One Year Later

One year later my hearing test was OK. No additional hearing loss. My efforts to use hearing protection have paid off well. The "muff" style protectors are too hot to wear for very long but they are fine when using the miter saw and other equipment. My molded plugs are more comfortable for longer tasks.

My hearing aids are working as designed without any issues. I have come to the conclusion that cell phones make lousy phones. Blackberry's are small and powerful and are a real challenge to use as a phone. The microphone is too far from your mouth IMHO.  The Bluetooth interface with the hearing aids has been a huge benefit for me. I use it several hours a day.

Life is good and I am enjoying a lot more since my hearing has improved. 

Bluetooth, or Crazy Person?

 from net article on Ten Most Annoying Smartphone habits,

Bluetooth, or Crazy Person?
OK, we admit it. If you have just the right fashion sense to go with it, your Bluetooth can make you look like an awesome sci-fi movie cyborg.
But remember, to half of the world, you just look like you're jabbering away to no one in particular.
If you're walking, it makes it awful hard to tell the difference between you and a raving homeless person. And if you're sitting next to us, say in a restaurant or on the subway, listening to you have a one-way conversation into the void is just annoying.

No Bluetooth headset required so most folks assume I am talking to myself when in some cases is a good thing.

Not Perfect But Better Than Nothing, Guess Less

I had one of hearing aids checked out today because of an issue with the speaker wire. While I was waiting my audiologist asked me how I liked my hearing aids.

Wearing my hearing aids

I guess less about what someone is saying to me.

Soft consonants are still very hard for me to understand. No surprise, I expected this based on my hearing tests.  Penny also mentioned this when I was fitted for the hearing aids.

The hearing aids are very light and comfortable. It's not unusual for me to wear them 15 or 16 hours a day and I forget I have them on.

The Bluetooth interface with my Blackberry is very cool and usable. People look at me when I am on the phone because they don't realize I am talking on the phone, no headset! The battery on the Streamer gets low after a couple of hours on the phone. I carry a charger in my car for the Streamer.

I didn't realize how noisy my Subaru Forester is above 50 mph until I try to use my Blackberry. I think I can hear about every other word. Most of the time I stop to talk on the phone. Much safer too.

No hearing aids will replace the hearing I have lost but life is much better with them.

Bagpipes and Hearing Aids, it's Not Rock and Roll

Several times a year I am privileged to hear bagpipes close up and personal at masonic lodge functions that I attend and participate in. I love the pipes and the traditional tunes. The pipes played indoors in small rooms create some interesting harmonics and present a challenge to my hearing aids, being loud and louders. Doing some research I found out that the British Army has looked into this. See below

Over the years there has been many discussions if playing in a pipe band can lead to hearing damage or loss. With many tests done and surveys conducted one can conclude that members of a band could indeed sustain hearing damage.

Without hearing protection, members face a serious risk of lasting hearing damage as decibel levels are over 90. Outdoors it has been recorded that pipes can reach decibel levels ranging between 108 to 111. 111 decibels is equivalent to how loud a pneumatic drill is.

Indoors, pipes can reach decibel levels up to 116, which is as loud as a chainsaw. Snare drums can hit up to 122 decibels. The noise level is louder than the sound produced by a jet engine at take off.

In 2006, the Ministry of Defence in Britain ordered Army bagpipers to limit playing indoors 15 minutes a day and 24 minutes a day when playing outdoors. If the piper wants to play longer they have to wear ear protection.

So we can stop telling the kids to moderate their IPod volume and limit our appreciation of the pipes to about 15 minutes indoors. I think next time I will turn my hearing aids off.

Can Pills Make Make Me Loose My Hearing?

Some time ago, there were articles posted that Viagra causes a hearing loss. Some consider it an an occupational hazard for men in the Porn industry. There are other medications that can effect your hearing even if you don't use Viagra. Some of the hearing loss is temporary while other effects are permanent.

Viagra Hearing Loss Study

List of some medications that effect your hearing

Study: 30% increase in teens with hearing loss

I wonder if the numbers are going up because the screening is getting better. Doesn't look like hearing aid manufacturers or audiologists have to worry about a lack of customers.

Excerpt from the study

" The type of damage found by researchers conducting the study isn't usually associated with exposure to loud noises, although doctors aren't ruling out blaring music as a possible cause. Some audiologists say the causes may be related to an increase in certain genetic disorders, for example, or the fact that premature babies, who are often more susceptible to hearing loss as they get older, have better survival rates than ever before.
Whatever the reason, 30 percent more of today's teenagers have some level of hearing loss compared with their peers in the late '80s and early '90s, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. One in 20 youths between the ages of 12 and 19 has enough damage that it may impact the ability to listen and learn.
"That's a huge jump in hearing loss," said Dr. Lawrence Lustig, director of otology and neurotology at UCSF. "You really need to start doing some much more intense testing on these kids" to determine what is causing it, he said."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2010%2F08%2F17%2FMN4B1EVC81.DTL#ixzz0wzN7Dsqs

Study: 30% increase in teens with hearing loss Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2010%2F08%2F17%2FMN4B1EVC81.DTL#ixzz0wzF9BFN8

Fun with Sensormatic Theft Detection systems

You know those theft deterrent systems that some stores use? They are the white tags that in books, clothes and other merchandise that have to be removed or deactivated or the alarm goes off when you pass by the antennas mounted near the stores exit doors. My hearing aids and or Streamer trips the buzzer, going in or out. Most of the time I keep on walking unless some asks to check my bag. Sometimes I don't have a bag and all I get is puzzled looks and "never mind".