Mom will be 90 in Aug. We are on a limited income. Her hearing is failing fast. She says she doesnt want a hearing aid but she'd say that no matter what, shes a selfless person. I would have to save at least 6mos of my ss check to buy an aid. She also gets ss but hers generally pays the utilities.It helps to have both checks. We could do w/out my check but it would be tough.
She can hear if you speak loud & I found an external speaker so she can hear tv better.
Realistically mom doesnt have that long left, she isnt sick just aged. Should I get her an aid or is it more practical not to?
The 1st item is a wireless speaker for the tv. Very easy to setup & use. The wireless speaker can be put anywhere you need. The sound from the speaker is comparable to the sound from the tv speaker. We are VERY pleased with this. Its from LSS Products, you can find it online at lssproducts/product/Serene-TV-Soundbox-Wireless-TV-Speaker/television-listening-systems
Its sells for $149.99, well worth the price I think.
The other item is a set of eyeglasses that can be worn with or without her seeing glasses. They magnify the tv screen bringing it very close to her, they are adjustable to focus whats best for you. This is from Active Forever, they are called Task Vision & sell for $79.99, they can be seen at activeforever.com/task-vision-tv-glasses its fantastic how well these work for the price. I hope these will help someones mom.
There is no need to do that. if they actually see wax in her ears they can put some oil in and leave that for 15- 30 minutes then use luke warm water and that should do the trick. Don't let them do it unless they have looked in the ears first. Not something that should be done routinely.
The hearing aids work great when in the audiologist's office, but the next day the hearing aid doesn't work.... Mom fusses with them thinking the hearing aid needs a new battery or is broken.... I know it is user error :(
I know Mom is frustrated and how I would love to hold a conversation with her, but she is now legally blind so lip reading or writing down sentences won't work. Ears age, too, but Mom is in denial.
I'm getting to where I could not do without my hearing aids, but I have some coverage for them. SNHL (sensorineural) is often helped quite a bit by aids - that's kind of a myth I hear a lot, as if only conductive losses really benefit - but we may need to have a little more control over what frequencies are amplified than some off-the shelf devices can offer. A lot of true presbyacusis is not going to be as ticky about that sort of thing.
The hardest part is getting treated like I am stupid or not worth the effort to communicate with ("Oh, never mind, it wasn't important"), or having people whisper even after you tell them you are hard of hearing, rather than find a place to safely talk louder or just jot it down. YOU sound like you care and do a great job though! Thank you!!
PS - make sure her thyroid is OK - hypothyroidism can be associated with worsening hearing, as can decreased vitamin B levels and a few other things.
My father was almost completely deaf when he was 89. My mother wanted him to get a hearing aid. The doctor told him his deafness was neural, but said we could try an amplifying hearing aid. My mother was all for it, so we got a single hearing aid to see if it would help. I think it was about $1900 total for everything. He still couldn't hear anything... but we could hear the device squeal every time he turned his head to the metal lamp. What a terrible sound -- he couldn't even hear that!
If we had to do it over again I would have said no way are we going to get a hearing aid that won't help.
By your posting this here, there is no doubt in my mind that you have mom's best interests at heart. As many people will tell you AFTER spending thousands on hearing aids, they're not all they're cracked up to be. They take a lot of getting used to and many trips for adjustments.
Sounds like you've solved her problem just fine.