Questioning when it is time for hearing assistance

[Keeping Up]

As many of you know, I am a W&W with a small non-growing tumor, now closing in on 18 months post diagnosis.  I am relatively young (38 years), lead a busy family life with four kidlets and have a full time job.  Last check, in December, my hearing loss was mild on the tumor side with a PTA loss of about 30db (+/- a few db).  The loss is quite a bit higher at the higher pitched, to very close to perfect at the lower pitches.  It remained about the same as the year prior.  Word recongition remainded relatively strong.

I now feel the hearing loss has degenerated from that review last December.  It is not unexpected.  I have no doubt in my mind I will lose my hearing with W&W (as well as most other treatements), just hoping it would take a while and that I maintain a level that is somewhat functional.  My husband made note yesterday that I certainly don't hear him well when the family is in full voice.  I am fine in one-to-one conversations but group conversations I have issues interpreting words.  I will admit I come up with very interesting interpretations of what people might say!!!! 

My ENT practice does hearing tests but has no hearing aid consultations available.  So, my question is two fold.  When do you contemplate hearing assistance.  Second, where the heck do you start, the yellow pages?  I did raise this with the ENT's auditologist 6+ months ago and she inferred the ENT practice wouldn't recommend an audiologist/vendor of hearing aids but did offer a few tips on chosing a vendor.   Obviously at this point, and hopefully for a very long tiem to come, I won't be SSD, but simply a diminished hearing ability on the one side. 

Thanks

Ann

[tenai98]

I think we all know within ourselves when its time.  My eye doc told me that once...That sooner or later I woulld need bifocals and that I would know when the time was at hand.
JO

[mk]

Hi Ann,

Sorry for the additional hearing loss, but as we all know this is pretty much inevitable when having an AN. I have also experienced some additional loss within the last 6 months - some frequencies are worse than others. For example I have lots of trouble understanding what my husband says when speaking softly, or over the phone, whereas no problems with the kids' high pitched voices (unless I am conveniently tuning him out   ).  It certainly is a bit more difficult to understand what people are saying when they are on the wrong side, but overall I haven't found that this is a big problem yet - so I guess Jo's comment about "knowing when you need it" is right.
My ENT has explained though that hearing aids are useless if voice recognition is not good. So for starters it would be good to get your speech recognition re-evaluated to see if it has been affected. Even if your ENT practice does not do consultations on hearing aids, they should be able to provide you with their opinion about how useful a hearing aid would be.
There are many clinics offering hearing tests and hearing aid fittings, I know this because there are two within a block of my ENTs clinic and I am sure this is no coincidence.
Oh, and since it seems that my hearing has been fluctuating constantly over the last few months, here is a simple test that I have devised to figure out if my problems are because of PTA loss, or  speech recognition (you need a phone with variable volume to do this). I use a message in my voicemail from someone that I have trouble hearing (say my hubby). I continuously raise the volume, to see if if I can clearly tell the words apart. If yes, this means that speech recognition is OK, but I have PTA loss at this frequency.

Let us know what you find out.

Marianna

[opp2]

Why don't you head up to the place where we have our support meetings. They have a ton of info on hearing assist devices. The Canadian Hearing Society, located at 271 Spadina Road (Dupont subway station).

I'm sure they can help you find the right device. Sorry to learn that your hearing is on the decline.

Nikki

[sunfish]

I went through this whole process of learning I had mild-moderate hearing loss, and getting a hearing aid.  It's REALLY important to get a good audiologist to evaluate you, sell you the hearing aid and, most importantly, be patient with the several visits it may take to get the thing fine tuned.  There have been huge advances in digital hearing aids within the past two years - the sort that I'm wearing wasn't available until about a year ago (Dot²20 by ReSound).  I really love mine - it's teeny tiny.  I have conductive (middle ear) loss, as well as sensory-neural loss caused by the AN.  I'm lucky - so far the hearing aid helps "drown out" the tinnitus.  Had Cyberknife a couple weeks ago - so far, so good with the hearing preservation.  I don't think further hearing loss is inevitable with these tumors, just depends on your individual circumstances.

[Julianne]

I am 2 years post-surgery and decided to get hearing aids last fall for SSD. I also have trouble hearing my soft-spoken husband. He urged me to get hearing aids and I am glad I did. I am having trouble with the Phonak CROS hearing aids, but will persevere until I find a kind that works well. My opinion is that hearing aids really help ALOT in certain circumstances. I don't need them at work or in quiet environments, but they are awesome when I am outside or in noisy environments when someone is speaking on my deaf side. Also great for hearing my husband when we are driving in the car. I know you haven't had surgery yet and still have some hearing in AN side, but I guess hearing loss is hearing loss. I like not feeling isolated or out of the loop in conversations when in noisy environments. They are expensive and may take some visits for adjustments, but my flat fee included unlimited visits to Audiologist for first 6 months and a 1-year warranty. I went to the Audiology Department at my local hospital. Good luck!
Julianne