Did anyone find it uncomfortable having the impressions made?

[ZeroMercury]

Hi All,
 
Well consider me another very happy guy to have found this community. I have owned my Triple-fi 10's for about a year now, and despite loving the sound quality of the phones, have been very dissapointed with the fit of them - no matter what I did I could never get them to stay in my ears ( I think my ears canals are two narrow). So after finding this wonderful site, the many success stories, and contacting Kaysen; I made an appointment with my local Audiologist to have the impressions made.
 
I printed out the instruction form and took it with me for the appointment today. As the Dr. introduced herself and I commented on what a beautiful view she had from her window, I noticed that she was getting foam ear dams out and so I politely mentioned the instruction sheet. She took quick glance at the sheet and said "oh yeah, you're right it does say to use the cotton wool one's. Don't worry though; I've been doing this for years and know what I'm doing."
 
Since she was about to start messing with my most prized sensing equipment, I was not about to start an argument over who know's best with my ears in her hands (so to speak). So in she went with the foam pads. I almost lept out of the chair it hurt so bad. it felt like she was pushing that thing so far down that it was touching my damn ear drum. I yelped and am embarassed to admit my right eye started to leak (please note: I was not crying - there is a difference - she asked if I was ok and I said no, and that it really hurt. She said that she couldn't get it down far enough and needed it to go further. I couldn't help but think of the movie Fletch with Chevy Chase. Any of you that have seen that movie will recall his classic line "Geez, you got the whole fist in there doc?".
 
The left one was painful too but seemed to go in better. The when I thought the worst was over, she injected the putty (not sure what the technical name for it is). If I thought stage one had been painful, stage two was about to take it to another level. Again more wincing with pain and tearing of the eyes (not crying), and then onto the final and most painful stage of all - the removal of the impressions from my ears.
 
Now, I will never have the opportunity to directly experience the pain of childbirth, but having watched my wife deliver 6 short months ago this did not seem far off. When she took those things out of my ears I jumped out of that seat and though I was going to hit the ceiling tiles! She checked my ears afterwards with the scope thingy and said "hmm, there appears to be a little bit of bleeding". I'm like "d'ya think doc?" So they send me down the hall to the nurse who popped some ear drops in to prevent infection.
 
As of 2.30pm, 3 1/2 hours since the procedure there is still a little discomfort, but I am no longer tasting blood at the back of my throat as I was for the first couple of hours.
 
So after all my jibber-jabber (thanks Mr. T for such a great term) - I'm writing this as I wonder if anyone else experienced pain during this process. Is it possible that my ears are just exteremely sensitive today having just recently recovered from a Sinus Infection? If that is what caused my discomfort I wanted to get this out there to warn others not to get their impressions done so soon after recovering from such a thing.
 
I should probably add that this is not my first rodeo either. As a proffessional musician and music producer, I have been using custom in-ears for about 10 years now, but don't recall the process being so painful last time.
 
Again my thanks to this community and Fisher for providing a much needed, and much appreciated service to triple-fi owners everywhere.
 
Andy.

 

[aLm0sT]

Well I'm sorry for your pain. It might have to do sth with your infection.
I've been getting ear impressions a couple times now and never encountered any discomfort or pain.

 

[ElcomeSoft]

Can I negative rep you on this thing?
 
I've just booked in my Audiologist appointment for Wednesday and you're the first person to have mentioned a negative experience or actually mentioned pain!
 
From what I've heard (and watched on YouTube), it seems like the only uncomfortable part is usually the dam going into place. It doesn't really feel natural for something to be prodded and poked that deep into the ear I'd guess.

 

[ljokerl]

I've had five sets of impressions done in the past six months or so. I found the dam insertion to be completely inoffensive every time - it's the pressure from the silicone gunk that gets me. Four were only mildly uncomfortable (as in 'eh, there's pressure on my ears'). Not too different from diving into the deep end of the pool. One was a bit painful but nothing I couldn't tolerate for 8-10 mins. In retrospect, I should've told the Audiologist to start over as those impressions came out way too long anyway (not unusable... just unnecessarily long).
 
Regarding the 'I know how to do impressions' attitude, I've gotten that from every single audiologist when confronted with the little instruction sheet. Doesn't really surprise me as the ones I've visited average a dozen or more impressions per month.

 

[rawrster]

I've gotten 3 impressions done. The first time the cotton dam caused some discomfort as I was not expecting it to go that deep but not enough to be extremely painful. The putty has been the only thing that's really be uncomfortable and sometimes painful but easily bearable. The second time was the worst in terms of that but only on one ear and the rest of the time it was fine.

 

[average_joe]

I have had 3 professional impressions from 2 audiologists and have done my own twice now and no discomfort.  The impressions I did myself went deeper into my canal than the professional ones.

 

[sari0n]

If it hurts that much to get impressions, won't your customs be uncomfortable too?
I find that sort of weird.  Do you ever experience pain while cotton swabbing your ears?
 
I guess my inner canals have already been desensitized by my etymotic triple flanges.  When I got my impressions I thought it felt sort of cool getting squishy gel shoved in my ears.

 

[ElcomeSoft]

Just had my first ever impressions made this morning at 11am.
 
The foam piece didn't feel deep at all, perhaps typical triple-flange eartip deep. The mould material was slightly cold and heavy but just felt like slow, heavy water being injected in with a sort of ice cream whip at the end where it feels like they fill up most of your outer ear.
 
The wait is the worst part. I was getting bored and not being able to talk to the audiologist when this was going on just made things even worse
 
Removing the goop was as simple as injecting it in. To me it was the same feeling as when I remove a bi-flange or tri-flange tip from my ear after I've been listening to music for a while. Just a sense of a bit of relief and adjusting the noise of the real world.
 
Positive experience. No discomfort in the slightest.

 

[ZeroMercury]

So based on the replies I've seen and my previous experience I am starting to draw the following conclusions:
 

1. The audiologist went un-necessarily deep. The impressions are very long, and she pushed the dam way too far. It was touching something it shouldn't I beleive.
2. I am as much to blame for my painful experience for going in one week after a Sinus infection. It would seem logical that my sinuses may still have been inflamed or, and I would have been wise to delay the appointment. At this point let me advise anyone that has any kind of sinus pressure (head cold, Flu, Sinus Infection) to hold off a few weeks before having your impressions made. Beleive me that the pain one time will be enough for you to learn this lesson - hopefully you can learn from my poor judgement!

 
Sarion: I don't think the IEM's will hurt just because the impression process was painful. I think the impression goes way deeper than the IEM's do, and Fisher will not need to use the whole impression for the IEM's. I'm sure they know just the right length to make them.
 
Thanks to all for the benefit of your experiences. There is still some pain today and at this point am just hoping that a) there is no lasting damage, or b) there will not be some kind of ear infection resulting from this.
 
Fingers crossed...