My first hearing aid

I've had Meniere's for over 6 years now, and my hearing loss (right side) has been high enough (60 dB or so) and consistent enough for my oto to encourage me to get a hearing aid. For over a year, I've resisted. Honestly at 43 I didn't want to deal with it -- the stigma, whatever... it was too much. But it's become harder and harder to to hear people talking to me in certain situations -- especially in restaurants, or at my daughter's (very loud) irish dance competitions, just for examples. I've been tuning our tv at home louder and louder, especially when watching programs where characters have heavy accents. My family has been patient but I know everyone was getting annoyed with having to repeat themselves (or sit with the loud tv).

So I bit the bullet and went in yesterday and am SO glad I did. Granted, I've only had the trial/loaner on for 24 hours now (minus sleep time) but it's already making a world of difference. Obvs my hearing ability has greatly improved -- and that's with it only tuned, for now, to about 40% because full strength to compensate for my loss was just TOO MUCH all at once. She said we will slowly turn it up over time as my brain adjusts. It's so nice to hear in proper stereo again! I can hear my dog snoring right now, and she's asleep across the room.

The biggest surprise though, and I know it's early days so this could change, but my two most troublesome symptoms of late, the fullness and the tinnitus are GREATLY improved. This aid does come with tinnitus settings and she demo'd them for me but I found the filters pretty annoying so opted to have them left off (the most popular one is chimes? That one drove me nuts in 5 seconds!). However just the presence of the aid itself, without the tinnitus feature, seems to greatly reduce the volume of my constant tinnitus. I think maybe because the auditory nerve is once again getting the stimulation it "needs"? The tinnitus is still there, but at like 15% of the volume. Even more surprising, the terrible fullness/pressure in my bad ear is greatly resolved, almost gone! Maybe it's just fluctuating right now, but this 24 hours now is a pretty long stretch for it to not "go bad" during that time. Many days, pre-aid, it's so full it's extremely painful. I can't think of or find any explanation for this very welcome side effect of the aid. My ENT husband is stumped as well. I'm HAPPY. Hoping it lasts.

Finally, my general feelings of imbalance have been nonexistent today too. Time will tell if this continues.

Anyway, if there are others out there in my shoes -- relatively young, and stubborn, about getting a hearing aid.... JUST DO IT. Take one for a test drive, anyway. You just never know. I wish I had done this a year ago when it was initially presented to me.