TheBanyanTree: the things we take for granted....

[Cecil]

At 11:46 PM -0400 7/8/04, Sachet wrote:
>
>
>Jim says he feels an incredible sense of responsibility now that he 
>knows he's carrying almost $5000 worth of hearing aids around in his 
>ears. Wow! When the audiologist said top of the line, he wasn't 
>kidding!
>
>They are worth every single penny.  I LOVE that my husband can hear. 
>I am so incredibly, ecstatically happy for his sake. A whole new 
>world has been opened up to him. And I gotta tell ya.....the 
>questions he's been asking me about some of the things he's hearing 
>for the first time are verrrrrrrrry amusing. Endearingly so. He can 
>even hear me whisper now.
>
>He also says he now understands why I ask for (demand) some quiet 
>time all to myself some days.
>
>:-)
>
>...Sachet

Like Jim, I've been told several times that there is very little help 
available for my hearing loss.  I keep reading about "breakthroughs" 
in hearing aid technology, but it's always the same story. They won't 
help me understand speech. My loss is smack dab in the middle of 
conversation range. I hear sounds, but words sound fuzzy. Volume is 
not the entire answer. Lack of clarity is the big problem. Bad vision 
can be easily corrected by prescription glasses, but  hearing aid 
manufacturers are not allowed to use the word "prescription" to sell 
their products.

I think hearing aids  are way overpriced. Heck, you can buy a good 
used car for the money they charge. Those tiny instruments can't be 
all that expensive to manufacture, but they've got you over a barrel, 
and greed is a universal human trait. If you are in the middle of the 
desert and dying if thirst, you will pay any price for a drink of 
water.

Yeah, even so, I would pay the price if I could find something that 
actually enables me to hear and understand speech. I'm not very 
hopeful, based on past experience.

Sachet, I'm happy that they work for Jim. A whole new world has 
opened up for him and indirectly for you as well. My congrats.

Cecil