SSD...Where is that noise coming from?

[ombrerose4]

I am a Baha wearer who definitely feels my directionality is better when I wear my Baha. I also feel that because of this my balance when walking is also improved when wearing the Baha.

[tweety]

You made me laugh cause I sometimes feel like a dog chasing my tail.  I have made it a game to use my good ear as my compass and direction finder. THere are  many more worse things in life to take this so seriously.  Yes it is frustrating but I just shrug my shoulders and move on.  I guess I am glad I have one good ear.  Tweety

[cherrypiper]

exactly, cant tell orientation of sound cause we lost one radar unit. also in crowded venues i can hear across the room better then i can my table talking directly at me. brain only has one side to absorb it all now. which by the way makes the brain work harder too tiring more.

BAHA is one way to solve part of this, so is transear if you can find them, and there is the old Criss Cross ear devices too. and a new one just FDA approved called "sound-byte" where the transmitter is in a retainer device in your mouth and goes to an ear piece.

[sues1953]

I found this thread very interesting.  Thanks Kenneth for the SSD essay.  I try to be as normal as possible but some days are a challenge and I embarrass easily.  I find myself avoiding a lot and that's sad.  I lost my job as Retail Assistant manager just before I found out about my AN and being that I am no spring chicken it has been hard for me to apply for jobs in the retail situation.  They are not ideal for SSD, not only direction but dizziness and Wonky head feeling.

I do have a kinda funny story though.  I was talking on the phone one day to a friend and heard a dog barking, she doesn't own a dog so I ask her about it.  It was my own dog in my own house barking  Weird 

[MandaPanda]

Hello, all!

I'm fairly new to SSD as I just had my translab surgery on Thursday, April 28th, but I can identify with the frustration and "humor" of it all!  The directionality is driving me crazy...with a 2 and 7 year old, sometimes figuring out where the "Momma" is coming from is maddening!  The other night a succession of unfamiliar sounds (a toy noise, a tone on my hubby's cell phone, and something on the tv) caused a (now) funny blowup from me.  I just "freaked out" (in my 7 year old's opinion) and yelled "What is that noise, and where is it coming from?!?!?!"  It's funny now, but that night, I'd just about had it with having to work so hard to locate and identify sounds.  I know I'll get used to it...hasn't even been 2 weeks, but it IS maddening!  I'm so thankful for this community!!!

Amanda

[Stephanie]

I love how it's been 10 months for me now and my husband still tries to whisper in my deaf ear. I make a funny face at him but he can't see it cuz my left side still has some paralysis : )

Does anyone get a weird feeling in your bad ear? Sometimes a certain tone (usually my husband singing or being goofy loud) will set off kind of a vibration in my head (best description I can think of; it feels like I would imagine a tuning fork to feel when it has been hit against something). If I get bumped or move the wrong way I get the same thing. Sometimes it is painful and usually gives a new, louder type of ringing.

Then at other times I get a sharp pain in my ear, it feels like an ear infection but it's not.

I did have a CSF leak but the doctor said when he went back in he was able to avoid the drum and leave my ear insides in tact.

Any thoughts?

[opp2]

I love how it's been 10 months for me now and my husband still tries to whisper in my deaf ear. I make a funny face at him but he can't see it cuz my left side still has some paralysis : )

Does anyone get a weird feeling in your bad ear? Sometimes a certain tone (usually my husband singing or being goofy loud) will set off kind of a vibration in my head (best description I can think of; it feels like I would imagine a tuning fork to feel when it has been hit against something). If I get bumped or move the wrong way I get the same thing. Sometimes it is painful and usually gives a new, louder type of ringing.

Then at other times I get a sharp pain in my ear, it feels like an ear infection but it's not.

I did have a CSF leak but the doctor said when he went back in he was able to avoid the drum and leave my ear insides in tact.

Any thoughts?

Yes, sometimes. I think it's scar tissue. I truly don't think my tumour is growing back but every now and then I get 'reminders' of what happened not so long ago. I had my surgery just over 10 months ago too.

[allisjbh]

Teaching in a classroom with 20-30 kids is exhausting with SSD sometimes - even when they know the situation. One morning a parent walked in the classroom while I was looking for something on my desk. I didn't even know she was right beside me trying to talk to me. By the time I noticed her, she had an incredulous look on her face.          Another time two of my boys were working together on the floor in the same spot. They asked me a question while I was reaching over my desk for something. I kept looking out over the room to see who was calling me - never seeing anyone. Finally it dawned on me that it must be coming from my right. Once again that incredulous look from others says it all. 

On another note - I've been having pain from my bad ear this week too. It is odd because it is an intermittent pain coming from the temple area above the ear. Plus there are sensitive spots in the outer ear that trigger the pain.

[Suu]

Does anyone get a weird feeling in your bad ear? Sometimes a certain tone (usually my husband singing or being goofy loud) will set off kind of a vibration in my head (best description I can think of; it feels like I would imagine a tuning fork to feel when it has been hit against something). If I get bumped or move the wrong way I get the same thing. Sometimes it is painful and usually gives a new, louder type of ringing.

Then at other times I get a sharp pain in my ear, it feels like an ear infection but it's not.

I can definitely relate to the noises in the deaf ear.  Some are rather wierd like an electical buzz or bee!

When hubby persists in talking to me on that side, I turn off my good ear as well and ignore him. LOL He gets it in the end 

[CHD63]

Now that I am fully SSD, I can appreciate this thread all the more.  I had 20% hearing pre-surgery, but with very loud tinnitus.  Now I have NO hearing and still very loud tinnitus ...... so it really does not seem all that much different.  The tinnitus masks any now impossible input of sound anyway.  Wonder what will happen when the BAHA processor is attached ......

Husband still adjusting to the fact I simply cannot hear what he is trying to tell me when on my AN side.  We do this little "dance" when deciding how to sit in waiting rooms/restaurants ...... sort of like, who's on first, etc.

You should have seen David, Nancy, Lainie, and I jockeying for best placement of hearing positions last Saturday!  Pretty funny!

Clarice

[Denise S]

Clarice, I call it the 'SSD Shuffle'     Its been 18 months for me now and seems like I still have to do the shuffle with my family members...usually when walking somewhere.

Isn't it an odd sensation having SSD, BUT STILL having tinnitus?   So many people don't seem to believe me how bad my tinnitus can be on that side.  They are like, ?what??, I thought you were deaf on that side.     I honestly don't completely get it, since our nerves to the brain are the dead part (RIGHT?)

Denise (MI)

[opp2]

Denise, I just tell them that I hear the tinnitus in my head. That helps a lot. And we've adopted this phrase in our house.

"I can't understand what you're saying"

This works well with my family. I found when I was saying I can't hear you, they would talk louder from wherever they were, but I still couldn't understand. Now if I say that they tend to come to me, or wait for me to come to them.

On the 'where is that noise coming from'. My first real test today of the SSD anti-location of sound side effect. We have what we call block training. We go for a week, and on two day we practice scenarios. I'm a police officer for those who don't know. We are sent into a scenario sound stage with many different rooms and we have to find the threat and stop it. In the sound stage area, the sound echos. I couldn't find the shooter/bad guy/threat when they were making noise because I couldn't locate it. HOWEVER-my hearing colleagues were suffering the same deficit. Because of the echos, they couldn't find the guy either. We worked our way through it, and I found that I used my other senses more. It was fun, but very enlightening.

[CHD63]

Very interesting about using our other senses more to compensate for the SSD .....  It makes sense.  (No pun intended.  )  Because I have no working vestibular systems, I was trained to become more aware of my visual and sensorineuro cues to maintain balance.  In law enforcement, it would be critical to your safety to heighten your awareness from other aspects.

..... and "I can't understand what you're saying" is frequently heard in this household, as well.  It really is not the lessened volume that is the problem, but the enunciation when things are monaural instead of stereo.  Also, it is a brain thing, as well.  If I know someone is going to be speaking to me, I sort of consciously perk up my awareness so I catch what they are saying from the beginning, rather than trying to "rewind" and figure out what they just said.  Make sense??

Clarice

[Kaybo]

"I can't understand you" is one of my favs! I've said it before but THE WORST thing for me, by far, was when my babies started crawling & would crawl off to another part of the house & then start crying - I would frantically run thru the house, checking every room looking for them! It was awful!! I've also learned to say, "What room?" when they say, "in here"!!!

Denise-
I think of the tinnitus as a kind of phantom thing. Even though I have no feeling in my face, every once in a while I get an INTENSE itch - it is truly maddening because all the scratching in the world doesn't help - & really, the bloody marks on my face don't help either!!  just kidding!!!

K 

[cindyj]

The "SSD Shuffle" - I like that, Denise!  Very good name for the little dances we do - my friends have all adapted quite well, I must say...hubby still in training  

When I'm playing a tennis match and hear an "Out" call, I really have no idea if it was my opponents saying my ball was out or someone on some other court calling an out ball in a completely different match  

Thankfully, almost all of my "where is it coming from" moments are just funny, not crucial to a job or life threatening in any way...

cindy