Can you hear me NAO?!

Personal things this month. Back in June I had yet another amusing adventure that my phone wasn't working which I quickly concluded that this time it was my hearing aids and not the phone itself. I say "this time" as there have been a few adventures of me buying/trying half a dozen phones out before coming to the realization what was the exact problem.

So the T-coil option on my aids (which enables me to hear on phones) clunked out... again. It's the 3rd time in six years with these aids. Because the aids were 6 years old and the cost to fix them was now half the price of a new aid, my audiologist and I mutually agreed that it's time for new aids. I really can't afford new aids right now, but I decided to suck it out and purchase some shiny new $4000 aids. It's like buying a new laptop for each ear. And of course people think that because these aids are NEWER, BETTER, FASTER, it'll mean that I can hear NEWER, BETTER, FASTER!

Newer? Actually yes. Very much so. When I was fitted with the new aids, everything and everyone sounded completely different - either an octave or two in different directions. Or sharp/flat tones in several voices. This wasn't a shock to me. I've expected a lot of transition to the new sounds over these past few weeks. This involved two things: me looking like a foreigner in new country (you know, those ppl who look totally dumbfounded and lost trying to understand their world around them) and headaches galore with trying to mentally reteach myself to hear. It is quite mentally tiring.

Better? Most people make the mistake that hearing aids "fix" the problem. No, I am still deaf dammit. Can a guy on crutches walk normally? Of course not! They hobble along, but its still considered "walking". Same goes with hearing aids - do I hear normally? Hell no. But with them I can communicate with the Hearing world much better than without. For the record though, some sounds/voices do sound clearer. But I still can't hear some tones/beeps. Nor filter out the accents in people's voices. And of course when some folks yell at me, it's like I'm watching their lips flap away with a vuvuleza buzz filling the air.

Faster? What is this? The gimp Olympics?

For settling in with the new gizmos, so far, I've been impressed. My audiologist (bless her patient soul) and I have tweaked around with the aids to my personal settings. She also made me aware of some nifty T-coil wire loops that connect into your MP3/ipod player. Rather than using painful headphones that pinches the aids against your skull, these babies connect into the T-coil option. Now I'm enjoying ipodish music relatively looking like most folks and the sound quality would be considered surround sound in your head. Of course I've never truly heard what surround sound is. But what? You're going to argue with the Deaf chick?

So then - phone back, MP3 crisper, and everyone sounding like different people. Interesting month indeed.

Music then - how about some Bob Seger's Old time Rock n' Roll? I was karaoking last Friday night... it was on the playlist. No, no one took off their pants and paraded in their socks.