Sorry, I cant quite hear you…

I thought I would come and tell you about something that has been going on with me for a while now. In fact its something that has been going on for some years.

It started back in 2006 when I had started to notice that my hearing wasn’t great, I went to the doctors who sent me to see an Ear’s Nose and Throat specialist. They carried out a hearing test and put a small camera down my nose (which want not a nice experience) to check that everything was ok, the only thing that came back was my hearing wasn’t great in one ear and they said that there was nothing really that they could do. I never really thought much of it after that…

Until the last year or so where I have started to notice that I’m struggling to hear people when talking to me. I’m having to try to lip read and really be concentrating on what they are saying especially when there is other noise going on around me. It makes it difficult when I go out and sometimes I have no clue to what someone is saying to me and I feel bad that I have to ask them to repeat what they have said a few times until I get it. Turning up the tv or music a bit more and people saying that it’s too loud.

Not being able to hear people even though I’m in the same room and my back is turned to them this has happened loads and the Mr thinks I’m ignoring him or him saying I’m shouting at him when I just thing I’m talking normally or I just really havent heard him. It has caused some arguments between us, but when you are struggling to hear your kids talking to you that’s the worst. It has even started to affect me in my job to which is when really hit home that I needed to sort out getting my hearing tested.

My GP was fab and really understanding and referred me to go and see the audiology clinic,  I didn’t have to wait long for an appointment either which was a bonus. I was really nervous about having another hearing test, I was worried that it would come back normal and there would be nothing wrong with my hearing, that there was no explanation for not being able to hear properly.

The audiologist was lovely and I felt bad for breaking down in tears talking to her but she understood how I was feeling and had a box of tissues on hand. We had a chat and filled out a questionnaire and I got the highest score that was on there,  which showed that I have been having some issues with my hearing. So hearing test number two was carried out and it feels strange to be locked into a room and your asked to click a button every time that you heard a noise in your ear.

 

Still feeling pretty emotional after the test, I was shown my results and I could clearly see that there was a difference between my left and right ear. She explained that I had moderate hearing loss in my left ear…

All the information was given to me and I was taking it all in, the option I was offered was a hearing aid, but I would need to go back and see the Ear, Nose and Throat specialist first to make sure there was nothing else causing the hearing loss. I recently went to that appointment and they agreed that a hearing aid would be the best thing for me.  Now i just have to wait until November 10th as that’s the earliest appointment they had.

I’m feeling all kinds of nerves about going to the fitting and how I’m going to feel hearing ‘normally’  again. I wanted to share this with you and for anyone else who is suffering from hearing loss and is worried about it. Go see your GP, I really thought that I might have been fobbed off but they listened and really I should have gone back to them much sooner than I did.