Thanks for sharing your experience, Doreen.
My loss is actually quite different than yours: The low frequencies
are borderline normal, with the middle dipping way into moderate
range, then rising to mild for the higher frequencies. I'm not really
sure what that means practically speaking... Doesn't look so bad on a
speech banana, yet I do feel like I miss a lot of conversations,
especially quiet ones. In the dark I'm practically hopeless.

I can see how that voice recognition thing would be annoying! Thanks
for telling me about it; I'll make sure to check it out before
choosing a unit.

As for the ticking clock et al, my concern is that I already find
these sounds annoying when I hear them. Usually I don't hear them,
but for example, we have one clock that ticks really loudly, and I
cannot study in that room unless I remove the clock first! I am
constantly getting up to give faucets that extra twist off that other
people don't get... So I'm not sure what would happen if I could
suddenly hear EVERY clock ticking and water dripping!

Can you please tell me more about the Pocket Talker?

--- In deafnessandhearingloss@yahoogroups.com, Doreen Pettipas
<dodiepettipas@...> wrote:
>
> I had a moderate-mild loss (my loss is reverse slope, meaning the
greatest loss is in the lower tones) when I was in college.  That is
when I got my first hearing aid.  I am also sensitive to certain
sounds.  My newest aids had a feature that I had to have turned off,
it drove me nuts.  Basically, if it didn't register any speech sounds
or other loud sounds it would go into a sort of "sleep" mode.  Then
when sounds it thought were important came in it would build back up
in volume.  It was really annoying.  The day after I got the aids we
went to the creek.  The kids went exploring with my husband and I was
sitting enjoying the peace and quiet.  Then I noticed that I could no
longer hear the babbling creek.  But when one of the kids shouted hi
to me, the babbling sound of the creek came back.  It was really
driving me nuts.
> I do hate certain environmental sounds, but you actually learn to
tune those small things out like hearing people do.  The ticking
clock doesn't seem to bother me as much as it did when I first got my
aids. 
>
> Basically, the benefits of having a hearing aid definitely outweigh
the negative aspects.  Yes, you will still have difficulty in noisy
crowds, but many aids have noise reduction features or directional
microphones to help with this.  Also, there are many assistive
devices that help with this also.  Harris Communications has many of
these devices (things like the "Pocket Talker").  They can get
expensive, but if you need them frequently they are well worth the
cost. 
> I honestly miss the days when my hearing loss was only moderate.  I
now have a profound-severe loss in my right ear with no speech
recognition and a severe-moderate loss in my left ear. 
>
> Good luck with the decision.
>
>  
> Dodie
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: think613 <think613@...>
> To: deafnessandhearingloss@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 9:02:39 PM
> Subject: [deafnessandhearingloss] Hearing aids vs sensitivity
>
>
> Hi!
>
> I have a mild/moderate hearing loss, not that bad in general but
> there are situations where I really feel the loss and I'd invest in
> hearing aids if it could help. So I'm looking for advice from
people
> who have hearing aids and can tell me how much it helps or not.
>
> My problems are biggest in quiet, hushed conversations, or in dark
> places where I lack visual cues (think sleepovers, dim
restaurants) .
> At other times I think my hearing is close enough to normal that
aids
> probably wouldn't make such a big difference, but it would probably
> be worth wearing them anyway if I had them.
>
> The big issue is this: my ears are very sensitive. I am sensory-
> defensive in general (it's a subcategory of sensory integration
> disorder) and lots of noises annoy me. I'm afraid that even the
most
> sophisticated programmed aids would amplify things like ticking
> clocks, buzzing electricity, etc., and drive me crazy.
>
> Also, if it would amplify the background noises as well, will it
> really help me hear better or will it be more of a pain?
>
> Help! I don't know what to do! Is it worth pouring half of my
year's
> pay into this? (I work part-time while in college) One reason why
I'm
> considering this now is also because I hope to get married sometime
> soon and I'm afraid to enter an intimate relationship with this
> problem. I live at home now, and I sometimes have arguments with my
> parents (aging and probably also losing their hearing somewhat)
> because of misunderstandings, often because someone didn't hear
> correctly. Is this a normal part of life that one just needs to
> patiently deal with, or is it something that I should invest in
> hearing aids to correct?
>