Audiology appointment yesterday was a mixed bag. Not surprising, I guess. He can’t rule out damage to the little ossicles and/or cochlea….that will be up to the ENT doctor on the 30th. It may….just may, mind you, not necessarily will…..require surgery to repair if that’s the case. Hearing tests showed the left ear is dead (we knew that 11 years ago), but the trauma to the right ear resulted in a dramatic and sudden change in the hearing on that side as well. That won’t resolve. I may get a little hearing back, but not where it was Tuesday morning before the accident.
I left there sporting 2 new hearing aids. They are just demos and a stopgap measure to give me some hearing until I see the ENT. They’re all fancy ’n stuff - an app on my phone lets me control the performance of the devices based on environment, background noise level, and lets me focus targeted hearing 360 degrees. (Where was THAT when I was trying to hear at banquets and crowded Masonic events?) Like Katie, I can even answer the phone directly through the hearing aid on the right. The voices and sounds are still very distorted….everything has a buzzing sound to it and the rattling, but I can make the actual words out far better because they aren’t so faint.
But the coolest thing is the left hearing aid. That ear is dead, and no hearing aid will ever improve it. But the aid in the left ear is a microphone that transmits sounds on that side to the aid on the right. That means I can “hear” what’s being said on the left side, even if the speaker is standing on my left and behind me!! That sound is picked up by the microphone and transmitted via Bluetooth to the aid in the right ear. So although the left ear isn’t actually hearing the sounds, it THINKS it is! And that’s good enough for me.
Unfortunately I’ll have to give these little gems back - I get them for about a month. Insurance doesn’t cover hearing aids. I’ve never understood why, in the insurance world, teeth, ears, and eyes aren’t considered body parts but there ya go. Our auto policy would take care of some of it because the right ear was actually damaged in the crash, but like lots of folks we didn’t opt for high medical coverage on our policy because we have Medicare and TriCare for Life. So we figured that any injuries we might suffer would be covered through that. Apparently not ears. We’re not supposed to injure them I guess. So in the meantime I’ll just enjoy using them while I have them, and hope I get good results on the 30th at the ENT visit.
Greeter
Friend
Spirit
Educator
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Happy Father's day!
