Hi i'm kay i'm a wellness professional big nerd
and i have bilateral high frequency hearing loss i also wear hearing aids
so i am super excited to take you into my world my hearing loss journey
with house institute on now listen you have become quite the advocate for hearing aid technology and
raising awareness about hearing loss which is often an invisible disability but there
are solutions so we'd love to hear more about how hearing aid technology has changed things for you
and what some of your favorite features and functions are
awesome so with hearing aid technology first and foremost being able to hear conversations
in more depth so my hearing loss is high frequency hearing loss and i have bilateral hearing loss
so what that means is high frequency sounds like whispering birds chirping ocean waves ex
sounds are off my radar so if you say the word toys i'll hear the word toy um if you say the word
whisper or my favorite examples when i was in high school
actually it was scarring at the time but today i could laugh about it when i was in
high school my teacher asked me to come on the come up to the board and spell the word nosotros
which i think means we in spanish so with the word nosotros all i heard was no throws n-o-t-r-o-s
i didn't hear the song so s-o in the middle so i sat down there and i wrote n-o-t-r-o-s
and all my friends were like no shakespeare shake that's my laughing like shakespeare it's so
so and then they're trying to help me and whisper it but whispering is off my radar
so they can't even help me i'm here struggling for like minutes are fasting and the teacher's
like i'm not letting you go until you get it and i'm just like sweating and panicking
and eventually the teacher just like grabs the chalk i put s-o in the middle and i'm like
so embarrassed a little bit and i'm just like oh my gosh why couldn't i get it at that time
and now in retrospect it's because of my hearing loss right so when you are
engaging in conversations or listening in the classroom or even in the workforce there are
sound that you're not going to hear whether it's whispering or just mild conversation or even
things that are important like hearing a fire alarm a lot of the fire alarms and workplaces
are very high frequency in nature that's super off my radar so hearing aid technology
a allows me to hear things that might indicate danger when it comes to sounds like fire alarms um
like yells or screams in the faint background so i can be alerted with danger so that's one thing i
really want to put out there that's very important even when i'm driving you might hear faint beep
sounds or someone like shouting just to indicate that you should be more aware and hyper vigilant
of the dangers around you so that's how hearing technology has changed my world most definitely
the second thing i want to know and i mentioned before just conversation especially in restaurants
because what people don't realize is that you're not only having a conversation with someone
you also have a lot of background noise that might interfere or disrupt the flow of your conversation
so for example i might have a conversation with you catching up we have drinks we're having a good
time and then there's murmuring or clitter clatter of the silverware in the background and it's hard
for me without hearing aids to differentiate the background noise and the clearing clattering of
silverware are the murmurs of other conversations or maybe the waitress moving back and forth and
me actually sitting down and focusing on the conversation i'm having in front of me
but with my hearing aid technology i'll just show you for a moment wonderful hearing aid technology
with my hearing aid technology um it's able to actually sense around me any background
noise that is consistent and decrease it and any noise or conversation that's more in front of me
um that's more varied in nature it will amplify that instead the third thing that i really
enjoy just having my hearing aid technology is just really experiencing like
your environment and nature i'm a big nature girl i love the hike i love to go to the ocean
and things of that nature and i can't tell you how magical it is just putting on your hearing aids
and hearing like the crash of the ocean or the rustling of leaves in a forest or birds chirping
i know some people don't like the birds tripping early in the morning but like when you don't have
that ability to hear birds chirping and just experiencing like the peaceful sounds of nature
hearing aid technology has definitely helped me with that so it just definitely helped me
enjoy my environment more hear people calling my name um be more efficient worker in the workforce
and things of that nature so shifting gears a little bit about cool features with my hearing
aid technology i mentioned before that my hearing aids are very smart i also have
a microphone here you can clip it to a person i'm gonna clip it to my professor
maybe i'm having lunch with someone i'll clip it to that person and by clipping it to that person
when they're speaking it's a mic so it goes directly into the microphone and this microphone
receives the audio input of the person speaking and it streams directly into my hearing aids
so that's pretty cool so there's a situation where i'm like yo i need to clip you i'ma clip you
and when i cliff you the microphone audio will go in here so i can hear
it in my hearing aids as a receiver but iphones have this feature where you can pair your hearing
aids to your phone my hearing aids are actually bluetooth enabled i would hit the bluetooth
button there's a little bit of a ear icon so my hearing aids are already
clipped or connected to my phone so the cool thing about that is number one
i can actually stream music to my hearing aids because they're bluetooth headphones
so i'll be jamming out to music a little bit and then since it's also connected to my phone
the phone can actually act as a receiver same way that my microphone acts like a receiver
so just in case i don't have my microphone i can use my phone and give it to people and
they can speak directly into the phone and then my hearing aids will also pick up on that audio
um input and of course i can receive phone call conversations uh using the hearing aid technology
so sometimes i'll be at work and then i'll hear ringing in my ears because my phone is ringing but
maybe in the next room so i'll hear the ringing loud and clear that a phone call conversation
is coming through so i can go rush over to the room and pick up my phone and answer it so those
are like some high level assistive technology features that i really love about my hearing aids
hearing aids at least my hearing aids are three thousand
five hundred dollars each that's like buying three macbooks just for one hearing aid
hello my name is dr kevin peng neurotologist here at the house institute
thank you for watching this video the house institute provides free educational videos for
hearing health professionals worldwide to help support videos like these and other educational
efforts please consider donating by clicking the link in the description box below your
generous support allows us to keep videos like these at no cost for you and others thank you