Drying your hearing aids

It is inevitable that your hearing aids will get wet.  Unfortunately, if they get wet enough (and it doesn't take much) they will stop working.  The good news is, that the electronics are resilient enough that they will not stop working completely, but you will need them to dry out for a while before they start working again.

I have gotten my hearing aids wet many times throughout my life.  I've been caught in rain storms, I've forgotten to take them out when I stepped in the shower or jumped in a pool, and most commonly I've forgotten to protect my hearing aids from my sweat while I work out (I discuss working out with your hearing aids here).  Each time, I've been able to dry my hearing aids and they returned to normal function.

There are a couple of ways to dry them, but it takes time for your hearing aids to dry so you need a lot of patience.

First, Start by taking the battery out (if you have a battery) and opening the battery compartment completely.  Then separate the tubing (if you have tubing) from the hearing aid.  The key here is to expose as much surface area of the hearing aid to air as possible.  Then dab the hearing aid and battery dry with a towel or tissue.  

Second, If you have access to a blow dryer, I recommend using one of those.  However, it is important that you do not let the hearing aid heat up, as the electronics are extremely sensitive to heat.  So use a low heat setting.  

If you do not have a hair dryer you can also blow on the hearing aid or use a gentle stream of compressed air.

Gently blow air onto the hearing aid for a minute or two, and then let it rest for a little while.  Then repeat.  After about 5 minutes, test the hearing aid to see if it works.  If it doesn't, then repeat with the air until it does a few more times.  

Third, If the hearing aid doesn't resume working after a few attempts with blown air, then leave the hearing aid in dry rice, or a desiccator for several hours or overnight.

Finally, if the first three steps haven't gotten your hearing aid back to working order, then call your audiologist for further recommendations.  They may have some options for you, including giving you a loaner hearing aid which will allow you to get the wet hearing aid fixed without any further interruptions to your regular hearing.

Again, getting your hearing aid wet is inevitable, but fortunately hearing aids are resilient so don't panic, and be patient while you restore your hearing aid to its normal function.

Until next time, please keep in mind that if you need hearing aids and don't wear them, you should!  If you know someone who needs them and doesn't, do them a favor and talk to them.  If you need to, send them to this site.  It's ok to wear hearing aids, there are lots of us who do!

Protecting Your Hearing Aids While You Sleep

My family adopted a small, Cairn terrier (Shadow) when I was in elementary school (Kindergarten or 1st grade) and she would regularly sleep with me in my bed.  I remember that my mom was very insistent that I put my hearing aids in a place that would prevent Shadow from getting to them and eating them.  My mom claimed that animals would love to get a hold of my hearing aids and eat them or chew them up.  Growing up I was always skeptical of my mom's claim, but I listened to my mom and I never had a problem with Shadow trying to eat my hearing aids.

I usually stored my hearing aids in a bedside table drawer, and then as I got older and started playing sports and needed to dry my hearing aids out more often, then I left my hearing aids in a desiccator (a device that dries out the air and anything in them).  While I was at college, I kept my hearing aids in a drawer or on my desk since I didn’t have to worry about an animal eating them, and my roommates never showed any interest in wearing my hearing aids.

After college, I had a roommate with a kitten and I had forgotten about my mom’s warnings regarding protecting my hearing aids while I slept.  One night, the kitten did what it seems most kittens do and he knocked my hearing aids on the floor.  Fortunately, that is all he did and there was no damage to my hearing aids.  After that night though, I kept my hearing aids in a desiccator.

Throughout the years I have met people who were not as lucky as I was that night with my roommate’s cat.  In one case their dog completely ate both hearing aids and they only know because  the batteries caused the dog to throw up, and they found the hearing aid parts in a wet, sticky pile on the floor.  In another case, the dog shredded the hearing aids and left parts lying all over the bedroom.  In both cases, their hearing aids were destroyed and they had to get new hearing aids.  Turns out my mom was right!

I am fortunate now to have a dog who has incredibly good manners and doesn’t take things off of counters or tables, so I don’t keep the hearing aids protected when I sleep.  But, I do occasionally keep the hearing aids in a desiccant and I think as a general rule it’s good to store your hearing aids in a desiccant while you sleep.  Now that I have a daughter, I’m curious to see if I need to take more extreme measures to protect my hearing aids once she enters the mobile and curious stage of her life.

If you’re considering hearing aids, I do recommend that you assess your situation and take the proper measures to protect your hearing aids from children and pets.  If you’re in doubt, invest in a desiccant and then you can sleep in peace.

Until next time, please keep in mind that if you need hearing aids and don't wear them, you should!  If you know someone who needs them and doesn't, do them a favor and talk to them.  If you need to, send them to this site.  It's OK to wear hearing aids, there are lots of us who do!

Thank you for making it easier

Thank you for repeating what you just said.  Sometimes more than once.  I realize that it’s frustrating, especially if you need to repeat everything you say.  I’ve been there, with people who wear hearing aids and with people who need hearing aids.  It’s not easy to be patient, it’s not easy to repeat yourself so many times, but you have been patient and you have repeated yourself.

I spent this past weekend with some friends and I noticed that every time I spoke with one of them I asked her to repeat herself.

Every. Single. Time.

She didn’t get frustrated.

She didn’t say ‘Nevermind’ and end the conversation.

She didn’t stop talking to me because she was tired of repeating herself.

I can tell you that I was frustrated.  I wouldn’t blame her if she had said ‘never mind’. And I certainly wouldn’t have blamed her for finding someone else to talk to.  But she didn’t, and for that, I’m eternally grateful for such a wonderful friend.

It’s not easy to need hearing aids.  It’s not easy to ask people to repeat themselves so many times.  It’s not easy to depend on my friends, family, and co-workers to help me hear.

There have been many days and even weeks when I’ve been frustrated and angry about needing hearing aids.  There have been many times I wished I didn’t need them.  There have been times where I’ve felt ashamed of my disability.

And you know what?  That’s ok.

It’s ok to feel frustration, anger, rage, and shame.  It’s not easy.  I wish I could say it gets easier.  Surrounding myself with people who support me and who care make it easier.  Being patient and utilizing the tactics I discuss in this blog make it easier.  Wearing my hearing aids makes it easier.

To my friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances, THANK YOU for making it easier.

If you find yourself in my situation, realize that having hearing loss is not easy.  But getting hearing aids is a tremendous first step towards making life just a little bit easier.

Sweat and Hearing Aids

I have found that keeping my hearing aids dry is one of the most difficult things I must deal with (second to a dead battery).  It is very easy to keep them dry when I'm showering or swimming because I can simply take them out.  If I get caught in a rainstorm, I can also protect them using a raincoat, umbrella or by taking them out and putting them somewhere out of danger.  But, keeping my hearing aids dry when I sweat while I work out is not easy.

Because I wear behind-the-ear hearing aids (that aren’t waterproof), when I sweat, the electronics of the hearing aids are exposed to water which causes the hearing aids to stop working.  Then I must go through an extensive drying routine (which I’ll go into in a future post).

I have used several strategies to prevent my hearing aids from getting wet when sweat.  The first strategy is to have my hearing aid hang on the outside of my ear (instead of resting on top of my ear between the helix/antihelix and my head).  This way, the sweat accumulates away from the hearing aid.  This is an excellent way to keep the hearing aid dry when no other protection is available.  Unfortunately, this isn’t a very good way to keep the hearing aid protected from the physical impact that might knock the hearing aid out of my ear, so I do not recommend relying on this strategy very often.

The second is to put them into a hearing aid sweat protector like this or this (or google ‘hearing aid sweat protection’).  These protectors prevent sweat from entering the hearing aid and causing it to stop working.  I used these for years playing sports when I was a kid and I never had a hearing aid stop working due to sweat.

Finally, the third option and my most preferred option now is to wear a headband.  The headband sits between my head and my hearing aid and it stops any sweat from getting into my hearing aid.  I also like it because I don’t have sweat running down my forehead into my eyes or dripping off my head.  I realize that headbands aren’t necessarily stylish but looking weird is a small price to pay to keep my hearing aids dry so I can continue to hear while I work out and play sports.

I’m sure there are other strategies out there to keep hearing aids dry while working out, and if you have any to share please do so!  Keeping your hearing aids dry is important, not only so you can hear while your sweating, but I’m certain that it improves the performance and longevity of your hearing aid over time.

Until next time, please keep in mind that if you need hearing aids and don't wear them, you should!  If you know someone who needs them and doesn't, do them a favor and talk to them.  If you need to, send them to this site.  It's ok to wear hearing aids, there are lots of us who do!

What It's Like...to Not Have Hearing Aids

Guest Post - I've known Derek since 2002.  In that 16 year span, we've both grown up, matured, found our footing, harnessed our sarcasm, and transitioned from high school kids to full blown adults with careers and mortgages and, for one of us, children.  A lot of things have changed, but one thing that hasn't?  Derek still has hearing aids...and I still do not.   

I’d like to say that, when I first met Derek, the last thing I noticed was his hearing aids.  I’d like to say I never picked up on the slight differences in the way he spoke, in the tone of his voice. I’d like to say I saw past the obvious, that didn’t register at all.  I’d like to say all of these things…but I can’t.  Aside from the fact that Derek was tall, witty, and handsome, I noticed Derek’s hearing loss right away.

Initially, I probably did all the things people do when they notice someone is hearing-impaired or deaf:  I overcompensated.  I spoke and e-n-u-n-c-i-a-t-e-d my words differently– a bad habit I picked up from years of trying to communicate with my hearing-impaired grandfather. I was hyperaware of the way my lips moved when I talked, thinking about all the ways I shaped vowels and consonants in a way I thought Derek could hear them. I worried about saying the wrong thing, thinking a question or unrelated sarcastic comment would halt our friendship in its tracks. I thought about Derek differently, both as the person he was but also as a person who is hearing-impaired and navigating what I assumed to be a more complicated world.

I did what we all (probably) do:  I saw the hearing-impaired person, not the person with hearing aids.  And I saw this hearing-impaired person through the lens of my own imagination and biases and allowed that to be the first filter I applied to the friendship.

Then the cliché:  I got to know Derek. The whole Derek. And the whole Derek was hilarious, sarcastic, mischievous (emphasis on that one), engaging, friendly, competitive, and…”a typical teenage boy” in a way most other typical teenage boys were. Because of course he was. But let’s be honest, Derek was that way from the start.  It was I who had to peel back my own self-made barriers and reflect on judgments I had created to see it.

When we first meet someone whose differences we can see, who triggers something in us, the challenge isn’t in failing to see those differences or building a wall around personalizing something that clearly is not ours to own.  The challenge is taking those components in with the entire picture, of not seeing the parts but the whole.  Because to pretend that Derek doesn’t live in a world different from my own would be ridiculous – of course he does.  But to pretend that Derek’s differences define our every interaction is worse. 

In this vein, I can’t, and don’t, pretend my friendship with Derek is without specific differences.  I have be aware of what direction I’m facing when speaking to him. I have to be more mindful while communicating in situations that challenge verbal communication.  I have to be more purposeful in the way I say things like “Manu Ginobili sucks” or “I hate CSU” (wouldn’t want him hearing those things as “Go Spurs go” or “I’m proud to be a CSU Ram.”). But I have to do all those things not because I’m trying to place Derek in a separate box or treat him differently or coddle him. I have to do those things – choose to do those things…want to do those things…just do those things - because doing those things allows me to be a part of Derek’s life. 

I can’t speak to how being hearing-impaired has affected Derek – only he can do that. What I can speak to is how having Derek as a friend, and therefore befriending someone who is hearing-impaired, has affected me. And truly, aside from the initial predispositions (which were clearly all mine and served as a good self-check and life lesson) and the slight variation in the way we communicate, the rest is…well, delightfully boring. Because in the end, people are great friends because they become great friends and are incredible people because they become incredible people. And as we well know, incredible people, like Derek, aren’t defined by their disabilities, their challenges…by their separate parts – they’re defined by the sum of their being, which in Derek’s case, just happens to include hearing aids.

Closed Captioning at the Movies

A few months ago, I wrote about closed captioning.  In that article, I mentioned that I don’t like to go to the movies because of the options available for hard of hearing people aren’t very good.  In my experience, the movies which had closed captioning on the screen weren’t played with any regularity or at very convenient times to make that a viable option.  Also, the closed caption devices which displayed the dialogue on the screen through a device which is held only by the person that needs it were not very good at keeping in place with the dialogue.  For example, the captioning would either be a few seconds ahead or behind of the actual dialogue playing in the movie, which is incredibly difficult to deal with.  Because of this experience, I have avoided going to movies and have opted to skip seeing the movies in the theater and to wait for them to come out on DVD or streaming service, which have closed captioning.

Well, this spring and summer have a massive lineup of new releases which I would love to see on the big screen. I decided to test the closed captioning devices out on two movies this weekend and I’m thrilled to report that in both cases the closed captioning devices work without a glitch and now I’m to see all the movies I’m anxious to see on the big screen!

I began by asking the ticket counter where to get a device which in both cases was the ticket counter.  They asked me which theater I was going to be in so that they could give me the right device.  The devices they gave me have a screen attached via a long, flexible arm to a piece that fits securely into a cup holder.  I had to apply a little effort to get the device into the cup holder, but it didn’t budge for the rest of the movie.  I then positioned the captioning screen so that it was just below the bottom of the movie screen in my field of vision.

I will admit that it did take a while to get used to moving my eyes from the movie screen down to the captioning screen, but the movies I saw contained dialogue from people with strong accents which I’m certain I would not have heard or understood if I hadn’t had the captioning device.  Using the device was well worth the adjustment and greatly outweighed any inconvenience.

I give many kudos to the companies that have made this captioning device functional and simple to use. I was also incredibly impressed with the staff at the theaters who made sure that I was familiar with the devices and had employees test a device when the movies started to ensure that they were working properly. That’s incredible attention to detail! These devices will greatly enhance my movie-going experiences and I no longer must wait for movies to come out for home use to be able to see them!

Until next time, please keep in mind that if you need hearing aids and don't wear them, you should!  If you know someone who needs them and doesn't, do them a favor and talk to them.  If you need to, send them to this site.  It's ok to wear hearing aids, there are lots of us who do!

Reading Lips

I have written before about advocating for yourself, what to do if a hearing aid battery dies, and meeting new people.  I also try to mention in every single post about the realities of wearing hearing aids and how you 1) You need to wear your hearing aids, 2) Your physical location will help you hear better, 3) Water is not your friend and 4) It is not enough to just wear your hearing aids.  Well, the skill I want to talk about today is an extremely powerful tool to help you hear and covers items 1, 2 and 4 I listed above.

That tool is Reading Lips.

I am not an expert on how to develop this skill because I don’t remember how I did.  I suggest that you search the internet, talk to your Audiologist and to a speech pathologist about things you can do to develop your lip-reading skills.  However, I do want to impress upon you that it is a skill that is invaluable, and I’d like to give you a couple of examples of why it’s important.

When I meet new people, besides acknowledging that I wear hearing aids and answering their questions, I usually tell them that I read lips and if I am not looking at them, they should assume that I can’t hear them. Also, maybe they could wait until I look at them before saying whatever they need to say.  This is especially true in restaurants or places where there is a lot of background noise.  Hearing Aid technology has come a long way with regard to reducing background noise, but they aren’t perfect and the background noise can interfere with regular conversation.  The cool thing is, in loud situations with a lot of background noise (restaurants, concerts, bars, sports events, etc.), I’ve found that being able to read lips means that I can ‘hear’ my conversation partners better than they can me!

When I was younger, my family and I agreed that if they wanted to talk to me and I was in another room in the house, that they or I would move to the same room so that I could see them when they wanted to talk to me.  This follows ‘assume when I am not looking at you, I can’t hear you’.

Reading Lips comes in handy in situations where you find yourself unable to wear your hearing aids.  For example, at the swimming pool, in hot tubs, sauna’s, the shower, or most occasions involving water.  I plan to write about water in future posts, but for now, know that water and hearing aids don’t mix (unless they’re waterproof).  I’ve been able to participate in many water-based activities in part because I can read lips and because I have wonderful friends and family who understand that I can’t hear them unless I’m looking at them.

Some things make reading lips more difficult: Heavy facial hair (especially mustaches), people who talk without moving their lips very much and people talking with their mouths full of food.  In those situations, I usually find myself asking people to repeat themselves more often or to slow down when they talk.

Conclusion

It takes time to develop the skills necessary to read lips.  However, I strongly believe that reading lips is a huge part of my hearing.  While my hearing aids are wonderful at helping me hear, reading lips provides another way for me to hear the subtle nuances of speech which I cannot hear even with my hearing aids.  I suggest that you talk with your audiologist and a speech pathologist and make a deliberate effort to develop those skills.  They will immensely improve your interpersonal quality of life and help you when you’re in conversation with your colleagues, friends, and family.  Don’t forget to advocate for yourself and make sure that your conversation partner knows that you can’t hear them unless you’re looking at them.

Until next time, please keep in mind that if you need hearing aids and don't wear them, you should!  If you know someone who needs them and doesn't, do them a favor and talk to them.  If you need to, send them to this site.  It's ok to wear hearing aids, there are lots of us who do!