I no longer have to yell and my husband can hear!

2020-07-14

We like to stay in touch with our patients. We are eager to learn how Embrace Hearing technology works for them and improves their quality of life. Recently we had the opportunity to discuss this with a customer who purchased hearing aids for her husband, Frank C. from Swampscott, Massachusetts.

What type of hearing loss does your husband have?

My husband lost 100 percent of the hearing in his right ear after receiving stem cell replacement therapy as part of his cancer treatment. There is no way to enhance hearing in that ear because the nerves are dead. It became clear to us that we needed the type of hearing aid that would capture ambient sound from all sides and feed it into his good ear.

How did Embrace Hearing technology help?
We learned that Embrace Hearing had software that essentially gathers sound from 360 degrees around the individual’s head. The software automatically adjusts the hearing aids to find the conversation and focus in on it. Because he has no hearing in his right ear, he has hearing aids with special BiCROS programming. All the sound from the right side, where there is no hearing, is sent wirelessly to his left ear so now he hears everything, all around him. That is important because we love getting together with our grown children and their spouses and it can get pretty noisy!

Another feature that my husband uses all the time is the remote control. It helps him to adjust the hearing aid based on the environment we are in. When we are home he uses one setting. However, if we go out to a restaurant once we are inside he adjusts the hearing. He says it reduces background noise and has made a significant difference in his ability to hear conversations.

What difference do you notice now that he has the hearing aids?

Because the hearing loss occurred in his right ear, talking to my husband while he was driving was nearly impossible. I had to speak at a high volume and it was exhausting. Now that he has the hearing aids I can speak to him at almost a normal level and he can easily hear what I am saying. When we get together with friends and family he can hear and is no longer excluded from the conversation.

Does your husband feel comfortable wearing the hearing aids?

Yes, he does. You can’t see them. A tiny wire runs from the back of his ear into his ear. Sometimes I can’t tell if he is wearing them.

Was there anything besides the technology that drew you to Embrace Hearing?

Yes, the price drew us to Embrace Hearing. We did our research and found that despite the fact that the quality was the same as other manufacturers, the price was far below anything else we had found. It was a low price with high quality and performance.  In fact, it was one-third of the price of the hearing aids recommended to us by the hospital. Hearing is so crucial to quality of life that we would have paid more if we had had to. However, with the cost of ongoing cancer treatments we really didn’t want to have to pay $6,000 or more for hearing aids. Especially because we were uncertain as to how effective they would be.

How was your experience with Embrace Hearing service?
It was great. When my husband had a problem with the quality of the sound, he called customer service. It turned out that the battery needed to be replaced. Extra batteries came with the hearing aid and the problem was solved over the phone right away.

I know that hearing aids used to be sold only through storefronts. I have to say that this is the new way to purchase quality hearing aids and no one should hesitate to purchase them through Embrace Hearing. They calibrated them according to the audiologist’s specifications and there hasn’t been a problem. I no longer have to yell and my husband can hear!