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Accounting for tinnitus in hearing test and client guessing

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One audiologist I saw understood the issue - I have tinnitus and can’t easily distinguish the tone from the test - and said, do your best but I’ll try to do a short burst of beeps so it sounds different to the solid tone of my tinnitus. That worked as I could just about separate the two. Most recently, I was told by another audiologist that random pressing or even trying to work it out would likely show up.

In reply to @hass5744

I’m not faking, I’m doing what I’m told - “press the buzzer when you hear a beep”. It’s not my fault if I can’t distinguish between the test beep and what’s in my head.

As I said I have tried both ways - pressing when I hear what I think is a beep (which is a lot), and the audiologist told me off for pressing too much, and I’ve tried pressing when I’m very certain it’s the test and not my head and I was then told off for not pressing enough.

My concern is not that I can or can’t hear the beeps, but that it’s too easy with the regular timing beeps to automatically match the timing of the beeps - the point is I am not ‘trying’ to match the pattern: it is natural to follow a beat. ; if the test ‘beeps’ aren’t truly random, it is too easy to unintentionally replicate the beat test pattern. Therefore, the test is not accurate.

In reply to @cvkemp

Good suggestion, and I’m glad to hear you’ve taken the reins. :horse_racing:t3:
Good on you !

I’ve finally had a good search and found an audiologist I’m happy with so I’m at least taking charge of that part of my life.

In reply to @tina333

@tina333 said:

I’ve only just been given a word recognition test after 10 years of various audiology. It was pretty low.

That test varies widely. Ideally the test uses a known prerecorded voice. The chosen volume level has a huge impact. My recent was over 30% higher in both ears than the tests from previous years. After checking with one of those previous testers, they said a much higher volume level was used.

If properly done, many people think that test is an indication of the maximum benefit expected from hearing aids.

In reply to @Neville

Thanks for these explanations, Neville. It really helps to understand the anatomy and physiology behind the vocab to understand what people are talking about and to understand what they’re going through.

Your explanations of audiology testing have really cleared things up for me too.

Edited

In reply to @tina333

Yeah @tina333, Meniers Disease is quite rare, and isn’t usually hereditary, around 0.2% of the population or 1 person in 1,000, strangely enough my brother was diagnosed last year with MD, which stunned me! MD tends to start off gradually, with the odd episode of vertigo, it builds up in intensity as other symptoms kick in, lots of folk vomit, I just got the nausea, fullness of ear, distortion both visual & audio, chronic fatigue post vertigo, each attack left me completely drained, my balance became problematic, for me especially in the dark, MD with each attack, is destroying your residual hearing, or what hearing you have left… Tinnitus is at the extreme level, it goes off the scale when an attack is imminent! This is in conjunction with stress levels, they go through the roof, eventually depression kicks in, and you wallow in self pity for a few years, you pray or I did, for to be completely “Deaf”, profoundly so, foolishly thinking this will eliminate the vertigo attacks! But, eventually (around year 5 for me) respite comes, MD gradually starts to dissipate, over the next couple of years, the attacks become less sporadic, the intensity is less severe, and just when you think it’s over, “Wham”another bad attack! And that floors you mentally, it leaves you always worried the vertigo will return, even now some 18 years of being vertigo free, I still occasionally worry… Nowadays, I am fairly content with my lot, it’s amazing how adaptable we “All” are, I regard myself as fortunate to have survived the worst aspects of MD, and some folks had this a lot worse than me, I was surrounded by a loving & caring family, living with MD isn’t easy, and for my sins, I was probably a complete PITA… But, they stuck bye me, and we survived… :smile:
Edit; Apologies @tina333, I forgot to say thank you for the best wishes, much appreciated… :smile:

@DaveL said:

I found the trigger for my migraines and that’s why they’re better now.

You are very fortunate you were able to avoid the trigger. My wife has chronic migraines. One trigger appears to be changing atmospheric pressure, especially if rapid. You cannot escape changing weather.

@prodigyplace said:

One trigger appears to be changing atmospheric pressure, especially if rapid. You cannot escape changing weather.

It is not uncommon for patients to report this as a possible tinnitus trigger as well.

Mine has been really loud this past week, and honestly I’m kind of blaming this thread. :laughing:

Me too! I never knew that I had this tinnitus condition until someone told me that people with a hearing loss are likely to also suffer from tinnitus. Dang, there it is again because I’m reading and writing about it!

Edited

Your tinnitus sounds like mine. I never knew why they call it “ringing” in the ear. Mine is every pitch known to mankind all at once. And, yes, it masks sounds and speech. I figure if I did not have tinnitus, I would have perfect hearing. But who’s to know. Do not push the button unless you are sure it is the beep. Think of the beep as speech. If you are not sure you hear a voice then you didn’t hear the word so if you press the button, the audiologist will assume you can hear speech at that decibel and your hearing aid will reflect that. I have never been to an audiologist that got cranky because I did or did not push the button enough. Only push when you KNOW it was the beep. It is frustrating, I know.

I think that speech has to be louder than my tinnitus for me to understand what’s said…

My *T is like yours. It’s both ears. It’s like two orchestras with every musician tuning up separately, one orchestra in each ear.

DaveL

In reply to @prodigyplace

I had to change the way I think. Until then I had about 3 a week from '95 to 3 years ago. I used dowsing to figure out the reason why…and meditation. And many other pursuits. I’m 76; they started when I was about 17. I still get migraines. Maybe every month…or longer They’re much more intense, and last about 5 days when the hit.
A question about pressure…if it’s pressure, does she get migraines in flight when an aircraft takes off or lands?

DaveL

Aye Dave, I practice Reiki for myself, and others, tis used a lot nowadays in hospitals for pain management… I am severely effected by cabin pressure in planes, especially smaller planes, the 50/60 seater jobs, wreaks havoc with my balance! With the larger aircraft, then I am usually fine… You would think, I had just downed a bottle of Whiskey, when I come off one of those smaller planes, I am staggering all over the place… Cheers Kev :wink:

In reply to @DaveL

@DaveL said:

A question about pressure…if it’s pressure, does she get migraines in flight when an aircraft takes off or lands?

She has not flown since H1N1 triggered chronic migraines. A good day is a headache. Lately it takes around 4 days to recover from a migraine and then the barometric pressure triggers another one.

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