Do you know someone that adamantly refuses to wear their hearing aid?


hearing aid
Jackie Blue asked:


My ex-father in law never wanted to wear his, so anytime we all went out to eat anywhere, he always looked to his wife to repeat everthing the waitress said. He spent several hundred dollars on the one he had. Is it true that if there is a lot of background noise, they do not work? What makes a hearing aid make a high pitch sound?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Senior Citizens. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

15 Responses to “Do you know someone that adamantly refuses to wear their hearing aid?”

  1. mister ed Says:

    i do not know the working of a hearing aid — but i do know a lot of folks who have them drawing dust on some shelf someplace!!! one of the things that will pust my button!!!

  2. Frou Frou Says:

    oh yeah, when my gran was alive she hated the thing
    and you were always talking to her, and shed do that nod and smile an say yesss
    when you just KNOW he hasnt heard a word
    but she just hated it and couldnt accept she had to wear it
    eventually she did tho, but it took about 20 years after her hearing went

    what can you do eh, they are old, stubborn and usualy proud!

    maybe his has some kind of fault, maybe its not adjusted right or maybe, hes just not wanting to wear it, get it checked out then see…
    im pretty sure my grans had some problem too, and she kept having to adjust it so it worked properly but i havnt a clue wht the deal with it was

    sorry cant help you more with that

  3. HappyCamper Says:

    Yesw, my Aunt paid over $2000 for hers and for a month she wore it and it was so nice. We’d go to a resturant and every one there could hear her talk. /but, after the hearing aid, she spoke normal and it was succh a joy. All a sudden she said it bothered her ears and she refuses to wear them. Now we’re back to yelling so she can hear us. SHe was always a little vain so she got the ones that you can’t even see. The clear tube is hidden by her hair and you can’t even tell she has them on. BUt. NOI she refuses. Now we all try to find ways not to go out to eat. We don’t want to hurt her and we don’t want the whole resturant to hear our conservations either. It’s a real mess.

  4. Ellie X Says:

    Sorry?…….Pardon????

    :))

  5. honey b Says:

    No sorry But i know people that needs to get one.

  6. nannywho Says:

    The whistle is because it is not adjusted properly. It is one reason people don’t like to wear them–that hurts. Also they magnify background noises that people are not used to hearing, which can be annoying and confusing for them.

  7. Suzianne Says:

    Oh, dear! It’s not just my mother?

    When we were going through the long ordeal of getting her tested, fitted, and having the devices adjusted, Mother’s doctor explained to us that a person has to get used to them. Refusal to wear them only leads to further deterioration of hearing. Frankly, there are days when I am fairly certain that refusal to wear them gives my mother an excuse to pretend she never hears me unless she wants to.

  8. fee_james Says:

    Jim the Fee responding.
    Yep! You are hearing from him right now. Even as I speak, I can tell you why I feel as I do about the two attempts I have had, so far, with trying to wear a hearing aid. Attempt # one
    took place about 30 years ago when I felt that my high frequency hearing loss was impeading my ability to do my
    job effecitvely. I had been given the full treatment hearing evaluation in a University sponsored speech and hearing clinic. So, I knew what was needed and I ordered one made for me by Telex. It worked fine for me for about 6 months and then it started to become more of a burden that a help.
    The technician that I was working with on “trying to save its
    working order” finally said to me. Fee it is time to put this one to rest and get a new one!! Well the first one had cost me $500 and had last for half a year. So, I sezs to him,
    Nope, I can get along fine without a hearing aid. And i did
    for almost another 15 years. But all the while my hearing abiltity was deteriorating. In and around 1989, I decided to get another hearing evaluation and (as was no surprise to me) I was told that the band of hearing loss was extending itself slowly but surely downward into the middle frequencies and I was nearly totally deaf in the high upper frequencies.
    Most of this was going on in my left ear; but the right ear was beginning to show wear and tear. By 1995, I convinced myslef it was time to go for a new hearing aid and had the
    ear specialist do the work on getting the mould for the new
    device and have it put together by another company. This one worked fine and I did not listen to the”pitch” I was being given about how much better a “matched pair” would be and they would only cost $3500 for the set. He said this with a staight face!!! I couldn’t believe he could sit there and talk so obscenely right to my face. Now it so happens that the single
    one I finally purchased was only $900 and it lasted almost
    a year before it lost its punch. So here I sit in 2008 and just out of curiousity I have recent checked on the prices of the
    new electronically enchanced really top-of-the-line set of
    new hearing aids that allow me to modulate and set four different wave bands to cover the whole spectrum of my hearing loss areas and all for only $3500 for EACH hearing aid.
    So, you who have an ex-father in law who doesn’t like to wear his less than $3500 hearing aid need to know one thing
    We who do need hearing aids would be much better off with a simple “ear horn” from the turn of the last century early
    1900’s vintage.
    All the other expensive little devices do is make the technicians and the manufacturers and the speech and hearing specialists very happy with a lot of our money.
    And all of the tuning they can do will not take away those high pitched squeeles that are intrinsic in the manner in which they are tuned up. Fancy smansy does not make it!!
    Go to radio shack and get a $50 or $75 device the amplifies
    the sounds that are coming in and improves your ability to hear to a degree. When the ambient noises in the environment gets too loud you simple turn the volume down.
    Or, you turn it off until you get out of that environment. Don’t
    put you men folks down and make them feel low because
    they can’t hear well in those noise environments. Keep in mind that the younger folks of today will be stone deaf by the time they reach 60 because of the noise levels in their everyday environment. Ask any Baby Boomer (or if you are
    one yourself) just get your hearing checked and see what the
    experts will tell you about your hearing losses. You live and let live on this one - ’cause you will be right in there with the rest of us in a very short time!!!

    Cheers,

    Jim the Fee

  9. Gone Too Long Says:

    My dad paid a fortune for his hearing aids (which my mother never let him forget
    every time he said “huh?)
    He put it like this to let me know why
    he hated to wear his hearing aids…

    DO THIS:
    Turn on every TV you have, and LOUD!
    Turn on every radio you have…also LOUD!
    Got any record players, CD players, etc?
    Turn everything you can find on….LOUD.

    That is how a hearing aid sounds.
    Everything is coming into your ears at the same volume, and it is enough to make you
    wish you were deaf!!!

  10. Doug Says:

    hunnnhhhhhh, you talkin to me? Momma says the frog legs are what I want. The meal comes, daddy says, what is this, chicken? I wanted shrimp. He never wore a hearing aid, god I wish he had.
    To answer the whistle in the background, I had an employee who would sit at his desk and everyone in the room could hear the whistle but him. He was a sweet man and one of us would go over to him and tell him he was whistling like a tea pot. He would laugh and turn it down, then we would not hear from him for hours because we could not hear the whistle, nor could he hear anything else. He died recently, and I do so miss him.

  11. katey cares 2 Says:

    You know, I have friends here in our senior housing commumnity who have hearing aids, that they hardly ever wear because they say the background noise is unbearable. I put my neighbors in my ears, it was very stressful to say the least to hear that screeching every once in awhile, three of my friends will not go out to eat with family any longer because they say that they cannot not hear what others are saying, and they refuse to wear their hearing aids, that is sad but true.

  12. William H Says:

    Old fashioned hearing aids were very conspicuous.I have just had my Digital ones(all free of course in U.K.)And they cannot be seen.Most have no problem wearing them now.

  13. Rob M Says:

    fearing spade? what are you talking about dear? im afraid you will have to speak a little louder!

  14. the mighty quinn Says:

    yes,my dog,everytime its raining and i want to put him out he goes deaf

  15. Windy Says:

    I don’t know how a hearing aid works. I know my Mom needs one, but she refuses to even go get checked,she’s 78yrs.
    Everyone has to talk really loud so she can hear, & even at that , sometimes they have to repeat themselves.

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