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Need to describe my hearing to my doctor better

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I thought I would be OK waiting 6 months for my next appointment, I’m not really OK with it. Being told a hearing aid won’t help me doesn’t help me either. If I could just adapt to my hearing loss and move on with my life, I wouldn’t have gone through surgery! I am not OK with how I am right now, I don’t want to simply “adapt” and “cope”. I’ve been trying to do that for 6 months and it isn’t working for me obviously. I’m getting frustrated.

I think I need to describe my hearing better to my otologist so this is what I’ve come up with.

· My own voice sounds like a kazoo in my left ear, the louder I talk the louder the kazoo plays. If I whisper the kazoo doesn’t play at all.
· When I speak it’s almost as if my left ear “closes”, like something pushes against my eardrum and keeps it from transmitting the sounds. If I whisper this does not happen.
· Left ear will, mostly in the car, just “close” and it feels as if my ear stops working. If I swallow it will open back up.
· I still have a lot of aural fullness, some days my ear feels fluid filled. The full feeling is greatly diminished when wearing an amplifier or hearing aid.
· Certain sounds make my eardrum feel like it’s “fluttering” or opening and closing rapidly, this happens mostly when listening to music at an increased volume. Incoming sounds go “on” and “off” when this happens.
· Volume on incoming sounds is very low overall.
· Sounds coming in to the left ear are at a higher pitch than those in the right ear. Much better than before surgery though.
· Loud incoming sounds will also make the left ear “close” for a second, same with loud internal sounds (like eating somehing crunchy).

There is definitely something dysfunctional going on with my left ear and waiting until December to go back seems like, well, a waste of my time. I have been wearing a BORROWED hearing aid and though not programmed just for me it definitely makes a difference. I actually heard a cashier ask me a question without turning my head and saying “what?” at the grocery store. I can only imagine what it would be like if it was programmed for my exact hearing!

So what would you do if you were in my shoes? Should I just send a letter to my otologist and explain I simply can’t live like this much longer and we find out what’s going on or I’m looking into hearing aids. Or would you just wait out the six months and see what happens then?

Edited

I’m no professional…just a hearing impaired chuckle-head, but I just wanted to ask if you’ve ever gotten a second opinion regarding your accident and the physical damage done? In your position I believe that’s what I would do.

Otherwise, if it were me, I would get a hearing aid. This is presuming the cost wouldn’t be a huge issue. I can understand how frustrating it must be, especially losing your hearing all at once like you did.

Keep us posted.

I don’t know, it’s a tough spot. I really, really sympathize with you and I know you want to just find something that works now.

I think much of what you came up with to tell your doctor he/she needs to know now, especially about the left ear effects (feeling open, then closed, loud sounds, etc.). I think I would definitely go ahead with telling them.

But, and this is probably not what you want to hear, the doctor may still feel that the ear will stabilize in another 6 months and give him/her something better to work with.

I don’t see how a hearing aid would hurt anything but that would be something to ask also. You might not get the full effect from the hearing aid and it may have to be adjusted often as things change, but it might make life more comfortable along the way, as long as you know it’s not going to be perfect and may have to be adjusted often.

After the six months, either things will be somewhat better or the doctor will want to try something else, or will say this is it. In any case you will probably still need a hearing aid so it wouldn’t be wasted if you got one now.

Second opinion is a great idea!

Just curious, does anyone think that compiling a glossary of common terms used to describe how one’s hearing sounds through the ’s would help with getting adjustments made from the audiologist? :rolleyes:
I know my voice will on occasion sound “kazoo-like” when I speak with my head turned while sitting in a high backed chair. Wasn’t sure how to describe this until I read lohearin use the term “kazoo”.

BTW Lohearin, I have been reading of your plight and wish you well…

Thank you for the suggestions and support. A hearing aid purchase for me is out of the question due to numerous financial constraints. I have seen several audiologists and then the otologist who did my surgery, and the surgery was a success to a degree as I did gain a lot of clarity but that’s it.

I’m trying to adapt to my new reality, I knew going in that my hearing would never be perfect again, but I had hoped to get back a lot more than I have. So I really am just trying to get by and learn this may be as good as it gets, but I’m not ready to accept that 100%.

I have drafted a letter to send to my otologist that describes in more detail exactly how and what I hear. I am also going to see if I can get back in with him earlier than December, for me waiting until December is the same as waiting until April (end of snowmobiling season).

kazoo-like sounds like what things sound like for me on the conductive range of my hearing loss. When my ear gets plugged up, then the sound seems to conduct through my bone and actually get picked up, but like a kazoo is a fairly accurate description.

I agree though. It would be awesome if we could come up with a standard terminology to help describe things to our audis. I still cannot get mine to understand the “white noise” that I pick up all the time.

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