My audiogram. My hearing aids.

This audiogram is 4 years old. I have a newer one but haven't scanned it yet. My hearing has gotten worse in the 4 years but it still fits this ski slope pattern except that now I'm completely deaf in both ears at around the 3000 hz level.

Last year I got a pair of BTE Phonak Naida III SP. They are my 4th set of aids. They are the best aids so far, showing the biggest improvement from my prior set. The best thing about them is that there's no shrill feedback when someone hugs me, although that was kind of fun to see the reaction when the hugger pressed their head against my ear and my head emitted a high pitched squeal. I also like that they are self adjusting, so there's no fiddling with the aids when going from one environment to another.

In terms of hearing, I'd say it's about 25% better then my last pair of digital hearing aids - BTE Starkey - which were the "rolls royce" of hearing aids about 6 years ago (and I found the Starkeys about 10% better then my prior analog aids). The technology has improved and the cost has come down too - the Starkey's were $6000, the Phonaks were $3000.

When I got the Starkey's the Human Rights department at my place of employment paid for the whole thing (there was no government and employment benefit contributions because it had been less then 3 years since my last HA purchase). This time around (5 years later) I was turned down for assistance from the HR department, so after the government contribution ($1000), and my employment hearing aid benefit contribution ($350) and my husband's HA benefit contribution ($650), I was $1000 out of pocket.