Re: Digest Number 365

[Guest guest]

Subject: Re: Back from the audiologists

--Phyllis wrote:

She still wants nothing to do with the FM. She took to the aids, no

problem. But freaks with the mic goes on. Any suggestions?

-- Debbie wrote:

I have spoken to an adult hearing aid user of the Phonak hearing aid with

the FM, and she told me that when she does use the boot it does seem to

bother her, it touches on her head in a way that is really uncomfortable.

Maybe that is the problem with your daughter??? My son who is 17 months old,

also has the audio zoom with fm, and the fm does not seem to bother

him,(yet). I would just keep trying, and at some point you are bound to

figure out what is going on.

--I'll add:

Have you sat down and tried listening to the aids with the FM on? It's

a pain to have all the equipment strung around you, but you can do it.

Just use your " stethescope " to attach to the hearing aid like you do for

normal HA checks, listen to just HA, hook in the FM, listen to it with

and without the FM on.

Point being, our audiologist was in a hurry and used preset settings for

the FM. Turns out the recommended settings were putting the HA into

its compression/clipping/too loud area. It just sounded " AWFUL!!! "

I could have taken it back to the audie and waited and insisted she

listen to the whole thing, but I decided to check what happened if I

made simple changes myself. If I turned the FM vol down, I could get

a clear signal that was just as loud as the HA alone, so I went for it.

I have since talked to a number of people at the HA and FM companies

and have decided they don't talk to each other and that no one really

knows what happens when you stick a particular HA with a particular boot

to a particular FM. I have requested the audie run a test with the

whole FM system to see what the whole thing is doing as it works

together (note HA engineer says just attaching the boot reduces the

HA level by 3 to 10 dB, doesn't matter if the FM is on or not - this

is for HA plus FM not FM with earmold). The audie says she's never

even thought about doing this, but it should be possible if we move

the box tester into the audio booth and only use pure tones.

Bottom line: if your daughter doesn't like it, test it yourself, maybe

she is right! and use the same FM transmitter, mic, etc. that bothers

her. If you don't hear anything odd, try it where it bothers her -

she may be getting interference at that location (different channel

can help this.) You should do this test daily actually. All the FM

components can go fast, especially the microphone cord it seems. At

our school we've had weeks with only one of 4 kid's microphones working

all the others would either cut in and out when you wiggled the cord

or fuzz in and out! I also have back up DAI cords and am purchasing

a back up microphone for ourselves (school thinks a week with out FM

is OK, but I don't).

Terri , mother of Kathy, 5 HoH,

" How come these experts don't talk to each other? "

[Guest guest]

> I have requested the audie run a test with the

> whole FM system to see what the whole thing is doing as it works

> together

8 years ago when we spoke with our son's audiologist about getting JD an FM

system after we moved, he told us to be sure to have the FM tested in the

booth with the hearing aids on. He said that sometimes when the two are used

together, the results you get are not what you expect.

> If you don't hear anything odd, try it where it bothers her -

> she may be getting interference at that location

Definitely. When we did get that first FM system for JD, we tried it around

the house for a few days. I noticed that sometimes JD seemed a bit more

confused when using it, and sometimes not. I listened to it once or twice

and all sounded fine. One day I rigged up a system where I could leave it on

and listen to it myself for more than a few moments and found out that the

channel he was on was the same one used by Mobile Phone of Texas. Now that

would be confusing for a child. Switching channels did the trick for him.

Hugs,

Kay