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This week’s photos are from the Fiesta of Fire I was photographing for Royal Albert Dock this week.

A 2 week review of NHS Hearing Aids

I’ve been testing out Apple AirPods Pro as hearing aids for a while now. It works but it made me wonder if I would benefit from actual hearing aids. Better battery life and a properly calibrated device to compensate for my issues. For a while, I’ve been hearing my wife make a sound and asking her to repeat it. I wasn’t sure whether it was hearing issues or audio processing issues. So I spoke to my GP.

Even though the NHS is in crisis right now with epic wait times, I got an appointment within 2 weeks. I’m still waiting for an appointment about a possible fracture issue from late last year. If you are thinking about getting tested, go speak with your GP and you might be seen and sorted quite quickly.

I was seen by Specsavers at my local hospital. Maybe this is why I could get an appointment as it seems like hearing aids are outsourced. The woman was nice to chat with and considerate about my autistic issues. I asked whether she knew about Low Gain Hearing Aids, which are possibly useful for helping autistic people process speech, but she didn’t. I had hoped to try that but it might be limited to a few specialists.

The session took about 40 minutes. There was the tone hearing test in both ears and then a bone conduction hearing test afterwards. She showed me the results and said I would benefit from hearing aids. I had lost the ability to hear some of the higher frequencies, especially those around female voices. I had often wondered whether this was a me thing or an everyone else thing, so it was good to have science say it was a me thing.

After showing me the results she asked me whether I wanted a beige, silver or black model. I was taken aback. I thought the results would be sent off, checked and then 2 months later I would get a call. Not today. Today I was getting hearing aids. I considered black but went with silver. The specialist set them up, explained how to put them on and sent me home. Got to love the NHS. Free hearing aids. No questions, well maybe some.

As a test, I didn’t tell my wife I had them. I wore them for hours and she never noticed. I even went over and asked her if she could see anything new about me, and she couldn’t. If you’re at all concerned about them being visible, they’re practically indivisible and I rarely notice them.

Have they helped? Yes, but they haven’t fixed everything. I can hear speech on the TV more clearly and real-world voices are certainly crisper. I do benefit from wearing them. However, I still miss times when my wife says something from across the room. It’s not a big room.

I revisited the specialist to see if there was anything they could do. When I said I maybe assumed too much, they smiled and said these are the cheapest models and can only do so much. She adjusted the settings to boost female voices a bit more and turned up the volume. More testing is required.

Overall I’m glad I have them. Annoyingly I now have to carry my specs, hearing aid batteries and migraine meds everywhere. More stuff to deal with. It’s not great for the ADHD brain. But they do help, so that’s that. When it comes to whether people notice them or not, I'm happy to talk and challenge any ideas of ableism. People usually aren't looking at my ears.