Do you think your balance would be better if you could "hear?"

[Captain Deb]

Any people out there with BAHA or cross type aids that think their balance has improved with "directional" hearing? Locating sound is such a struggle for me and throws me "off" when I try to hear cars, the phone, (which I constantly hide from myself) etc.  I wonder how different my life would be if I could hear better and would I want to be more active?

Capt Deb

[Joef]

the BAHA does not help with directional hearing .... and I don't think it helps with balance sorry to say (vision does!). I would think headaches are the real culprit is what throwing you off..

Phones , finding the cats to put away for the night, can be real challenge to try to locate! I can judge by the volume of the ring or  the meow to guess how far I am (anyone remember "getting hot and cold" games as a kid?) ..sorry. but you can still be active! will have the extra challenges..

[Kathleen_Mc]

I did not find an improvement in my balance with the use of the hearing aids (?bicross/?cross) and locating the direction from which sounds came was no easier....all it provided was the ability to hear what arrives to the affected ear with the unaffected ear in a "delayed" fashion. I did not expect any change to my balance from the use of hearing aids.
Kathleen

[katmumof3]

well i don't know about being deaf in one ear, i retained most of my hearing, and i can tell you my balance isn't great! lol   Not complaining tho   i'm very very happy to have my hearing, especially when one of my kids runs off when we're out shopping......lol 

[Boppie]

Deb, at 65 I could manage without a hearing aid.  I am going to consult for one next week, though.  Why?  I find myself making excuses to not be with others.  I find myself alone more often than I used to be.  I hear from friends (including spouses whose mates just hear lousy in general) that hearing loss makes people anti social, shy and retiring. Although some of my friends swear that I am "handling my problem well"  I want to be better than that.  I know from experience that balance has nothing to do with my hearing or lack of it.  As Joef says, vision makes us balance.  I know that no hearing aid will help me find the phone better.  But in a restaurant or crowd I will be better able to make out my companion's vowels and consonants as I try desperately to lip read.   

Perhaps this post belongs on a new topic entitled "Why use a hearing aid?"  That's my point and I'm sticking to it~   

 

[Jim Scott]

I have been totally deaf in my left ear for about 5 years now, thanks to a long-undiagnosed vestibular schwannoma (acoustic neuroma).

While I consider my one-sided deafness a definite handicap, I don't find it to be terribly debilitating or an impediment to my social life.  I do everything I did before my hearing loss, including enjoying dinner with friends in restaurants and so on.  Yes, I do have to strain to hear 'low talkers' and hearing one person speaking 'normally' in a crowded room is often a challenge, but fortunately, my hearing, pre AN, was excellent and my 'good' ear still functions just fine.  In a noisy situation, I simply turn my 'good' ear (my right) toward the speaker, and I can hear them quite well.  Many of my friends already know about my one-sided deafness, and they usually co-operate in 'helping' me to hear them, although I never ask them to 'speak up' or otherwise change the way they talk.  Sometimes I have to ask friends, family or even store clerks to repeat something but if I turn my 'good' ear toward them, I almost always hear them the second time.  So, considering the fact that hearing doesn't really help balance (mine is pretty good these days), I see little value (to me) in buying an expensive hearing aid - but I may change my mind over time.  It happens. 

[Battyp]

Where's nates two cents?
I just got my letter from my ent to see if I will benefit from a cros or bicros hearing aid.  In the letter he wrote of the hazards of being ssd.  Funny for me I think I'd have better balance if my face wasn't so numb.  I do think that being able to hear out of my left ear will help my balance as it's when I'm walking and turning my head that I lose my balance the most.  Not to mention how anxious I get walking bymyself in secluded areas and how vulnerable I feel.

[Static]

Batty,
At least you found someone with some sympathy.  Nobody professional has ever expressed anything like that to me, more like just, buck up and make things work!  I know what you mean about when you are walking alone.  I can't even begin to think about how many times someone has snuck up on me because of my deafness!  I know sometimes DH does it on purpose!  I lose balance turning my head also but I think it may be because I'm not looking where I am going and can't sense it with my balance nerves.  I feel like this because when I was swimming in the ocean, summer of 2005, a big wave came and I had to duck under.  When I came back up, I didn't and it scared the shoot out of me!  My kids saw me though and helped me to find up and down.  Was very scary, haven't gone in water like that again and it has changed me.  I also understand what you mean about feeling it would be different if your face wasn't numb, and although mine isn't now, it was after surgery and it doesn't feel any different, to me, anyway :/  I have feeling in the right side of my face and head, but it feels like I don't, if you can make sense out of that!  I get creeped out in the summer months when there are bugs around and one buzzes in my left ear and it reminds me that I can't hear it buzz in my right ear.  Maybe I should plug it up to keep the bugs out!  Just a random thought
~Karen