http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=381x198Man, my fellow alum Skins has got to do something about developing some of the lesser forums on Skins's island.
It's pathetic, when a horse-shoery in real life is more bustling and busy than the automotive forum on Skins's island, or when the primitives haven't ever heard of the deaf and hard of hearing forum.
DavidD Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sat Sep-02-06 11:05 AM
Original message
Hearing aid in the shop
Up on the hoist. Mechanics underneath examining the chassis with flashlights and frowns.
Or maybe they have to use a microscope.
One of my hearing aids died, and the audiologist sent it back to the manufacturer (Starkey) for repairs. In just over a year, this is the second time this has happened. (I think the previous time was the other hearing aid, but I'm not sure.)
This doesn't seem too bad to me, but I wondered about the experience of other people. How does this seem to you? Excessive, surprisingly rare, reasonable?
Whoa_Nelly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Thu Sep-07-06 11:45 AM
Response to Original message
1. Mine were only sent back to make new ones when it turned out I was allergic to the "skin" coloring dye. The part that goes in the canal made my ears itch like crazy. I received new aids that have no dye (are clear). I have Oticon.
I dunno.
Being utterly totally deaf (born that way), there was one time I decided to try out bone-conductors, which send sound-vibrations to sensitive areas in the skeletal structure. I was advised it was a waste of money, and necessitated getting a pair of eyeglasses, but I tried it anyway.
(No place to hang eyeglasses on the head, where ears would be if one had ears; when younger, I used to use shoe-laces--those stupid flexible things never worked--tying the eyeglasses on, and of course my long hair covered up the shoelaces. When I was in college, I finally gave it up, and switched to contact lenses.)
These were made by Siemens of Austria; pretty much the state of the art, nothing better.
$6400 per; I had two of them.
I used them for about a year and a half.
Contrary to popular opinion, they did help, but adding circa 5% of "hearing" to 0% of hearing, well, it just wasn't cost-effective.
Hearing instruments are NOT made for the physically vigorous.
The biggest problem in my instance was sweat, and it takes only a mini-microscopic drop of sweat to short-circuit all of the electronic circuitry in one of these things.
When the outside temperature rises above circa 60 degrees F, franksolich sweats like a pig.
These instruments were covered by one-year guarantees, free repairs.
The first 12 months, they had to be sent in five times; and it was a cool summer that year, too.
After the warranties expired, the next 6 months, I sent them in two times.
But with repair charges of circa $500 each time, I gave it up.
