Not Ear Wax!

Well, I am back from a visit with the doctor, a visit with the audiologist and second visit with the audiologist.

• First, the doctor. He took a good look into my throat and ears.  In the right ear was a very small amount of wax. In the left ear there was no wax. So, he then passed me off to the audiologist.
• The audiologist gave me several different tests. I had each ear tested separately by repeating what I heard a computer voice say to me. Then I had to listen to more computer noises and say "Yes" when I heard a sound repeated three times. Some of them were very soft and some louder. The pitch also varied.
• After that she showed me a chart and explained it and sent me back to the doctor who explained it all over again. Apparently I have an age-related deterioration in my ability to hear higher sounds. It is not unusual. It is not life-threatening and it will most likely continue but at a very slow pace. The audiologist gave me some stuff to read and think about and, since she had some free time at 4 pm, she asked would I be interested in coming back at that time for a discussion of options. {She didn’t usually have her follow-up discussions on the same day as the hearing test but she had the time and I was eager to hear what my choices were.}
• So, I went home, made some lunch, set my alarm clock for 3 pm and took a nap! While I was fixing lunch, I was thinking. I realized that according to the papers she had given me, I had already worked out for myself many of the "how to cope" suggestions. I looked at people when they were talking. I always sat at the front right in front of an instructor etc. So, I was all ready with my decision when I went back.
• I really like this audiologist. I asked her what would happen if I felt I needed hearing aids and she told me. I could be fitted through the ENT office where I was. {The doctor had sort of given me the impression that I was on my own finding a reputable hearing aid person} I told her that at this point, I didn’t feel I needed hearing aids but I did want to know what my options were. She said she felt that I was coping quite well and she made a couple of suggestions about television and telephones. Anyway, the bottom line is I will come back in a year to be retested and have another evaluation made. However, if there was any sudden deterioration before that, I was to come back and be retested again even if it was less than a year.

In the last year or so of his life, I watched Fred {who refused to go for a hearing test but quite obviously had lost a lot of his hearing in one ear} try to keep up with what people were saying but give up and detach himself from what was happening all around him. I am–as was Fred–an introvert and although I prefer my own company, I don’t want to detach myself from the few people I do see and the few occasions when I do socialize with others, so this is something I need to be aware of. I have taken the first step in coping by having my hearing checked.

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier. It is not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson