Hearing Aids

I am not sure how much I have talked about this…

In early April, before I moved to FL, I got an ear infection. Pretty bad. Mostly typical for me. I have ear tubes due to chronic ear infections. I had the tubes put in as an adult, but have struggled with ear infections since I was a kid. My eardrums have ruptured (both as a kid and adult) 5 times. I have some hearing loss, minimal, as result of all the scar tissue. But, nothing that has caused much of an impact in my life.

The ear infection in April felt normal, except I had severe vertigo. Something I don’t usually experience. The drs all said it was normal with sinus and ear issues. Both issues I had going on at the time. I even followed up with my primary dr after I finished the antibiotics and my infection resolved, but my hearing loss lingered. She insisted it was all “normal.”

I loved my PCP in AZ, but she really let me down. There were treatment options and she didn’t….and the dr at the urgent care didn’t before her either. And now, I have permanent hearing loss.

When I got to FL, it took a LONG time to get into an ENT. I ended up driving 60 miles, one-way, just to get in as soon as possible. My hearing wasn’t returning and I still had some bouts of vertigo.

The ENT knew right away it was called Sudden Hearing Loss Syndrome. It’s caused by a virus. And without immediate treatment, it’s often irreversible. He did steroid injections into my ear drum, 3x a week for a couple of weeks. That was 120 miles roundtrip, each appointment. The highest amount of oral steroids possible. We tried it all. No changes. He referred me to another specialist 100 miles one-way from my house. I had an MRI, more testing…and same conclusion. Sudden Hearing Loss Syndrome caused by mycoplasma infection. It is permanent. Hearing aids or a cochlear implant are the best options.

It was devastating. So permanent. So much I had to adjust to. And expensive! I think one of the biggest blows was being single and dating. If I had been married still, I would have rolled with it more easily. It would have still been a huge life adjustment, but I wouldn’t have been navigating dating, and meeting new people, and the stigma of hearing aids, and most importantly, all that I was missing out on because I couldn’t keep up in conversations! But, I also had a fear that I wasn’t good enough to date because of this change in my life. Being in a stable relationship would have eliminated a lot of this additional fear and stress.

It took 3 months, to the day, to get my hearing aids after that.

Today I received them. I can hear better. Although, I feel like I have a microphone echoing in my ear. Little sounds are uncomfortably amplified. Like, my keyboard sounds like it’s 75 decibels. I think it’s about as loud as a lawnmower LOL! The audiologist said I would adjust. Some of it, is just me getting used to HEARING again – since that ear has been off for almost 5 months. I can adjust the sound on my phone. It will also auto adjust for loud settings. I have bunco tonight – a loud room with a lot of ambient noise. I’ll be curious to see how I do there. It has blue tooth that connects to my phone and computer. That is convenient. The color matches my hair and you can’t really tell they are there, especially with my hair down (which it always is, unless I am working out.) It’ll be interesting to hear the difference at Pilates tomorrow. I will enjoy actually being able to hear the instructor! But, I wonder how loud my reformer will sound! It’s a new world!