why is my hearing different in different situations?

[BeJoi]

I've noticed in my AN ear that telephone voices sound a lot more muffled and far away than in person voices.  Also, if I try to listen to a head phone in my AN ear, I can hardly hear it all.  I've got low normal to below normal hearing in the AN (right) ear, and if I cover my left ear, I can still hear in my right ear; it's just lower volume.  I've also noticed that in loud places--like restaurants and malls--my ears start to feel clogged and it feels like I can't hear as well.  Can someone explain why I have so many different kinds of hearing experiences?

It's very frustrating, especially in loud restaurants and malls.  It feels unbearable at times.

Beverly

[leapyrtwins]

Beverly -

you don't say if you are pre or post treatment, but muffled telephone voices were what lead me to the discovery of my AN.  In fact, it was my only symptom.

Although I had diminished hearing in my left (AN) ear, I actually had fairly good hearing and very good word recognition; only phone voices were an issue for me.  Wish I knew the explanation for that, but I don't.  Now, post op, I have lost the entire hearing in my left (AN) ear.  I had retrosigmoid surgery, in the hopes of saving the hearing level I had prior to surgery, but in my case, the AN had grown and wrapped itself around the hearing nerve.  My surgeons felt it was better to remove the entire AN and "kill" my hearing nerve entirely, than to save my diminished hearing and leave part of the AN.

Jan

[Boppie]

Beverly, I think you are experiencing good word recognition when you have the benefit of some visual contact with the speaker.  Phones have poor acoustics for those with damaged hearing especially in the presence of other noise in your room or in the room of your phone caller.  Your ears pick up all interference and try to make sense of it.  And because you have some loss, word recognition drops.

As confusing as it may be the two ear sound you have is still giving you some benefit in direction finding.  The qualities of sounds are strange at times though, I agree.

For several years I had a lot of problems in meetings and malls.  I noticed I couldn't hear the clock ticking at all.  I used to complain that the speakers on the podium were not making themselves heard.

Post treatment the background noise issue remains with you.  We have to get used to it.  A good hearing aid helps.

[sgerrard]

I've also noticed that in loud places--like restaurants and malls--my ears start to feel clogged and it feels like I can't hear as well....It's very frustrating, especially in loud restaurants and malls.  It feels unbearable at times.

I'm not sure how satisfying this explanation is, but my ENT said that the pressure or clogged sensation is actually generated by our hearing.

On an airplane, when the pressure changes, the middle ear is still at normal pressure, so there is difference between the middle ear and the outside. Our ears detect this difference as reduced sound, and our brains have learned to interpret this as pressure, so our ears feel plugged up. The actual pressure changes on a plane are quite small.

When you have a difference in hearing level between your two ears, you can get the same sensation, particularly in noisy places. The ears detect a general difference in sound level, the brain interprets it as a pressure difference, and the ears feel plugged up. It happened to me today at the mall. The word "disconcerting" describes the sensation quite well.

I don't know if its really true, but that's my ENT's story, and I'm sticking to it...

Steve

[Soundy]

My ENT told me that many people see a difference in hearing on the phone because phone
signals do not broadcast all frequencies... he said to monitor hearing loss between visits to
call a recorded message such as the local time /temp number and swap back and forth
between ears during call... by the time of surgery although I could still hear people in same
room I could not use AN side at all on phone...

[sgerrard]

Anyway, I say all that to say that although the pressure change at different altitudes may not be much, ears are so sensitive and hearing is so delicate that it doesn't take much to adversely affect them.

I was in Colorado last week, and simply driving up and down the mountains, through an elevation change of perhaps 2000 to 3000 feet, was driving my ears and hearing nuts. I would ask others there about it, and they would say that they didn't really notice it much. The AN seems to make your ears extra sensitive to pressure.

I guess your experience in the helicopter was before you had the AN, but in a helicopter the pressure would change a lot faster than it would driving up a moutain road.

I think the ENT's explanation was aimed at why we might feel pressure just by walking into a mall or a loud restaurant. That's when the "hearing change" = "pressure change" idea makes sense to me, since the air pressure isn't really changing. Whatever it is, it sure is annoying sometimes.

Steve
 

[leapyrtwins]

I, too, was in Colorado last week but didn't have any more issues than people without AN's.  Maybe it was because my AN was already surgically removed? 

I really expected some "trouble" but was pleasantly surprised.  We went to Pike Peak's via the Cog Railroad and although I had a huge headache, there were others in my group who had the same.

I did have several days were I woke up with my eyes very blood-shot and dry, but I think it was due to the air being extremely dry.  Lots of people who were with me had this problem also.  I got into the habit of using eye drops every day when I woke up and that seemed to do the trick.

Jan