I'm looking for help making a decision about the seemingly endless replacement of Mom's hearing aids. She is 94 and living in a memory care facility, recently recovered from Covid, and is currently in hospice care. After a discussion today with a hospice counselor, I've learned that Mom has improved to the extent that she possibly will be taken off hospice care at her next evaluation! That was the good news. The bad news was in addition, I've been told she's lost yet another hearing aid. After having replaced them 5x since she was placed in memory care 3 years ago, I'm exasperated. I don't need to tell you how expensive hearing aids are.
I understand and recognize the consequences of not replacing the hearing aids. With verbal interaction curtailed, the rate of her dementia will accelerate. I don't want Mom to feel cut off in her interactions with others, etc. I do have compassion. There is money available for another replacement set of hearing aids, $4K, that comes with a one-time reduced replacement for $250. As I've said, we've done this replacement cycle multiple times. This doesn't count the many times I have searched her room with a fine-toothed comb and actually found the missing aids, but more often than not we never find them. It just feels hopeless now. Am I crazy to keep throwing money at hearing aids? Or am I cruel to say "Enough!"
Mom is gradually failing with her ADLs. She gets showering assistance, needs help occasionally with toileting, only partially ambulatory; sometimes okay with her walker but sometimes needs a wheelchair. I have enlisted the help of the staff to help Mom remove and put on her hearing aids, but still this happens. I wouldn't be surprised if they're not getting flushed down the toilet. How else could they completely vanish?
Has anyone else had a similar conundrum, and what did you do?
Now he is past the point of being able to.
So, we live, somehow, without them. We can't have conversations. Oh well...
I'm ok with it. At this point I just want to make it through each day.
OP IS NOT A FOOL.
Plus, "I've learned that Mom has improved to the extent that she possibly will be taken off hospice care at her next evaluation!"
If her mother is going off hospice and can return to some kind of "normalcy", that would include socializing and interacting with others, including staff. Hearing CAN be very important in keeping the elders more active and engaged.
Others have provided some good and useful suggestions. Your comment is neither useful or good.
OP, if you read these messages, understand this is TYPICAL for this person (sometimes posts under other usernames, all ending in 2166.) Please ignore, as most posts from this one are rude and obnoxious, hardly useful.
I'm new to the world of hearing aids and now I see there's much more than I knew. Thanks!
Check with your mom's audiologist to see if the model she has can have little clips attached. We did that with my mom's and now have a small wire with little necklace-like fasteners on each hearing aid. The wire has a clip that can attach to her shirt, so if she pulls one out, it doesn't get lost. The only problem we've had is the caregivers pull her hearing aids out by the fastener and have broken them a few times. Fortunately, the warranty has usually covered the repair. Good luck!
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