12.12.2022 Pardon, no more?

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 Monday 12th -3C/26F. Overcast. No new snow. 

 

 Today, at lunch time, I should [hopefully] get my first hearing aids after decades of poor hearing. The Danish health service would have me wait a full year from my first hearing test. Now, not until the end of April. For the centralised hospital system to provide free hearing aids. That is, if they kept to their latest change of appointments. Their record makes it impossible for me to trust their empty promises.

 

 The hospital hearing clinic has twice pushed my appointments four months forwards. As I approached their previous date. Finally, I chose to cut out the middle man and must spend a lot of money at a commercial, hearing aid chain. I still get the health service subsidy but must find the extra cost over and above. 

 

 Expect lots of posts on how well I get on with my very first hearing aids. I have a lifetime experience at audio. So will hopefully have some useful insights. I was advised to have a middle of the road pair of hearing aids. I could spend around half. Or more than twice the amount. 

 

 I get a free month's trial and then choose to pay for and keep them. With four year coverage including free batteries. [Provided by the health service] Or juggle with other options. Presumably at greater expense. My worry is that there are strong commercial pressures to sell their "solid platinum" ear trumpet[s.] Rather than the model best suited and adequate to the task.

 

  Even the software between physically identical models is an issue. Updates and repairs are free for the first four years. The health service subsidy is limited to one pair every four years. So a new pair, within the allotted time period, would be entirely at my own expense.

 

 There is a huge difference [30dB] in deafness between my two ears. I am essentially deaf as a post in my left ear. Whether this places greater demands on the hearing aids is as yet unknown. I lost stereo hearing a long time ago. Making directional judgement of sounds a problem. Just walking against the  traffic has potential dangers. I must turn my head repeatedly. Just to identify their direction of approach around a blind bend. I can no longer rely on my hearing to keep me safe.

 

 My other, desperate need, is to be able to hear individual voices clearly in noisy surroundings. When I was rurally isolated. With only my wife for company. It wasn't such a problem. We would often ask each other to repeat ourselves. Now I am alone, the size of my social circle is climbing rapidly. Being unable to hear clearly has now become a severe, physical handicap.  

 There are several others at the museum and cooking classes with hearing aids, Of those I have spoken to, all are very grateful for them and wouldn't be without. I never see them struggle to hear another person in conversation. Not even when one of them drops their voice. Or talk naturally quietly.

 

 I am told there is a steep learning curve. Patience will be required to retrain my brain to the signals I am hearing. Probably for the first time in well over half a century! 

9.30 -2C/28F outside, 14C/57F upstairs, 11C/52F in the lounge, 10C/50F in the kitchen and 4C/40F in the bathroom. The stove is lit and going well. Time for a walk.

 

10.20  It felt colder than usual. A bird of prey was mobbed out of a tree by a crow. Then spent the next ten minutes crying about it. It was out of sight behind trees but kept calling. Lots of small birds in the hedges fluffed up for warmth. 

 

 I have to go shopping before driving to town later. I forgot to get more toothpaste. I can't go out  without brushing my teeth. I tried it last night, without toothpaste, but nothing seemed to happen.

 11.30 Back from the shops. It was supposed to be sunny but remains a sulking, grey overcast. 

 My appointment was at 13.00 and I left with the hearing aids fitted, adjusted and trained at 14.00. First impressions are positive. Though I am inevitably noticing the increase in volume and high frequencies. Everything now clatters and hisses. Rather like having an ear wax removal but on steroids. I was all but deaf in the left ear. Now I can hear directionally with that ear. Though [unexpectedly] without a solid, central, stereo image. 

 

 I mentioned the effect of phase between the two aids but there was no response. It is commonplace in audio to ensure the phase matches between pairs of stereo speakers. Otherwise the sound lies outside the speakers. Rather than between them. It may simply be that my brain needs to learn how to distinguish phase again.  It may have forgotten how to after lacking the left channel for so long.

 The increased volume had its surprises. I could suddenly hear birds above me in town. People talking at a distance were now understandable. Without the aids I would not even have heard their voices at all. I am playing with volume via the rocker switch on the right side aid. Hearing every minute sound from the keyboard is like using a stethoscope.

 

 I shall return in a fortnight for a chat and an initial assessment. With the option to have adjustments made to the software as often as needed. I am still at the early adaptation phase. At the moment I have no idea what effect adjustments might have.

 

 Practising their use on the TV and computer monitor will help to acclimatise myself. To this strange new world of sound. Though not an issue for myself, the aids are so small that they are effectively invisible. Tucked away behind the upper ear. A thin, clear pipe/cable curls over the top of the pinna and down into the ear canal. A tiny filter and silicone bung complete the assembly. The bung is not intended to be airtight. Because the ear neds to breathe to clear moisture.

 

  17.45 -2C/28F. Little or no wind. Despite eating logs all day the modern wood stove is really struggling to keep the house warm. It has been lit continuously since this morning. Even remained alight while I was in town thanks to adding several split logs before I left. 

 

 Only 14C/57F upstairs. 13C/55F in the lounge. 10C/50F in the kitchen. 6C/42F in the bathroom. 3C/38F in the greenhouse. 3C/38F in the [unheated] balcony room. The balcony lies over less than half of the kitchen. There is 10cm/4"of fibreglass insulation in the balcony floor. The 500W, oil-filled radiator in the kitchen is [of course] switched on permanently. I keep increasing the thermostat setting but the temperature in the kitchen still keeps falling. 

 

 All internal doors are closed. All windows are closed and sealed. No trickle ventilation. The entrance door has been double sealed with commercial, self-adhesive, rubber draught strip. I increased the door frame lining with thin boards to close the former gaps. It is still, by no means, a modern, well insulated, well sealed door.

 

  Nor is the double door out to the greenhouse. Though it is double glazed it is not well sealed. The overhang between door and frame is still very inadequate to obtain a proper seal. It too needs the addition of boards to the linings to increase the overlap. Then I can fit much better draught seals than at present. Being internal, these added boards need to be smartly fitted and painted to match. 

 

 That said, the stove needs air for combustion. It might be better for that air to come directly from the front hall. Whose door is only a very short distance from the side of the stove. Rather than having air drawn in from much further away. Which might drag a cold draught right through the house. 

 

 This may already be happening, of course, and probably is. My 100m^2 hovel is not well sealed anywhere! The double doors out to the [former] balcony room are vintage and suffer the same lack of sealing. Though the balcony space is much better sealed and insulated than before. It is by no means perfect.

 Dinner was chips [again] with chicken [again] and mushrooms [again.] I tried to add fresh tomatoes but the organic Italian tomatoes were mostly rotten. The four shown are all I managed to find in a whole pack before it hit the bin. Even those four tasted off.

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