Crossed another threshold (or is it milestone?) Friday. Got fitted for my first set of hearing aids. I’d previously tried out the hearing aid feature built into the Air Pod2, and saw that there was something to it, but it’s not the sort of thing you can wear around customers because it looks like you’re being rude and listening to music.
It wasn’t my intention to get hearing aids right now, but my mom died what, about 6 weeks ago?, and she’d been fitted with very nice (Oticon Intent 2) hearing aids just 5 months before that. It made sense to make use of them, and Kaiser, where she’d gotten them, was willing to kinda reassign them to me, as if I were the original purchaser… giving me access to their services in programming and fitting them. If you’re not aware, if can run literally thousands of dollars for an audiologist to “adopt” a hearing aid purchased elsewhere (such as, for example, Costco).
Getting used to them takes time! Just trying to put the tiny at the end into my ear is quite a struggle. It fits WAY in there, feeling like it’s almost directly up against my ear drum. Maybe it is! But trying to figure which way to wiggle it in is really, really tough. Especially the right side, which could be made worse by the arthritis in that hand. I’m supposed to wear them pretty much every waking moment, to get used to them, to retrain my brain for a different way of hearing, but on the bike, have to admit that so far, the Air Pod2 with its adaptive hearing mode is much, much better. Main problem with Air Pod 2 and me is they don’t seem to like the shape of my ears so I had to get these little accessory thingees that create a “hook” that snags one of the “crannies” in your ear.
Hmm. I said I “see” old people. OK there’s another issue, the eyes. I can see clearly close, I can see clearly far, but trying to change focus between the two is another thing entirely. Doesn’t affect me when riding, but at work, it’s a nightmare. Switching between talking with a customer, working on a bike and looking at a computer screen is challenging! Getting the eyes checked out Thursday morning and hope they find something that can be corrected.
I’m beginning to understand where the cranky old guy comes from.