Wax Traps . . .

My hearing aids have wax traps.  Wax traps are tiny little white colored caps or ends that fit into the ends of the receivers (receivers are the nomenclature for the tiny little speakers that go into the ear canal).  I was instructed that the wax traps would eventually fill up and close off the receivers effectively stopping the hearing aids from working.

Our ears as you well know produce wax.  And if the wax is not cleaned it can block your ear drums.  This happened to Chris once out in California and I had to get a doctor to clean out his ears.  Since then he has had no problems.  All of us tend to clean our ears one way or the other, most of us use a cotton swab and that seems to work for me.

So I kept waiting for the hearing aids to shut down indicating I needed to replace the traps.  They said it would be about a month of usage.  I had gone two months and things were still working fine for me.  So I decided to replace the wax traps anyway.

I do notice after replacement of the traps, the hearing aids seem to be a bit more sensitive, so I guess the traps were gradually getting blocked by wax.  When I removed the traps I used the little brush that comes with the hearing aids to clean up the receivers.  There was wax, albeit, dried and sort of flaky here and there on the receivers.  I brushed them off carefully after install the wax traps.

There are small rubbery open cones that press on the ends of the receivers that go into the ear canal (ergo the title of Receivers in the Canal or RIC).  The cones effectively hold the receivers in place in the ear canal and yet because of the open spaces allows low frequencies to enter the ear too.  They are soft and thus fit into any ear canal shape.  I have a batch of those cones  too but I did not need to replace them.  There are two little plastic filaments that go over the receivers and are used to remove the receiver from the ear canal.  I discovered there is a right way and a wrong way to install them but eventually go it correct.  They did not give me any replacements for those filaments.

So major step two is completed.  I guess I am now a pro at using the hearing aids.  The final step will be to order a batch of batteries.  I get those to as part of the service.  I note that a couple of dozen of the batteries cost about $6 or so dollars.  A couple of dozen batteries will probably last about two months.  The VA gives me six months of batteries in one batch and says reorder at the end of three months.  So I am figuring the VA depot does not rapidly respond, ergo an ample supply is provided.

The batteries are interesting in that they come in packages of six.  You press them to open up each battery.  The back of the battery is on a sticky sealed surface.  When you remove the battery, the air activates it, so in its plastic package it will last a very long time.  I have found a battery lasts about a week of use.  One or the other units beeps when a battery starts to go bad.  It will run for about 20 or so minutes before it totally runs out of juice.  So when a battery dies, I replace both of them.  Works for me.

Alas the hearing aids do not do anything for my Tinnitus.  It is not totally unpleasant in the background all the time but it is there. It is only drowned out by loud noises, like a restaurant or sports bar during an LSU ballgame.  As I type here, I hear the Tinnitus.  I hear it even if the TV is own, it is not loud enough to drown it out.

Tinnitus will be with me until I die.  The hearing aids can generate white noise to sort of drown out  the Tinnitus but as of yet I have not had that feature activated.  When it worse, and it will, I will do just that.