Help for Hearing Impairment

Guardsman

The view from my garden when we had the snow last year...
Merry Christmas everybody.

Indie_Kid

Does anyone with hyperacusis have experience of MRI scans? I had to have 2 before I developed Hyperacusis and that was bad enough.

I did post on a Facebook group for people with Hyperacusis and was told not to have it. That's pretty stupid advice. I have a long term brain condition, which for the last 3 months or so has started to cause some rather worrying problems. It's something I need to have and can't really say no to it.

Savvy_Sue

sh1305 wrote: »

It's something I need to have and can't really say no to it.

then I would speak to the dept doing the scanning and discuss options with them. Also maybe contact Action on Hearing Loss?

I'd say I do have hyperacusis, but probably nowhere near as bad as yours. I have had several MRI brain scans, and although they're not pleasant I manage to 'zone out', although I'm always a bit wobbly afterwards.

Savvy_Sue

Just Listening Again to 'Hack My Hearing', which was on Radio 4 last Monday. Won't be available much longer, but there may be useful / interesting info on that page even if the programme has gone.

Hear-Hear

NHS-FUNDED HEARING AIDS

Since the middle of 2012, the NHS has been gradually rolling out the Any Qualified Provider facility, which means that people living in many areas of the UK no longer have to go to a 'Hospital' for supply of NHS-funded hearing aids. About 45% of England was included in this by mid-2013. The intention was to have the whole of England covered by end-2013.

However, the Dept of Health have now removed the direction and support for local Clinical Commissioning Groups, allowing them to roll out AQP as and when they see fit. As a result, there are now no plans to release any further AQP contracts anywhere in England. So, 55% of the population will continue to have no choice of where to go for hearing aid fitting and servicing. A sort of postcode lottery I suppose.

If you want to see whether you live in an area that gives you a choice of Hospital or High Street, a quick search on the NHS Choices website will bring up the AQP map. If you live in a 'shaded' area, you now have full choice of where you can go to get your NHS hearing aids. If you don't live in a 'shaded' area, choice will be denied to you until 2015 at the earliest.

littlemoney

I have lost an hearing aid somewhere in my garden. Despite a good look I can't find it. Does anyone know how much the NHS will charge me for a lost hearing aid.

Savvy_Sue

littlemoney wrote: »

I have lost an hearing aid somewhere in my garden. Despite a good look I can't find it. Does anyone know how much the NHS will charge me for a lost hearing aid.

Last time I lost one I think it was £70.

Savvy_Sue

So I requested a follow up appointment after they insisted I had to have a new hearing aid without a volume control. I hate it. I don't see how a machine can decide what I want to hear, or even what's important for me to hear. I know the theory that it's meant to adjust to my surroundings, but it doesn't. Also there's no easy way of checking if the d*mn thing is working - before I could just fiddle with the volume control, now I have to switch it off and on again, or switch to loop and back again.

Also I was given a different open fit mould, which drove me to distraction, I was forever fiddling, trying to get it comfortable, it was always irritating.

So, bit of a struggle to get to the clinic, because they are rebuilding the hospital, and I got caught up in the traffic jam which passes for a spine road, and then went the wrong way off the spine road so got caught up in the traffic jam again, and then couldn't park.

But once I did make it, I was told that I could have had a volume control, just it would mean having a larger aid. Infinitesimally larger, I might add. Also that the mould was the wrong sort. And if I'd never been happy with an ear mould, maybe I'd like to try a new kind, I think ambiental? Anyway, instead of going into the ear canal, it sort of sits in front. And it can be pink and sparkly, probably.

So, she's taken an impression so they can make that, and now I have to go on the waiting list for a new fitting. Sigh.

littlemoney

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Last time I lost one I think it was £70.

Oh dear not good news, more than I can currently afford. I will have to live with one for a while till I have saved up for the additional expense. Unfortunately not on any benefits so I won't qualify for any help.

Indie_Kid

I managed to survive my MRI scan. It wasn't as noisy as I remember it being before, which is good.