Originally published in 2015
In April of last year I had an unexpected surprise phone call from the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. I had almost forgot that a year and a half prior, I had applied for assistance for acquiring hearing aids. Most hearing aids sell for $3,000 to $6,000 a pair and the vast majority of health insurance policies do not cover hearing aids like one would think they do eyeglasses. Many people who know me are surprised when I tell them I have hearing loss and that I need hearing aids. In fact, I have been battling hearing loss since I was a wee child. Growing up, I failed every single hearing test in grade school and had to go to audiologist with their entombing soundproof rooms to get extra hearing tests each year. To add insult to injury, I also suffered chronic ear infections that led to surgery to place tubes in my ears which also led to scarring of the ear drum (which is part of conductive hearing loss – see below). Studies later came out showing a correlation between parents who smoked around their children and increased inner ear infections.
After receiving that phone call from Vocational Rehab, I was able to get fitted for hearing aids. I was sent to an audiologist where I was fitted with digital hearing aids. The audiologist was able to take the measurements from my audiogram and program the hearing aids to only boost the levels of the frequencies where I had loss, keeping the low and high frequencies at normal volume as to not distort my natural hearing. When I first put them on (that in itself is a trick that takes getting used to!) I could notice a difference and a bit of artificial amplified sound to what was coming into my brain. I wasn’t sure if the hearing aids would work, or if I would get used to the difference in sound. What I learned over the next several days and weeks is that my brain was hearing frequencies it hadn’t processed in a lifetime, and, that over time, it would learn how to interpret those new sounds. The artificiality of the sounds created by the hearing aids would fade as my brain accepted them. What I didn’t expect was how much more I could hear! When I got in the car after my fitting, I immediately put on one of my favorite bands, Of Montreal. I instantly noticed guitar parts and lyrics I could never decipher before! When I got home later that evening, my wife greeted me, and, to my surprise, her voice sounded sweeter, more dynamic. I could hear inflections I had never heard in the seven years I had been with her. I almost started to cry. It was as if clouds had parted and the sun was revealed after years of rain! I’ve spent the last ten months re-listening to all my favorite albums and enjoying a renewed sense of discovery and wonder in all things auditory. I am still playing drums (my band Teleporter 4 has an EP forthcoming!) I am also enjoying more confidence in conversations. Going out to eat with friends used to be a chore when there was a lot of background noise. I always felt left out when I didn’t hear all of the joke or the discussion. While my hearing is not, nor will ever be, 100%, I am thankful for the added ability that my hearing aids afford me and ever grateful to those who made this possible.
What is hearing loss?
There are several types of hearing loss. The two most common are Conductive and Sensorineural. Conductive hearing loss is loss associated with the ear drum and bones of the middle ear. I was born with congenital sensorineural hearing loss, which deals with loss in the inner ear, or the cochlea, the fluid-filled shell-shaped part of the ear that translates signals into the nerve that goes to the brain. Another term for this type of loss is Cookie-Bite loss because when you look at the audiogram, or hearing test graph, it looks like someone took a bite out of a cookie in the middle frequencies of hearing. These middle frequencies, from about 1500hz to 6000hz are where a lot of human speech occurs, making understanding human speech when there’s a lot of background noise difficult.
Gif used from this blog
My audiogram showing the “cookie bite” type loss:
Who has hearing loss?
According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) 36 million Americans have hearing loss. Hearing loss does not only affect older people. About 20% of Americans over the age of 12 have hearing loss.
Using the World Health Organization’s definition for hearing loss (not being able to hear sounds of 25 decibels or less in the speech frequencies), the researchers found that overall, about 30 million Americans, or 12.7 percent of the population, had hearing loss in both ears. That number jumps to about 48 million, or 20.3 percent, for people who have hearing loss in at least one ear. These numbers far surpass previous estimates of 21 to 29 million.
I was born with my hearing loss and helped it along by picking the loudest instrument to play: the drums (Always use hearing protection! I use Hearos when I play and go to shows). I think that drums were an excellent choice since they are so loud and have a lot of low and high frequencies for me to pick up, not to mention feeling physically in touch with the vibrations of the acoustic instrument. And, also, they are LOUD.
Why?
My sensorineural loss is the unfortunate result of the missing cilia, or tiny nerve hairs inside of the cochlea, the shell shaped part of the inner ear which translates the wave of fluid in the inner ear to nerve impulses to the brain for deciphering. I like to think my imagination is so strong because I’ve spent most of my life trying to decipher these broken signals, which has led to a lot of funny interpretations of what people have said to me; “You have a tuba hand witch?” No, you want a tuna sandwich. A lot of the frustration from hearing loss comes from not being able to properly decipher the beginning and ending consonants of a word because they are usually of higher frequency writes Audrey Carlsen in “The Real Sounds of Hearing Loss”
What does it sound like to have hearing loss?
The article by Audrey Carlsen linked above and the website Hear-it.org have links to audio files simulating different types and levels of loss. You can listen to a normal sound file and then listen to Sensorineural hearing loss (mild) to hear what my loss is like without the help of hearing aids!
What can you do?
Just like eye exams and annual skin cancer checks, (you are getting those, too, aren’t you?) you should have your hearing tested occasionally. See your primary care physician, or even better, some audiologist/hearing centers will give free hearing tests once a year. Studies show the sooner you correct hearing loss, the better your chances of eliminating the risk for depression, anxiety and even Alzheimer’s disease.
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