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Single Sided Hearing Loss

Hearing Loss | Last Active: Jun 24, 2021 | Replies (104)

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@nla4625

@joyces. I'm really glad you posted about this again. I meant to save it and read it thoroughly and have now book marked it. I really have trouble finding things on Mayo Connect that I want to go back to. I don't find the search function to be very helpful. Anyway, I'm going to print this for myself and for my brother who had 3 strokes and is having balance problems. I think we're both river people -- when I was looking for my farm years ago, being on a river topped my list of priorities, followed by being less than an hour ambulance ride to Mayo Clinic. That requirement saved my life 15 years later. How do you find a person trained in VRT? Thanks. Nancy

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Replies to "@joyces. I'm really glad you posted about this again. I meant to save it and read..."

If anyone has questions about VRT, I may be able to answer them...even though I'm not a VRT specialist. I've spent lots of effort and time to learn as much as possible about the problems of hearing and balance presented by Meniere's. FWIW, I've had single-sided hearing for well over 30 years and never even knew back then that it could be helped...and lived an active life in spite of it. As time went on, my "good" ear lost hearing due to age-related deafness, so I began to wear an aid in that ear. Other than never knowing where a sound is coming from, I don't seem to have any problems related to SSHL.

I'm pretty sure that Mayo has a vestibular clinic and/or specialists. I know that I saw Mayo on a list of VRT places. I'm fortunate in that Portland, OR is a center for vestibular treatment/diagnosis. When he was alive, Dr. F. Owen Black was supposedly the best diagnostician in the country, and he built the vestibular center and all its "fun" machines. He worked with NASA, testing astronauts before and after being in space, esp. John Glenn, who was the oldest astronaut at the time, much older than most. Dr. Black wanted to learn how being in a weightless situation for an extended time affected balance. There are balance specialty clinics in some surprising places, like Fort Wayne, IN. The House Clinic in LA in famous. Portland not only has the vestibular clinic (Legacy Good Samaritan) but also is the home of the international assn. for vestibs: VEDA (Vestibular Disorders Assn.). There was also a balance center in Texas decades ago...

Please understand that VRT is something you must do every day, for the rest of your life...but it's easy to make it just part of daily living once you learn to pay attention to what your feet have to say. I practice walking with my eyes closed on the quarter-mile walk along our one-lane gravel road to retrieve the mail every day, for example. It takes no longer to do that than it does to just walk down there, but is a big part of my VRT. Another thing to do is to get dressed/undressed standing without touching anything (stand beside a counter or dresser in case you begin to wobble). Putting on socks standing without touching anything is a special test--panty hose a REAL test (that I often fail). A simple thing to make is a step 6-8" high (like two 2x4s with a chunk of particle board on top); Eyes open, step down and back up 5X, then repeat with eyes closed, then do the same with your left foot. At first, you need to be next to something in case you begin to lose balance. You also may be surprised to find that you're heading off in a surprising direction, esp. if you have one-sided loss. You can also put a chunk of 2" foam on the floor and practice standing on it, eyes closed. All of those exercises teach you to "listen" to your feet--i.e., learn to use proprioception. You should begin to see some improvement in a couple of weeks, real improvement at the end of a month--IF you do something every day.