As of today, their pricing structure went up so I got mine prior to this. I have a 60 day trial period so I can return them for 100% credit including the shipping, if I choose to do so.
These are actually the style of digital hearing aid that was recommended to me by an audiologist that tested my hearing back in February at Miracle Ear here in Missoula (open fit, behind the ear). They were asking $2500 for each of their recommended hearing aid and I thought that was a lot of money (yes, it REALLY is a lot of money...!!!). Instead, I chose to try a couple of analog units I found online at Lloyds hearing (http://lloydhearingaid.com/) for $280 each, and these fit inside the ear that completely plugs the ear canal. They were NOT a good fit and not enough features for my various environments day-to-day. Yes, I chose them because of the PRICE and not because of the FUNCTION! I sent them back for refund after about 2 weeks, then did not follow up on something else until now.
Geri provided me with more incentive to 'get 'er done' and get another more suitable pair to get my hearing back where it should be. She reminded me that the longer I took to get my hearing corrected that it would only make it harder for my hearing to BE corrected back to where it should be.
I did a ton of research online including reading and participating on hearing aid forums with other like-minded individuals. The conclusions I came to were that the America Hears instruments were well worth trying out with little or no risk to my health or pocketbook. In fact, my hearing would improve.
Since my last hearing test was over 6 months ago, I went in to Miracle Ear and got retested so I could send a current audiogram in to America Hears. The audiologist at Miracle Ear is actually the father of one of my co-workers at Big Sky Motorsports! As before, he was extremely thorough in his exam, and in fact, I was in and out of the little sound proof booth several times as he got deeper into the testing. He conducted all the usual tests for hearing loss including a couple of different speech and word recognition tests. We spoke at great length of my loss and how to correct it, including my apprehension at choosing a local hearing aid provider instead of purchasing over the internet. He presented me with a pair of Miracle Ear HA's (Hearing Aids) to listen through, and I could tell a difference right away. He was additionally helpful even though I told him my reason for getting retested and that I intended to try the HA's from America Hears, from the Internet. He was quite curios about these aids and I told him I would share with him information on them, how and if they worked for me.
A bigger part of the reason I chose the open fit, behind the ear HA's from America Hears is that I can adjust them myself with the provided software and cables they give you with these HA's. There are many options for me with these in that I can adjust them myself -OR- have the company adjust them over the internet -OR- they send me a new profile that I can download and reprogram the HA's myself. The software program that comes with these allows FULL programming tweaking in 32 channels on 4 different programs.
I also have the help of several of those individuals from the Hearing Aid Forums (http://www.hearingaidforums.com/) that have the same HA's as I, with a lot of the same type of hearing loss as I, and have used the software as well. We share back and forth our experience with the software and hardware for a better understanding of both.
I will be wearing these every day now and give them a thorough evaluation. Hopefully this will be the only ones I will need!!!
Frag
