Problems encountered with hearing

Problems encounter with hearing.

Your ears are simply two appendages fastened to the side of your head.  Each has an opening that ultimately leads to your brain.  The ear flaps serve no other purpose than to hold your glasses in place.  If you wear contacts, you could have your ear flaps removed to cut down air resistance when swinging a golf club.  Some of the following may be old hat to many people but is part of the greater story

That hole in the center of the outer ear leads to the ear drum which catches sound vibrations from air waves.  Those vibrations are transferred to the inner ear where small nerves transform them into electrical pulses that the brain can understand and interpret.  Your brain is then, in effect, your hearing organ.  When the small nerve hairs (cilia) are damaged your ear loses its ability to transmit those electrical pulses.  The nerve hairs vary in length.  The shorter ones carry the higher frequencies and are the first to be damaged, resulting in high frequency loss of hearing.  The longer nerves carry the lower frequencies and are the last to be lost.

Hearing loss tends to sneak up on you like a thief in the dark.  My own started with a shirt pocket full of “dud” firecrackers when I was 14 years old in 1952.  I got my first hearing aid 25 years later.  I have no idea how much “book learning” I lost in school but it might contribute to the fact that I was in the “slow lane” sometimes in school.  My consolation is that Beethoven and Edison were both deaf so I am in good company.

Most people that have a slow progressive hearing loss may not realize it but they become excellent speech readers.  (Lip reading is a misnomer)  Speech reading involves amplitude of voice, facial expressions and tone as well as the position of the lips.  Try saying the words “eagle” and “beagle”.  You will notice that the only difference is a slight pop of the lips on the word “beagle”.  Excellent speech readers can pick this up.

There several things you can do to help someone that is hearing impaired.  First, face the person and do not obscure your mouth or any other part of your face.  Speak distinctly and not fast or slow.  If you wear a mustache, for God’s sake, shave it off.

The person that has a hearing problem should not apologize for not being able to hear.  You should not say, “I am sorry but I did not hear you”.  Rather say, “Say it again”.  See how that rolls across your tongue and gets the message across.  After about the third request say, “Dammit, speak English”.  Most importantly, it is not your fault for not being able to hear, it is the speakers problem for the lack of making themselves understood.  You must be offensive, not defensive. Never, never apologize for not being able to hear something unless there is a valid reason such as background noise.

Another problem for the hearing impaired is crowds.  If more than three people are talking it is almost impossible to tune in on one person and understand what is being said.  That is when you just smile and nod.  A week ago Connie and I met two friends at a small diner that serves good food.  The first 15 minutes were ok but then the thundering lunch herd came in to eat.  I didn’t understand a word being said till the thundering herd stampeded out the door a half hour later.  If you do happen to understand what is being said, your brain is usually a day late and a dollar short.  By the time you have formulated a response, the subject has changed.  Since you rarely are able to add to the conversation, people tend to “talk over” you when you do try to add something.  It happens all the time.

Many audiologists advertise their product as being “unidirectional” That is impossible unless the aid has three microphones.  The sound is picked up in a forward direction with a BTE (behind the ear) with lesser amounts picked up to the side and rear.  The person wearing the aid often cannot distinguish the direction of the sound.  The ITC (in the canal) aid is better at direction because it has the outer ear to pick up and funnel sound.  Basically the aid amplifies sound.  It is the frequency tuning that makes the difference.  With my first ITC hearing aid I knew the low frequencies were being over amplified because I could hear a car turn the corner 4/10 of a mile from our house.  I went back to the audiologist and he took a high speed grinder and made the sound entrance opening cone shaped instead of a straight drilled hole.  It quieted the sound down.  It was an analog aid, not a digital aid.    Rocket science it is called.

The last thing you should understand is price.  Hearing aids are a rip off.  The ear mold costs about 50 bucks.  That is not bad.  The mold is shipped to the vendor along with a frequency chart from your ear hearing test..  He makes a plastic replica by dunking the mold in plaster. If he screws up the plaster cast, he simply molds another one.  He uses a high speed drill to hollow out the cavity of the new earpiece.  He then assembles OFF THE SHELF items.  These include the power source bracket, a tunable amplifier and a microphone.  He then cements a plastic cap to the aid and tunes it according to the frequency chart sent along with the ear mold. The time frame is 14 hours between receipt and shipping.  Most of that time is cure time for the plastic parts. (Source: Modern Marvels) The aid should cost no more than a cheap transistor radio.  Hearing aid dispensers always tout the fact that their aid is “discreet” and “unseen”.  That is a lot of crap.  If you really want to hear you would wear a backpack for help.  Enough ranting for now.