Hearing Loss: Come introduce yourself and connect with others

If you live near a University with a medical program, their audiology programs often offer to work with you and tinnitus, there are ways you can learn to manage it that go beyond coping. Talk to your audiologist or ENT.

@nicolet my daughter started wearing HAs when she was 4. What type of questions do you have? How does your son feel about the HAs? I think my daughter was so young that it was easy initially, but around the time she was in middle school it was tougher. I think that type of thing may be harder for girls though.
JK

Bonnie--As many ENTs will tell you, there is no "cure" for tinnitus, but there are treatment approaches that can greatly diminish or even eliminate the distress that so often accompanies tinnitus. I would encourage you to explore an approach pioneered by audiologists at Emory University titled Tinnitus Retraining Therapy. The audiologists are Pawel J. Jastreboff and Jonathan W.P. Hazell. One cautionary note: this is no overnight fix. It requires time and dedication on the part of the patient. But TRT, as it is known, has had an impressive success record with those who go through the process. Good luck.

Hello, this is Dan. Some of you might know me as HLAAsDan in the HLAA forum.

Welcome @hlaasdan! I'm thrilled that you've migrated here from the HLAA forum. I'm confident that you'll recognize some familiar peers here on Connect and meet new people too. Would you mind telling us a bit about your story, especially for those who don't know you yet?

NO I DON'T HAVE TINNITUS. NEXT FRIDAY I AM HAVING MY EARS CHECKED TO SEE IF THEY HAVE GOT WORSE WHICH I FEEL THEY HAVE. A LOT OF QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT HEARING AIDES. AS IT STANDS NOW I WOULD GET NO BENEFIT FROM WEARING THEM WITH WHAT I HAVE.

@quiteachiver75 THE H.A. I HAVE ONLY QUIET THE TINNITUS NOTHING DOES AWAY WITH IT AND DR.SDONT KNOW WHAT CAUSES IT OR TREATMENT LIKE SO MANY OTHER MEDICAL PROBKEMS

@hlaasdan Hi Dan, I welcome you too. I have been wearing HAs since 2004 and my loss has gotten progressively worse. I hear many great things about HLAA but unfortunately, there are no chapters close to me in NH.
Has the big convention happened yet? Rochester, NY, right? I thought about going but by now getting flights would probably be pretty costly.
JK

Flights should not be that bad yet- I am driving 5 hours from Philly. Oh yes it is so worth going. My 3 rd year ( my last maybe because of costs) . It has been an interesting time between Mayo and other sights about termioogy - whether you say hearing impaired ( I do) or hearing challenged, etc. folks as a rule are not patient so I would isolate myself. I do interact with folks on the street - saying hi, giving direction, etc bit no real friends. I am moderate to severe hearing loss( born though not correctly diagnosed till 16. The things I learned is the hard work HLAA is doing in loops/ captions, accessible access by docs( text rather than phone calls, ) we have a long way to go still and we must speak up with our docs by ourself/ chapter. We can do subchslyers in homes or coffee shop ( what i will be doing! Because in groups we have a better voice. There are books out here by Bouton (Shout,/Nd other book-very good) El Deafo-an award winning Gralhicnovel and Deaf Sense by Lodge a true novel about a hearing and hearing impaired spouse. I am trying to write a book about my life. Finances are in my way . Go if you can , at least once. Maybe find other folks from your area. I learned so much. One main thing is that I ambit really alone ; others like me and Thst is important in itself.

@bookysue Thanks for the info, I guess I will look into it. Right now I have a lot of things going on though so it is probably not the best time for me. I just checked out the site and I guess I need to look in more depth. I didn't see what's happening on Saturday or Sunday.

There is no way I would drive myself that far, I tend to fall asleep when in a car! I actually have fallen asleep at the wheel, many years ago, and even now, when I get tired I pull over and take a 15 minute nap to get refreshed.
JK