Hearing Aids and What to Expect at a Fitting

[GUITAR MUSIC]

I was born hearing, which is the reason why, with a loss like mine, that I could actually speak so clearly.

When I was 15, I had a sudden onset of hearing loss. And it was basically overnight, came to where I am now.

[GUITAR MUSIC]

I was subjected to a lot of ototoxic drugs – antibiotics, basically. The bad news is it's pretty serious. It's severe. But the good news is it hasn't changed.

Because I played in a rock band. Everybody played in a rock band back then. And when I heard someone playing classical guitar, I thought – because I was already a pretty good guitar player – that this would be cool.

I wouldn't have to worry about a drummer or a bass player. This is just going to be me. And I don't know, apparently, I was pretty good at it. It's because I kept going at it and kept going at it. And I kept it through college. And I majored in it in college.

Well, I stopped playing around 1990 – I was probably close to 40, around there, when I decided that I was going to move into a different field.

Nowadays, it's always digital technology.

Can you hear me now? OK. I had to get it louder.

A little louder. Can you get it louder?

Just a little bit louder? Can you hear me better now?

That's much better.

OK. All right. All right.

CHARLES MOKOTOFF: After the audiologist has determined how much of a loss you have, they ask you questions in the booth. Or they also play sounds. And it's usually within, oh, 15 minutes they're going to know what sort of a loss it is. And they order hearing aids for you.

When you come back, the audiologist probably already spent a few minutes to program your audiogram onto the hearing aid. It's all done with a computer. The audiogram is done on a computer. It's fed in.

The parameters are – it's either read right on the computer or he or she types in the parameters so that they know the kind of loss we're dealing with.

Put headphones in. You go to this app. You take hearing aids out – excuse me. Headphones in. Plug into this app. And this is your hearing aid. But this one allows you to feed the parameters of your audiogram in.

The reason this works so well is because the person could actually pick it up and speak into it. And it's sort of like I'm speaking directly amplified into your ear.

[GUITAR MUSIC]

My life has improved dramatically because I can, number one, hear people when I go somewhere. Now, that's huge. That's what it's all about.

Because if I didn't have these hearing aids and you didn't sign, it would be a waste of time. We'd be writing notes. Or you'd be shouting in my ear. Or both.