Hearing loss

[Lady Wolf]

Hearing that Devcca is due to get her hearing aids it made me wonder who else like me has some form of hearing impairment. The internet and mobile phone text messaging has opened up a while new area for deaf and the hearing impaired, the ability to communicate has never been easier.

Mine is relatively mild, I have lost the upper register of sounds, I'm 29 and have early onset hearing loss, through a genetic fault. Although I'm being monited for changes I've been mostly stable for the last few years. It's kind of like going grey in your teens.

I can clearly remember hearing high nosies like the local bats squeaking at each other. I lost this at some point in my childhood, I can't place when. Now I have a noticable difference between my left and right ear.

To combat a problem I have with social interaction (I can't cope with background noise, losing the ability to follow conversations) I went back to school to learn how to lip read, which had an added bonus of lifting my confidence which was badly knocked be finding out I had a hearing problem in the first place.

One thing I can remeber doing as I walked away from the hopsital was talking to myself - I realised one thing, I am the same person today as I was yesterday, but today I know something about myself I didn't before.

[prekharper]

Mine is excellent -- especially in the higher registers. In fact, as soon as the technician flips to a new level, I can hear it, without any increase in volume.

[Beisla]

My hearing would otherwise be normal (I do all right on hearing tests), but my ears produce too much ear wax, so I need to get them cleaned once or twice a year. Toward the end I always don't hear as well anymore, though I don't always notice the difference until afterwards: it's a wonderful feeling being able to hear clearly again!

[C_ris]

my hearing should be fine... but it might be slightly less than that, but i don't know!

[Greenrider Tresa]

I'd say poor...I'm almost completely deaf without my hearing aid. Only need one, since I can't hear at all in my other ear - might hear a train going right past my ear, but it would sound softer than it really is. Can't hear a whisper too well.
I also don't like crowds, all the overlapping noises confuse me. In fact, I've been known to turn my aid way down in malls so I can focus in on the nearest sounds.
I've had hearing loss since childhood, so I don't really remember hearing things clearly or with both ears. I know sign language, but have never learned to lip read.



Tresa

[Madrigal]

My hearing is a little above average, not by much. I've got good enough pitch to be irritated by off-pitch sounds... but not good enough to ever tune a piano or anything of the like.

[Dawn]

My hearing is fine, although I expect as I get older that I'll lose some of it - especially after listening to all the rock music in the 80's as loud as I could. ;) :evil: My mother did warn me... :laugh:

When I was a child though, I had such bad sinus/drainage problems that I did have hearing loss for a while. I got pretty good at reading lips. When my mom finally realized that I couldn't hear half the time, I went to the doctor, got tested and went on twice daily doses of allergy medicine. I was a zombie in school. :roll: I wish they'd developed non-drowsy medicine a lot sooner!

[granath]

I have mild hearing loss, but it's very mild as I can still work the phones at a call center with 60 people, computers, tube lights and airconditioning going around me, but my bigger problem is tinnitus. My ears whine constantly, although I'm getting quite good at tuning it out when I'm concentrating on something else Too much loud music. I can still hear crickets but not mosquitos, unless they come within about 3 inches of my ear.

[Apocalypse]

I've never hadmy hearing tested, so I assume that it's normal. Of course, I suffer from 'selective' deafness occassionally :evil:

[Elisabetha]

I think my hearing is good, but I have never had it tested, so I don't know for sure, unlike my eyes which I know to be not all that good. I have been wearing glasses since I was 12 and right now I need new glasses with stronger lenses (sp?), but couldn't have my eyes tested because I was pregnant, due to hormone changes your eyes aren't stable during pregnancy so having your eyes tested would be a waste of time. Now I am waiting untill I can walk a bit farther than I can now before going to the towncentre to have them tested.

:bouncy: :bouncy: :bouncy:

[Bob12]

Mine is still fine. A bit of a surprise since I've always tended to listen to music loud and spent 31 years working in telecommunications - most of it in a dispatch center. Mine was checked about a year ago and I could hear everything up to 13KHz at a fairly low volume.

[wulfin]

Mine is 'mild'. But all self inflicted. My flute teacher DID warn me to practice playing piccolo with earplugs in ... :D It is just the high registers though.

I hear higher registers more through my bones than my ears. For example.. i hear the buzz of the lights at work and at home.. which drives me nuts when i have a migraine..but i don't necessarily hear that through my *ears* :) Go figure.

Incidentally.. i still retained my perfect pitch in the regular registers (enough to be able to play flute in it's upper registers, but cannot with my picc in the highest). I attribute that to my 20 years in music though.

[Bamy]

i can Hear fine its just Listening i have problems with (i tend to zone out/tune out extraneous noises if i want to concentrate on something)

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

Mine is fine. Well it must be pretty good if I can hear a softly ticking clock over the tv, all the way across the house to drive me nutty. Ticking clocks, dripping water, just drives me insane :irked:

[Mausey]

I haven't a clue. I'd have to say I don't think I have any hearing loss though. I can hear a clock tick or a tap drip. :D Hubby on the other hand :roll: he NEEDS something. He'll have the tv turned up way too loud for me to be comfortable so I think it's time I started a bit of nagging. :D

[TamTam]

I've never had my ears tested, so I couldn't say for sure. I do quite well one-on-one, but in a crowded room I have to ask people to repeat themselves.

[Lisa Lewis]

My hearing is fine.... at least that's what the DR says..... I think there is a little hearing loss on one side because I seem to hear better on my left side as opposed to my right....

[Bronze-Dragonrider]

With my recent cold, I seem to have gotten an ear infection and have lost a slight abount of hearing in my right ear and a significant amount in my left, all because I was too stubborn to see a doctor :( Is it too late to be reveresed? I'm starting to get worried now...

[Lady Legira]

Mine seems fine, although I do have a problem with wax, the nurse at my docs said I should have them cleaned once a year. :)

[Faren]

Mine is fine, but my husband has some loss. His was self-inflicted also...too many years operating loud farm equipment without earplugs. :roll:

[Ez]

My hearing's fine, but I have to admit I am rather tone-deaf. :)

[CLBeilby]

I have some minor loss, due to a combination of ear infections when I was a child and loud music in high school (carpooled with some other students, who insisted on blasting heavy metal music full blast...)

[murphy]

I don't know how much of a hearing loss I have, but it is significant. I have oto-sclerosis (sp?) which is a calcification of the stapes. It is genetic and is activated by puberty or pregnancy. In my case, I had a baby and started going deaf (go figure). Have had four ear operation over a period of 30 years. Two of them helped and two did nothing. I turn on the closed captioning on the television and get along fine, even with a hearing aid. :2cent:

[Bobbsy]

Mine is fine...with the proviso that I add "for my age". I happened to "experiment" with mine a few days back, and it starts to roll off at about 15kHz, with no real hearing above 16kHz. However, this is normal or better than normal for my age (mid 50s). When I was in my 30s it was still flat up to and above 18kHz.

Bobbsy

[aberlioness]

Mine is excellent according to the army medical that I had a couple of years ago, they told me that my sensitivity is in the top 5% of the country, which amazed me as I'm always accused of being deaf by my Mum...

... on the other hand I can hear bats squeaking as they fly about after their prey. They make a tremendous racket, especially when they try to go after the fly on the end of my fishing line!

[Anareth]

I have some midrange loss because of all the years spent in band and wind ensemble, especially in practice halls with bad accoustics. If there's a lot of noise, like at work with the hood fan and the dish machine and the noise from the rink, I have trouble sorting out what someone's saying from the background.

[Flinx]

At prensent my hearing is fine, but my mum has been told that she is going to need hearing aids soon.

[carmella]

Young people won't want to hear this. As a member of the first Rock and Roll generation, I have hearing loss in ceertain ranges because of loud music. so get those speakers out of your cars and rooms or using ear plugs.

I know you won't liste; I didn't

[Sophia Caligo]

With my recent cold, I seem to have gotten an ear infection and have lost a slight abount of hearing in my right ear and a significant amount in my left, all because I was too stubborn to see a doctor :( Is it too late to be reveresed? I'm starting to get worried now...


Hmmm, sounds like what I did earlier this semester. I could barely hear out of my right ear and my left ear was slightly affected. However now my hearing is fine.
It just took a couple of weeks for my ears to get with the program.
It sounded like there was something blocking the noise.

I've always been careful to listen to music at a relatively quiet level, as well as the television. My cousin was born with severe hearing loss and in the past couple of years due to illness he lost the rest of his hearing.

He knows sign language and how to read lips, so he's okay. He received a Coclier implant last year, unfortunally I don't know how he's doing. He's about the only one of my paternal family that I'll talk to willingly and I haven't seen any of them in over 2 years. :shrug:

Anyway, your ears will probably be fine, but I'm not a doctor. You should go visit one just in case. I would have only the on campus doctor sucks.

[Brenda]

When you're really stopped up, the air flow in your ears gets messed up, and the pressure - try popping your ears. Hold your nose and then try to blow out through it. Things should get suddenly louder. I have to do this all the time - mostly I barely notice it, but I have a cold just since yesterday... When I was little I had ear tubes to do the job, since I kept getting infections, but after the tubes came out I started getting infections again. My ear doctor got me to start popping my ears and I have never had an infection since. I was having them at least once a month before that.

[Nenwen]

I was diagnosed as tone deaf by third grade. That was basically the end of my musical instruction :irked:

Deafness runs in my family.

Dozens of untreated ear infections while growing up(father:"you ain't that sick, have some cough syrup and go to school."), loud music, and being beat up and smacked around by 2 stepmoms and 1 ex-fiance, didn't help any at all.

By early November 1998, my hearing tests showed I was effectively deaf and the hearing aids would no longer help me at all.

then this passed December 28th(2005), I had a new hearing test, reminding the audiologist that I had severe tinnitus(ringing in the ears). She determined that new FM-technology hearing aids might help me regain some of my hearing. My most recent hearing test showed some actual improvments in my remaining vestigial hearing in both ears. I have no idea what the audiologist was talking about but if I can hear again, faboo. I'm all for it.

The problem is the cost isn't covered by my current health insurance.

I can lip read fairly well, particularly if the person has a familiar accent or is from my neck of the woods which I grew up reading. Closed Captioning helps a great deal but it's frustrating to have to wait so long for the DVDs and Videos to come out so I can see what all the excitement is about on new films. It will likely be at least Christmas this year before I get to see X-Men3 :irked:

[GR'ass]

While I don't have hearing loss, both my mother and my twin do. My mum has a 25% loss in one ear, and 50% loss in the other. My bro has problems if there is to much background noise.
As a rather strange result, all of us kids picked up lipreading. . . comes in handy to have a conversation across the room.

[Weyrwoman Kalina]

I have a mild case of hearing loss in my right ear. I definitely don't hear AS well from that one as I do from my left. :shrug: