Twelve for lunch

I've been a bit remiss what with prep for the family lunch...

But the hearing support was a great success during lunch for twelve. This is the first time for as long as I can remember where I've had a sociable experience at a big table. I'm looking forward to trying it out when we're on holiday in the Caraibe over Xmas. Usually I find large tables with various friends rather trying. So eventually I don't try. I'm rather hoping for some superior performance with the Phonak. These social occasions are one of the big tests and so far it looks (?sounds) good.

I don't think It's going to be a help aboard keelboats though. When asked, Ben said it was 'sort of water resistant'. That doesn't seem to me to be the same as waterproof to 2 meters - which is what would be required.

Cooking, however, was still not a joy. Trying to manage 5 rings, two ovens, two timers, the kettle, the magimix and listen to the wife, the son and the housekeeper - all of them on my right (non-hearing) side was all just a bit too much...I took it out.

I'm still trying to work out whether what I hear is what most people hear or whether my experience is somehow different. I still keep hearing things that I haven't heard before such as a very high pitched whine made by the spin dryer. My son says it's always sounded like that. But I'm still not convinced that we're hearing things in the same way.

The story (abbreviated) and the tech...

Once I'd decided that I could probably use hearing support I made an appointment at the Cromwell Hospital for a pure tone hearing test and a hearing aid consultation.

I'd had a pure tone hearing test two years ago and I wanted to compare the results with the results at that time. Two years ago the audiologist said my hearing loss was mild to moderate and that I might try a hearing aid but that if I was used to this sort of loss then I would probably be OK. The hearing loss was most noticeable in the 4-8KHz range.

This time there was a significant dip in the 4-8K hearing with a peak loss at 6KHz. . This was certainly worse than the previous test.

Following the test I had a hearing aid consultation. I tried a Siemens 'Pure' 701 - the Siemens flagship model and it certainly was a revelation. Whilst it was only marginally programmed whilst wearing it I could hear a conversation in the office next door. I wandered out onto the Cromwell Road and the sound was certainly much more intense than I had experienced before. But the quality of the sound was very 'tinny'.

I was told that the Cromwell would supply all the major brands of hearing aid and that there was no difference in the pricing for any of them. But in further conversation it became clear that they are basically a Siemens supplier.

Prior to the appointment I had looked at all the main hearing aid suppliers on the web. I was amazed to find that there are six and seven companies in this marketplace and with a wide range of products.

Actually it was this research that eventually helped me to decide that it would be OK to try a hearing aid. Whilst there were some self-image things also holding me back, one of the main reasons I had not wanted to try a hearing aid was because I had thought that the earpiece was a tight fit in the ear and blocked out all other sound.

My research showed me that hearing devices can now have an open-fit earpiece - that does not completely fill the ear and is vented - that is - it has holes in it. It turns out that these have been around for a while. In fact, my father has a set like this. I tried Pop's a while ago and whilst they were nowhere near programmed for me they were at least comfortable. So what with open fit and my experience with Pop's and my hearing loss I decided to look at what was on the market.

Siemens is clearly the market leader. But the manufacturer that caught my eye was Phonak. A some of you will know I'm a bit of a geek at times and the bit of the Phonak story that I noticed was the capability of their latest chip.

Inside every hearing aid is a tiny bit of silicon facilitated by Moore's Law. This tiny piece of silicon is a 'DSP' a Digital Signal Processor' - this is the clever bit that allows frequencies to be manipulated. Phonak had been working for some time developing extension specs for some neat ARM cores. It seemed that their latest chip design was processing at about double the speed of the equivalent Siemens chips - over 200 million operations per second all on 65 nanometer chip technology .

This allows the Phonak instruments to package a range of functions that I believed would be especially useful for me. These included the ability to zoom to a particular range or to narrow the focus of hearing to a particular width as well as technology to compress and represent higher frequencies at a lower range.

However it was clear that the Cromwell had very little experience with Phonak devices. More research on the web and I found 'Click Hearing'. Based in Essex this company also provides consultations in Harley Street - which is very convenient for me. It's also clear that Ben, the principal audiologist is also a bit of a gadget geek...(more on his proposed sound system later).

Click Hearing were able to provide some more Phonak specific advise and to allow me a 30 day trial with a Phonak device and that's sort of where we are.

I'm going for a follow up consultation on Friday but I've already decided to keep with Phonak. I'm going to change the colour though to a darker grey.

This week, though, I'm going to start training my listening. Hmmm, I have a 6 week course that I used to teach to 10 year olds on listening. I wonder how much like that it will be? The listening course is from Neurotone headquartered in beautiful downtown Redwood City and rejoices in the titles LACE for Listening and Communications Enhancement.

More on this later...

Janelle Monáe

I went to see cyber-diva Janelle Monáe in a small theatre in London. You won't need hearing support for that I hear you say. But...

My hearing loss affects high frequency sounds (more on this later). Janelle Monáe can screech like a banshee and her drummer boasts 7 varied Zildjian cymbals. My hearing aid selectively amplifies the range where my hearing loss is worst (more on this as well, later). Would it offer an extra dimension to this concert experience?

The concert was very loud. I was glad we were on tier three as it would probably have been untenable in the stalls. Monáe's show is highly produced and the PA was adding significant amounts of reverb and a wealth of other effects.

Ben, my hearing consultant has set up just three programmes on the instrument to start with and there's also an 'automatic' setting (more about this as well later...). One of the programmes he set up is designed specifically for music.

We set this up in the consulting room whilst listening to a string quartet. It's designed absolutely to push the HF sound, making violin harmonics that I do remember hearing in the past but haven't heard more recently available, but also selectively boosting the mid ranges of the cello. This programme took the greatest time to set up during the consultation and, when we were done, I was very satisfied...But it's not going to do for live R&B.

I experimented with all the programmes and using the Music programme it was clear that I was hearing the frequencies, harmonics and overtones that were otherwise lost. But in the noisy environment and with the volume turned right down the tonal balance was way off.

I'm not discouraged though. I guess this is a big ask and it may be that we won't find a setting that'll be suitable for for over-amplified popular music. But there's still plenty of space for other programmes on the device and we'll try out a few more during my follow-up consultation in two weeks.

I have yet to try out the current music programme in the Purcell Room which I guess it was designed for really.

Meanwhile eating in a Syrian restaurant prior to the concert I was very pleased with the narrow directional programme that allows me to focus the amplified zone both in width and range. So I was able to hear my guest even in this rather noisy urban space.

Cooking is confusing but conversation cool

The cacophony continues...Everything in the kitchen sounds different. The gas, the oven, the kettle and the extractor all have a quality of treble that I haven't heard before and it is confusing, since I still don't have any spatial sound sense. I'll have to re-learn the sounds.

Cooking Richard Olney's calves kidneys with mushrooms and a pilaf was a bit ragged as I got distracted with all the different sounds. What is good is the oven's beeper. Previously I couldn't hear this if I wasn't in close proximity to the oven. But it now cuts through the rest of the noise. What's also good is that I heard the front door buzzer.

Conversation, however, was brilliant. Usually I have to get my wife to come around to the left side of me to be able to hear her when I'm cooking and the extractor fan is going but I was able to hear her when I was at the stove even with the extractor on.

A in a similar vein I was able to hear her when the TV was on as well. I usually have the TV on in a setting that she and my son find too loud. But with the TV adaptor I can have the TV sound in my ear and still have ambient sound from the room as well.

It is literally years since I have been able to concentrate on and respond to two different speech streams simultaneously. This is good...

Hubbub, chatter and speaking in tongues...

I've been wearing the instrument for just 2 hours now and a whole new soundscape has opened up.

My mate Stephen told me it would be noisy and it is. But for the moment it's a wonderful noise. I came back via Selfridges food hall, the Central line, Circle line, Partridges and the 319 bus.

Everywhere there is hubbub, but, out of the hubbub I can hear conversations. I can actually hear what people are saying to one another on the tube and on the bus.

The funny thing is that so many of them were speaking Russian or Polish with a smattering of Spanish. And I could tell those languages apart. When English was being spoken I could follow conversations without trying at all...

Is this what it's like? Can everyone else hear those things? I have no recollection of experiences like this from even when I was much younger. Perhaps I've just forgotten.

Now I'm back at home the sound of my keys jangling as I unlocked the door, the sound of the patio door swish, the sound of this keyboard and even the flush of the loo have so much more top end.

For the moment, at least, I am like a pig in a poke...

Learning to hear

After several years of not listening to my wife I have got real and accepted that I really have a lot of trouble hearing things in a wide variety of situations.

Actually, I've always had a lot of trouble - that's why it's been difficult to accept that I might need support. I've been completely deaf in my right ear since birth and have been dealing with that ever since. Most of the time I've convinced myself that 'if I just get myself in the right place' it'll all be fine. And sometimes it has been.

But over the last few years what's been happening is that I've begun losing the higher frequency hearing in my left ear, as y'do at my stage, and the impact of that on my overall hearing has been much greater than if I'd have had two working input channels.

I've grown used to life in mono...but just cover one eye and see what it does to your 3D vision. Ears are just the same and I have never had any spatial or directional hearing. Now I can't hear the top end...and I need help.

So, after several conversations with learned audiologists I've ordered a hearing aid...and I'm picking it up this afternoon.

They say it'll take 6 months to a year to 're-learn' the way I hear. It's true, I've certainly learned more recently to ignore stuff I can't hear and I've always 'interpreted' what I've heard - sometimes with total misunderstanding.

So this blog is mostly for me - a log of re-learning, but if anyone is interested in reading or engaging with my experience you're most welcome.