What's so great about hearing aids?

I have had my hearing aids for six months tomorrow. Are the hearing aids worth time effort and expense? For me they certainly are.

Pros:

It is much easier to hear my wife and actually understand what she is saying to me. A lot less guessing about what she is saying to me. Fewer misunderstandings and we laugh about them now.

Meetings and social events are a lot more fun. I did not realize how I was missing out on. Noisy places like Starbucks are tolerable now. I still think the architects and designers who design restaurants should be sentenced to work in them for at least a month.Too many of them are too damned noisy.

High tech hearing aids are cool, the hearing aid's ability to learn and adapt means I rarely adjust the volume any more. The blue tooth interface is a must with the Blackberry. It took a while for me to understand what the hearing aids were doing.

Zero issues with hearing aids or blue tooth. Easy to set-up and tweak. Battery replacement and routine maintenance only takes a few minutes a day.

My Subaru has turn indicator relays that make noise when you use them or leave them on. The tires also make a lot more noise than I thought. Never heard them until six months ago.

My vintage audio systems sound a lot better. Treble boost is now set flat.

Costco has great prices on hearing aid batteries, about half the price that Walgreen's wants for the same batteries.

Cons:

As expected the hearing aids can't fix all of my hearing issues. I still have a hard time hearing soft consonants and some conversations. 

My hearing aids are very small, easy to loose if I don't put them up. I lost them in a hotel room one night.

I get feedback on certain frequencies above 2000 Hz and a some volume levels while listening to some instrumental music. But the hearing aids are learning and adapting so this happens very infrequently.

Are the hearing aids worth $8000? Do they improve the quality of my life? You bet. I left the house one morning without my HA's and realized that something was wrong. It took a minute or so to realize that I left my ears at the house. Good thing I was only a a few blocks away so the return trip and remedy was quick.

If you think you have a hearing problem, get your hearing tested and may be even fitted for hearing aids. Life is too short and too much to miss out on any of it.