My hearing is better??!!

[sunfish]

   Went to ENT and audiologist for followup today.  I told them, "I don't know - my hearing does seem different over the past few months."  They did audiometry, and guess what - they swear my hearing is much better than it was in September.  I said, "Well, I think I tried harder today, maybe now I know what to listen for."  They replied, "No way does 'trying harder' account for this improvement."  Less conductive loss, less sensory-neural loss, better speech discrimination (which they thought was the biggie).  OK, OK - I know not to get too excited, and that things can change (generally for the worse) with ANs and CK.  And it's way to early after CK to know what the final outcome will be. The docs scratched their heads and said they think CK changed something in that ear.  My thought later - maybe the steroids reduced some sort of swelling or something.

Still having problems with blood pressure - up way high on Friday, docs put me on new meds.  No one knows why it's up and won't come back down.

[Lizard]

Wow, how exciting!  As you said a lot can change, but its a positive.  Enjoy it, who knows what will happen later on, but there is no reason you shouldn't be excited.
Take care,
Liz

[crivers]

That is great - we can only hope to improve after treatment in the hearing department.

On a separate note, did you find the hearing aid to help? I never got one, as I wasn't sure it would help and I couldn't find someone to give me one to try and see the results before I purchased one - they are quite expensive, so I passed. I'd like to hear about your experience with it.

Cheers.
Cayce

[sunfish]

I absolutely love my hearing aid.  I call it my "ear."  But my hearing loss is mild/moderate.  And it is, at least in part, due to conductive/middle ear loss.  Different from strictly sensory-neural loss that you get from the AN (I have that too).  Conductive loss is when the little bones in your middle ear don't work right for some reason (I landed on my head in a bad bicycle wreck two years ago).  How well a hearing aid helps you depends on what sort of hearing impairment you have.

There have been some huge advances in hearing aids in the last few years.  I use the Dot ²20 by ReSound.  Teeny tiny digital aid, technology wasn't even available a couple years ago.  I think your in Australia, Cayce?  In the U.S., many states are now requiring that insurance companies pay at least $1000 toward a hearing aid.  So I paid about $700 out of pocket.  And my doctor's office has a trial program where you can try the thing for 30-60 days before you purchase, so you can see how it works out.

If I'm awake and not underwater, I have my hearing aid on!