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Author Topic: Post-Radiation and hearing devices.... do you have one?  (Read 3189 times)

ppearl214

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Post-Radiation and hearing devices.... do you have one?
« on: June 18, 2008, 02:35:50 pm »
Not to take away from MaryBKAZ thread, but simple survey question please....


If you are an AN Patient who had your AN treated via radio-treatment, have you obtained a hearing device and if yes, what type? Please be specific.

thanks!
Phyl
« Last Edit: June 18, 2008, 02:37:21 pm by ppearl214 »
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sgerrard

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Re: Post-Radiation and hearing devices.... do you have one?
« Reply #1 on: June 18, 2008, 08:29:10 pm »
Yes.

A Unitron Moxi Element 16, BTE with power shell receiver. Digital, noise reduction, speech enhancement. Gray body, tan ear plug. #312 (brown) battery.

Works for me.

Steve :)
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8 mm left AN June 2007,  CK at Stanford Sept 2007.
Hearing lasted a while, but left side is deaf now.
Right side is weak too. Life is quiet.

ppearl214

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Re: Post-Radiation and hearing devices.... do you have one?
« Reply #2 on: June 19, 2008, 11:53:52 am »
thanks Steve! 

anyone else?  Or...everyone (radio patients) just dealing with the hearing loss and not using a hearing device?


Phyl
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jb

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Re: Post-Radiation and hearing devices.... do you have one?
« Reply #3 on: June 19, 2008, 11:40:32 pm »
I just say "WHAT ??!!!" a lot.  A great way to annoy friends and family.  ;D

My hearing level doesn't seem completely stable yet post-CK, so I'm holding out for awhile.
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2 cm right-side AN, diagnosed July 2006
Cyberknife at Georgetown Univ. Hospital, Aug 2007
Swelled to 2.5 cm and darkened thru center on latest MRI's, Dec 2007 and Mar 2008
Shrinking! back to 2 cm, Aug 2008
Still shrinking (a little), I think about 1.7 cm now, Aug 2009

sgerrard

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Re: Post-Radiation and hearing devices.... do you have one?
« Reply #4 on: June 20, 2008, 08:57:40 am »
FYI, jb, these new-fangled digital hearing aids have a pretty wide range. If you get one that is in the right ballpark, the audiologist can hook it up to a computer and adjust the levels (and a bunch of other things) to fine tune it, as often as needed. So you don't have to have completely stable hearing.

Steve
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8 mm left AN June 2007,  CK at Stanford Sept 2007.
Hearing lasted a while, but left side is deaf now.
Right side is weak too. Life is quiet.

Jim Scott

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Re: Post-Radiation and hearing devices.... do you have one?
« Reply #5 on: June 20, 2008, 12:58:20 pm »
Phyl:

As you know, I had microsurgery and FSR.  Because I lost my hearing in the AN-affected ear some years prior to my surgery/radiation, I had pretty much adjusted to my SSD by 2006, when I was diagnosed.  Because of that prior adjustment and the fact that my 'good' ear works very well, I haven't felt the need to have a hearing assist device...yet.  That may change but I don't see it happening anytime soon.  I cope just fine and as time goes on, I believe I actually cope even better than a few years ago.  To each his (or her) own.  :)

Jim
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4.5 cm AN diagnosed 5/06.  Retrosigmoid surgery 6/06.  Follow-up FSR completed 10/06.  Tumor shrinkage & necrosis noted on last MRI.  Life is good. 

Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is.  The way we cope with it is what makes the difference.

jb

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Re: Post-Radiation and hearing devices.... do you have one?
« Reply #6 on: June 20, 2008, 03:09:48 pm »
Steve,
Just wondering if you have any distortion in the hearing in your AN ear and if the Moxi helps?  Mine kind of sounds like the speaker at the drive-thru window of a fast food joint.  I seem to have a weird reverb/resonance effect at some frequencies and it becomes worse with amplification.  I've seen two audiologists; it was a split decision whether a hearing aid would help or not.  I inherited a pair of GN Resound Air though, so I should see if I could get someone to retune it.  I have high-frequency loss and it looks like it's designed to help with that.

JB

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2 cm right-side AN, diagnosed July 2006
Cyberknife at Georgetown Univ. Hospital, Aug 2007
Swelled to 2.5 cm and darkened thru center on latest MRI's, Dec 2007 and Mar 2008
Shrinking! back to 2 cm, Aug 2008
Still shrinking (a little), I think about 1.7 cm now, Aug 2009

sgerrard

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Re: Post-Radiation and hearing devices.... do you have one?
« Reply #7 on: June 20, 2008, 09:03:59 pm »
Jb,

I do have some distortion, and your drive-thru window analogy is a good one. The Moxi seems to help some, although I can still detect that garble in there somewhere. The Moxi seems to help by reducing other background noise, so that speech stands out better, and by emphasizing the frequencies that carry the articulation signals - the bits that make words recognizable, and allow you to discriminate between similar sounding words.

Whereas before I couldn't tell if you said bad, fad, sad, or mad, now I can tell which one you said into that drive-thru window microphone.  :)

I guess my distortion isn't too bad, because it actually sounds pretty good most of the time.

Steve
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8 mm left AN June 2007,  CK at Stanford Sept 2007.
Hearing lasted a while, but left side is deaf now.
Right side is weak too. Life is quiet.

Richey

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Re: Post-Radiation and hearing devices.... do you have one?
« Reply #8 on: June 20, 2008, 09:23:39 pm »


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Re: Postie question for all about hearing, radiosurgery, Baha, transear, hearing
« Reply #16 on: Today at 11:20:15 PM »
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Mary, I had gamma knife in 05 and lost my hearing on the left side gradually over a few months. I have been wearing a bi-cross system for over a year and a half and it is a great help. The hearing in my good is is very good and normally would not use an aid but with the cross system they programmed a little help on the good side too. It helps with the sounds that you miss on your deaf side but of course it's still going in that one side so it's no help with directional hearing and sometimes in crowded  rooms it just adds to the confusion of SSD but you can turn it off or lower the volume.

I have had some problems with am radio station interference in some places but it's manageable.

I also got a second set of aids from the VA which are suppose to be the best on the market, phonak but I have had trouble getting them right. they do have good sound quality but have had trouble with them being too loud all the time or not loud enough when changed. They are behind the ear models and are a little more hardware to carry around than my other which are in the ear and are made by Interton

I tried a transear too but was very uncomfortable and I got little sound transfer from it. Could be that with someone with more experience may have been able to get it to work better as the audio guy said that it was the first one he had ever ordered.

I have considered baha but never made the decision on that option
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