Ok, I'm OFFICIALLY an old man now.
Between the gunfire (the Army didn't issue ear plugs in my day) and Morse Code blasting in both ears for close to four years, I suffered some hearing loss while in the military. I remember after my exit physical, the doc said I checked out fine, but I was showing some hearing loss compared to my entry physical. It was no surprise to me. Well, it did nothing but slowly get worse over the years and quite a while back, the VA informed me I should consider hearing aids, but I just put it out of my mind and soldiered on. Ok, I FINALLY got tired of Lynn asking me to turn the volume down on the tv ... and SHE got tired of me constantly saying, "HUH?" whenever she said anything. I just got back from the VA a few minutes ago and after all my testing, they talked me into a set of hearing aids.
Man-o-man, they gave me like 10-12 choices ... teeny-tiny ones that go completely into the ear and are virtually "invisible", to the more conventional, "larger" behind the ear style. It seems the main differences were battery longevity ... some models needed a new battery every 2-3 days and others would last a week. The smaller, the more often the battery had to be changed and vicey-versy. I decided on a "medium" size, still much smaller than the old clunky hearing aids of days gone by ... in fact, they're basically invisible except for a very small portion behind the ear. They had all sorts of colors ... from flesh-tone to camo! (I kid you not) I LOVE blue and got a pair of bright blue ones ... (I'm too frigging old, fat, bald and ugly these days to display even the slightest bit of vanity, so why not add a little flair?
These things are the cat's meow! No batteries to change and they slip into their own charger at night. The charger even stores a charge so that it will still charge during a 2-3 day power failure. they are totally controlled by my iPhone ... a really hi-tech set of hearing aids. From my phone, I can control volume, pitch (treble/base adjustments) and it even has a bazillion settings (restaurant, concert, tv, etc, etc) and prolly a hundred things I've already forgotten. Get this, it even has blue tooth! If I have my cell phone and get a call, it goes through to my hearing aids. The technology in these things totally blew me away. All courtesy of Uncle Sam. I asked the doctor what these things would cost on the "outside" and was told $3000 EACH! Ouch! I had no idea hearing aids cost that much. $6000 just so Lynn won't yell at me to turn the volume down on the ol' teevee! :thumbsup
