Hearing appointment yesterday...

One of the things I am trying to do is get a hearing aid through the medical assistance before we go to South Korea. John really wants me to have one since he thinks it will help out a lot. I have had a hearing aid for my left ear since I was six years old after being diagnosed with hearing loss when I was four and a half. It took a couple of years for the audiologist to determine the degree of loss I had in order to choose the right hearing aid for me. Last year, I switched audiologists because I had moved out of the area. This was not easy to do as I had had the same audiologist since my initial diagnosis back in 1985. Yes, that is correct, over 20 years. After my full evaluation back in October (on my birthday, no less), she determined that I needed a hearing aid in the right ear as well. In February, after she had finally gotten my records she did determine that my hearing had slightly worsened and therefore concluded that a hearing aid for the right ear would help. It has not been an easy thing to accept and now, almost a year later, I'm STILL trying to get that hearing aid for the right ear. Medical assistance is causing all kinds of delays and all that good stuff so it will be a miracle if this gets approved at all but I just have to be as patient as possible, I guess. The good news is that my hearing at least has not worsened since then but it has somehow worsened within the last four years (last time I had seen the audiologist which was right after I got my current hearing aid). There is some speculation that the reason the hearing worsened in that ear could have been due to pregnancy. Pregnancy not only can worsen sight, but I guess it can also worsen hearing. Interesting to know.

Hearing aids are not cheap. In fact, they are very expensive. I think the cheapest I got was around $700 and there are hearing aids that actually go up to as much as almost $3000 each. I kind of wish I had $6000 to burn, I would get two of these hearing aids:
http://www.oticonusa.com/Oticon/Consumers/Products/Epoq.html
They have Bluetooth technology and you can actually use them to listen to your MP3 player or talk on your cellphone without even having to use any headphones! Plus, they work together so that you can hear even better. That would be SO nice! As it is, it can be really hard right now with just having the one hearing aid having ears that hear the same and I have no idea how it will feel to have two, especially since they will be SO different! The one for my right ear will be an outer ear hearing aid while for the left ear, I have an in the canal aid. I just hope that MA comes through on time so that I have it before we leave the country. Otherwise, I'm stuck for a good two years with only the four year old hearing aid I have (they only last about 4-7 years).

So, since it had been over six months since my last major evaluation, MA wanted me to get another one. This is a roughly hour long appointment where the doctor goes and plays lots of sounds in my ears and does different tests to determine where my hearing is at. All kinds of different sounds are played in both ears and at different volumes and then at some point, sound is introduced to my right ear and beeps are played in the left and I'm supposed to identify the beeps. It's not easy for me because I tend to hear phantom ear noises (especially during the tests). I do get ringing in my right ear at times and even on occasion my left ear, so they do make noises of their own which makes hearing beeps difficult at times since they're not played very loudly.

To really give you an idea of how bad my hearing is though, one of the tests that is done is the audiologist has a tape play where a man speaks ten words. I have to be able to hear and repeat those ten words back. Each ear is played separately and different words are used for each ear. They are ONE syllable words. Right ear, out of ten words, I got three wrong (though one of them, if I had just heard the darn S at the end, I would have gotten it right). But still, 7-8 right, not bad. Left ear...ZERO correct. I got none of them right. Not ONE. I usually would get the vowel sound, but miss the consonants. If anyone were to speak into my left ear, I would not be able to understand that person at all. That is why I have never been able to use the phone with my left ear, only my right because it would never work, the loss is too severe in that ear. My left ear will only be a helper ear, never a primary ear. And that's even WITH the hearing aid.

In all the years growing up, I don't think my hearing loss had ever really been spelled out to me. I had likened it to having to wear glasses. At 27 years old, I'm finally really starting to face reality when it comes to my hearing loss. It's not like wearing glasses. As far as my left ear goes, it's probably more like being legally blind in one eye. That makes a HUGE difference and at the same time, I have tried so hard to do what I have needed to do regardless that I have more or less shot myself in the foot as far as getting help, especially from the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. Maybe it would be different now considering my hearing has actually worsened and thus, maybe when I come back to the states, I could try to see them again and see what can be done. Something to think about as I don't think I could do another phone type job again and it has seemed to have worsened AFTER I left that job. It's one of the reasons why I'm kind of afraid to look for work, I don't know how I would deal with the hearing problems I have. So many jobs are people oriented and do seem to require a level of decent hearing and I don't know if I have the hearing for it. Thus, my self confidence is a little on the low side when it comes to that.