My hearing stinks!!!

[Syl]

Went for a follow up appt. w/ my ENT. She agrees with the audiologist in that I'm not a candidate for a regular hearing aid. However, she does believe that i'm a candidate for a BAHA.

A BAHA?  Yes, a BAHA. I thought u had to have complete loss of hearing in that ear. Maybe I was in denial about my hearing. Maybe I didn't realize how much of what I think I'm hearing in my AN ear is from the other ear.

That explains why having phone conversations in noisy envirironments are not a problem. It also explains why noise doesn't seem to get blocked out on my AN ear when I wear earplugs. Thought I was having trouble inserting the earplug correctly just in that ear.
Also explains why I kept hearing the term "not very serviceable" in reference to my hearing.

I will get further evaluated by my ENTs audiologist to see if I truely am a candidate for the BAHA. If I am, I will do the trial, and maybe see what I've been missing since that unforgettable sneeze over a year ago that was immediately followed by hearing loss. If I'm not a candidate for the BAHA, then I will try a regular hearing aid anyway.



Syl

[Tisha]

I just had an appt. with my local doc about my AN.  He won't be the one doing anything, but he's the one that found it.  Anyway, we were talking about surgery and hearing, etc.  He said he has patients who are deaf in an ear after surgery, but they say they can actually hear better in that ear....but it's impossible because they are deaf in that ear.  It must be the other ear and our brain, or whatever.  Anyway, thought you'd be interested in knowing that he mentioned that.

Tisha

[leapyrtwins]

Syl -

I'd ask for clarification.  If you are totally SSD the BAHA is an option for you, if you still have some hearing in your AN ear the BAHA isn't an option.

Tisha -

what your doc said does not make sense.  Are you sure you understood it correctly?  Are you maybe confusing something he said about the right side of the brain controlling the left side of the body and vice verse?  I'm not even sure if that is a correct statement, but I'm trying to figure out just what he told you.

Regardless, my AN was in my left ear and therefore I am SSD in my left ear - not my right ear.  I can hear absolutely nothing out of my left ear; and even with a BAHA I don't have the "illusion" that I can hear on the left side.

Jan

[Syl]

Tisha and Jan:

I told the Dr. that if I turn the volume way up on the TV and plug my good ear with my finger, I can hear the TV with my AN ear. Her response was that we only keep out about 30db. Essentially, what we think is our bad ear working is really the good ear doing some of the work. She also said that poor serviceable hearing can make you a candidate for the BAHA. So, what Tisha said makes sense to me.

During my hearing tests, the audiologists would play static sounds on the good ear so that it wouldn't interfere with what the bad ear was supposed to hear.

I'll let you know how my next hearing evaluation goes.

Syl

[Tisha]

Jan,

I did understand my doc correctly, and like you he said it doesn't make sense...but patients say they hear out of the deaf ear.  Weird, I know.

Tisha

[RosemaryL]

When I was getting used to SSD, I occasionally thought I could hear through my deaf left ear.  But alas, I couldn't.  What I now think is that my good right ear is more sensitive than it was before my surgery.  So while I don't hear as well as I did before surgery, I do hear better than I did right after surgery.

BTW I wore cross aids for a while.  The audiologist said some folks actually can determine direction with the cross aids; I hoped she was right, but I didn't really believe her.  As it turned out, I could hear things on my left (AN) side better than without the aids, but I still thought the sound came from the right.

Rosemary