happened had hearing aids not existed. I guess I would have learned sign language, went to a deaf school and college and life goes on like those who are 100% deaf. Fortunately I was able to get hearing aids and go through regular elementary school, high school and college all with very little extra help.
Back to my current hearing aids - they're digital with a bi-directional microphone. The aids are hooked up to a computer to be programmed and from what I can tell the Dr. has a LOT of control over them. They can tweak certain frequencies of sound to match exactly what my ear can hear. The bi-directional microphones really works wonders in crowded environments. Typically with a single microphone hearing aid it faces forward, so in a noisy place it would amplify everything, including the background noise. Sometimes I would turn them up to hear the people around me better, but that would also amplify the background noise and it was a very frustrating situation to be in. Now with the bi-directional hearing aids, I can disable the backward-facing microphone which cuts out a huge percentage of the background noise and allows my forward-facing microphone to pickup the conversation in front of me. This has been incredibly valuable and has given me the opportunity to participate in conversions that I couldn't in the past. It's truly amazing the advances they've made hearing technology. However, all great things come with a few down sides.
1.) The technology is so advanced that the doctor's do not know what they're doing anymore. My doctor had to call tech support from another room because he didn't know how to setup my t-coil properly. I may not be maximizing the potential of these new hearing aids if my doctor isn't aware of all the features and configurations.
2.) They're very fragile. Several times so far I've had both aids die completely (not at the same time thankfully) and I've had the t-coil die on both aids too. In the winter, when things are dry the static electricity really seems to effect them. In the summer, when it's really humid and especially when I'm working out or working hard and sweating and any moisture gets close or inside it causes them to die too.
I've been telling my wife that as soon as we can afford it, I'm going to buy a 3rd hearing aid or when I buy my next pair I'm going to buy three. While incredibly grateful that I have the opportunity to hear at all, it gets very frustrating when one aid fails. Life becomes very stressful because not only am I limited to hearing with one ear but I need to be extr cautious because if the 2nd ones fails while the 1st one is getting fixed then I'm stranded! So, I'm going to buy three so I always have the spare on-hand and I can stay hearing things in stereo sound while one hearing aid is sent way to be fixed =)
posted by Tim @ Monday, December 12, 2005
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