Thread: what a drag it is getting old

had a hearing test today. i have 40-45% high frequency loss in both ears. that's the range women and children talk in. ok, i knew, right, we all knew that something was going on. this just confirmed it.
then the guy wants to sell me these little hearing aids for 4k. he stuck them in my ears, did a little fiddling with his computer, and geez, they made a difference. i think he thought i was going to tell him to put them in a bag.
i can't rush into something like that. i don't have 4k laying around. no, i do, but i want it to stay where it is, in the savings account.
i could buy them, telling myself i'll pay myself back come tax time. but i am so disorganized with money it's not funny. really not funny.
got to be more than a couple of you old gits here who have had to do this. is this normal....here ya go..you can't hear....that will be four thousand dollars please.
i wouldn't even buy a car this quick.
and yet, i find myself doing a lot of the things he says happens,..not wanting to be in large groups of people, isolating a little bit, knowing it will be hard to participate.
he had me bring my wife and had her stand in the corner and read words to me. i missed half of them. but i must be cognitively impaired anyway. this father's day weekend i wrote "happy farmer's day" on a customers cake instead of what you'd expect. they're still laughing about it at work.

Same story and price. Swiss Miss got tired of having to tell me what the announcer/actor said.

I can only commiserate as a bystander. My hearing is still very good I guess i listened to the right music (Dead, Who, Stones) at obscene decibels when i was younger but remembered to protect my ears at the firing range, the wife (a country music fan, former marine) though has more hearing loss than you (55-60%). it took until this summer to get her to accept she needed them... it is so much quitter around the house I can even sit and comfortably watch tv with her , we have even turned off the closed captioning.

paying for them is easier if you are a veteran... between getting them through the VA clinic and the $1k our insurance pays we only went out of pocket around $650 the list price was $4250 for the pair. we had not thought of the VA until we started comparison shopping and found this article from consumer reports

I hope you find a way to get them the wife claims to have changed her will twice since getting them.

jim

What did you say?

No seriously, I feel your pain my friend. I'm in the exact same boat as you and I'm 37. Nothing worse then a loud bar or crowd of people. And I'd rather be somewhere quiet and calm. All the loud or multiple frequencies I guess it is, pretty much turns I to white noise for me and I can hear a damn thing. Drives my wife nuts.

Most of my loss is in my right ear, with the addition of constant tinnitus (that annoying ringing in your ears after a loud concert or bar). 24 hours a day. I guess I've gotten use to it, just ignoring it.

$4k is allot but if it makes a huge difference and they are suppose to last a long time then I'd give it some thought.

Originally Posted by Noisykids

had a hearing test today. i have 40-45% high frequency loss in both ears. that's the range women and children talk in. ok, i knew, right, we all knew that something was going on. this just confirmed it.
then the guy wants to sell me these little hearing aids for 4k. he stuck them in my ears, did a little fiddling with his computer, and geez, they made a difference. i think he thought i was going to tell him to put them in a bag.
i can't rush into something like that. i don't have 4k laying around. no, i do, but i want it to stay where it is, in the savings account.
i could buy them, telling myself i'll pay myself back come tax time. but i am so disorganized with money it's not funny. really not funny.
got to be more than a couple of you old gits here who have had to do this. is this normal....here ya go..you can't hear....that will be four thousand dollars please.
i wouldn't even buy a car this quick.
and yet, i find myself doing a lot of the things he says happens,..not wanting to be in large groups of people, isolating a little bit, knowing it will be hard to participate.
he had me bring my wife and had her stand in the corner and read words to me. i missed half of them. but i must be cognitively impaired anyway. this father's day weekend i wrote "happy farmer's day" on a customers cake instead of what you'd expect. they're still laughing about it at work.

So your'e the one that mis-spelled my name on the birthday cake my staff gave me on my first birthday where I was brought in to reorganize a broken department. You should have seen their faces watching me when I read "Happy Birthday Mr. Raisinspell". I laughed till I ached. Just pulling the proverbial leg but that did happen to me a good 40 years ago now. Still laughing thinking about it.

I'm a young pup at 41, but there is a balance somewhere between being comfortably wealthy and being comfortable.

It sucks to have to decide between financial security and hearing your loved ones, but the older I get the more I realize the reason I'm here (to enjoy time with those who are important to me).

The other thing I might mention is, interest rates are nil right now. That 4k is not going to grow in the bank and if you are going to buy them later anyway, you might as well start enjoying your life more now

Do a little research, you may be able to knock a grand or so off. I know Costco is starting to sell caskets, why not hearing aids?

yes costco and sam's club have them just make sure you have a skilled audiologist who gets them set up well for you.

my sister just emailed me that costco is the place to go. the guy i saw yesterday said he works with people forever to keep you comfortable. you never have to pay for an office visit. how would one ever find an audiologist to do that if you didn't buy the units from him in the first place?
she also said something about sharpshooting lessons as a kid with no ear protection. yeah, the old man took us to the gun club and we shot 22s. lighting off a ruger single six 357 in the sandpits with nothing on the ears came much later, and only happened once because it was so uncomfortable. i did a lot of shooting in my thirties, but always wore muffs. made a lot of noise with power tools during that period and muffs, not so much. and of course, listening to loud obtrusive rock and roll through earphones probably didn't help. i once went to see james montgomery and got seated right next to a speaker and couldn't hear for three days afterwards.
there's a lot of possible contributing factors. i'm not ready for hearing aids, psychologically anyways. the guy said that using them would stimulate the nerves that are left in that frequency range. maybe. who knows. he was trying to close a 4k deal.

Bought them 10 yrs ago.they work to a point,I needed to hear things at work.When sent into forced retirement I quit wearing them, maybe two years ago,90% of the stuff people want me to hear,I have no interest in hearing.