hearing aid repair time turnaround, hearing aid questions, etc.

October 17, 2000

We just sent my daughters hearing aid in for its first repair - two weeks

before it is one year old. It kept cutting out - maybe the switch or

something. What is a reasonable turn around time to get it back? It has

been gone 2 weeks so far. It is a Phonak PicoForte. Unfortunately her

school FM Phonic Free Ear is also out at the same time (the antenna broke

and of course the school hadn't ordered a spare to have on hand in this

event) so she has nothing now until the new antenna arrives. The FM was

also repaired this summer ( a short in it) and it took 6 weeks to get it

back from Phonic.

We have had a teacher of the deaf for two weeks now 1x60/week and she is

finding lots of things that need correcting. (Such as not having an extra

antenna on hand!) She asked me why my daughter who has a progressive loss

(LVA), does not have a programmable aid that could be changed as her hearing

changed. Do others with progressive losses have programmable aids? When

we bought the aid I specifically told the audie to get what she needed

regardless of cost, and we bought what she recommended - the Phonak pico

forte. I'm afraid at the time I was a little too overwhelmed do much

hearing aid investigation on my own and I just went with the audies

recommendation as we had just learned her LVA diagnosis.'s The tod said the

pico forte is a fairly strong aid and cannot be altered much to fit your

hearing loss at different frequencies and my daughters loss is shaped like a

w with a long tail at the right end (70db at 6000)(not a straight or

sloping loss) so it would benefit from a more custom fitting as it is not a

typical loss pattern.

Also she said the free ear FM is too strong for my daughter (PTA 50) as my

daughter has been using it at the lowest setting which means she can't turn

it down when in a louder room (ie band etc). but can only turn it off,

and the school may have to buy another. (Serves them right - they

wouldn't get the tod in the school last year when I asked, (our regional

boces has no audiologist so the tod is really functioning as the follow up

audie for d/hoh kids) and she said if she had checked it last year during

the 30 day trial period she would have returned it instead for the

microlink. So now they may have to buy both! I'm wondering if I have been

getting bad advice from my audie. She recommended both the h.a. and the FM.

One reason might be that she was fitting more for the future expecting

further loss. My daughter 's loss had been accelerating fairly rapidly

immmediately prior to fitting, but since the fitting it has not worsened.

Thanks for your advice!

F

Recommended Posts