[orthodoc]

Hearing aids don't make noisy environments perfect, but they improve things. Part of the problem is that, when you first get your new aids, your brain has lost practice at distinguishing certain sounds. Along with my aids I was given a multi-lesson course by the audiologist to get me hearing accurately again. It took time.

It was emotional for me the first time I drove home with my aids in, got out of the car, and heard the birds. I could hear every little thing, and I knew then what I'd been missing. They say people hate hearing aids at first and have to work up to using them, but for me it was like being blind and suddenly having vision. You couldn't persuade me to take my aids out.

I will say, I still hate hearing appliances running. But that's a very very small price to pay.

PS @foot - if you can't distinguish speech from background sounds, you might want to think about getting an audiogram done and getting at least one hearing aid. Pure tone loss lags far behind the ability to distinguish speech.