How does hearing loss change you?

Bob: The dust mite connection is a new one for me! Was it an allergic reaction or medicine you took to prevent it? Would appreciate some feedback on this! Thanks for sharing.
Scott

I woke up one Saturday morning and everything was distorted, like a radio with a blown speaker. I also had tinnitus, a high 'cricket' sound and a definite high pitched tone.

I went to an ENT associated with a local hospital, who was bored and just told me that since I'm a musician, it must be noise related. I told him I have been wearing custom fitted, high fidelity ear plugs, keep a sound meter on stage, and make sure nothing over 85dba ever reaches my ear. He gave me a prescription for a week of Prednisone..

Monday I went to my ENT about 40 miles away, the one who fitted me for the ear plugs and when the Prednisone was over I got back about 90% of my hearing and permanent tinnitus. Not nearly as bad as the two-tone shrieking, but permanent crickets variable in intensity.

Back then, not many ENTs would fit people for these ear plugs, and this ENT was both world famous and closest.

A few moths later it happened again, and this time it took two packs of Prednisone. I got back about 70-80% of what was left of my hearing.

A few months later it returned. This time I was on ever increasing doses of stronger steroids for a quarter of a year. I was left with a 70db dip in the high frequencies. My world famous ENT said there are many causes of SSHL (Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss) and he started talking about putting a hole in my eardrum so he could inject steroids directly into my cochlea. It was then I decided to get a second opinion.

I kept copies of all my audiograms and I took them to a local, young ENT. He said that back in the 1960s, two doctors (and he named them) said allergies could cause SSHL and this looked like the pictures of the audiograms in the text books. So said there were dozens of allergies that could cause this so he gave me a RAST test (radioallergosorbent) and found I was allergic to dust mites.

He explained that the dust mites are everywhere humans are, and both their shed exoskeletons and solid waste can build up in ears, eustachian tubes and sinus cavities. My immune system saw the dust mite protein as a foreign invader and launched an attack. Each time the attack was quelled with steroids so it amassed a stronger attack. The inflammation responses from the attacks swelled the tissues in my head, compressing the tiniest capillaries in my body (the ones that feed the inner ear) and cut of the blood supply. By the time the steroids reduced the swelling, the damage was done.

So we stripped the house of carpets and drapes, but barriers on the bedding and dust-proofed it. Now when I get the first symptoms of an allergy attack, I down some Chinese herbs (Pe Min Kan Wan) and if that doesn't do it I follow it with an adult dose of Dimetapp.I use Xlear nasal spray or a neti pot daily to wash the sinus cavities.

The good news is that I haven't had SSHL since I was properly diagnosed and by taking quick action in the face of an allergic symptom (itchy eyes usually come first), I learned to ignore the tinnitus and I found that 3,000 mg of the amino acid Taurine minimizes it.

The bad news is that the damage won't reverse itself until humans figure out a way to regrow the damaged cells.

I can blame my mother for this. She kept a spotless house and dusted every day. Of course she was doing what was considered the right thing to do back then, it was an act of love, so I can't be angry with her. I didn't tell her it was dust mites, just an allergy.

So that's it.

Bob

@tmclain I could have written your post. One of my closest friends used to be a teacher of deaf students and she had a deaf aunt so she is very good about my loss and she can tell, just by looking at me, if I have really heard her. My son is very good about my loss, he is always trying to make sure that I am included in the conversation. He's a real people person so he wants me to be involved.
Have you tried the Connect Clip for your Opns? I have one and use it in certain situations. It can help in some but not all. It really does not help much in a noisy restaurant but it does in other situations.

@marijaneb I have the same problem with my husband. For some reason he seems to be the person who just does not understand as much that I cannot hear him when in a different room, or when his head is in the refrigerator!

@bookysue The lower frequencies of men's voices are definitely easier for me also. I once got halfway to a job interview and panicked when I realized I didn't have my hearing aids in! To go back home would have made me very late for my appointment so I went. The interviewer had a very low voice so I was able to hear him perfectly. At least I think I heard him -- I didn't get the job. 😉
JK

Allergies is a bummer - I have many of them as well. It's hard to keep everything separated one from the other especially when they all are found in the brain area!. That is why it's best to know they self well and to discover what might be the source of your difficulties.
The discovery of how to grow back your hair cells will take long because it is not a top priority in comparison to all of the many other health issues on the docket. Look at the headlines of today and you can see cancer, heart disease, GI and other noteworthy diseases. They all receive millions of dollars nationally and internationally to find a cure. But seeking funds for hearing loss or to garner research dollars for hearing cell regeneration draws only a very small fraction of a percentage of the monetary funds that are out there. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/
Everything is in its infancy right now since so little is known about how our hearing works. Clinical trials on humans have only just begun and they will be taking place for years. Theories need to be identified, worked out and tried in order to see what works and doesn't work. Hearing loss has been taking place for decades/centuries and if we think this will work over night, we have another thing coming.
Looking back at what we had and what we have today....https://www.healthyhearing.com/report/47717-Digital-hearing-aid-history shows how great a leap we have taken and how much we all be in appreciating what we have. I am so happy to have my $6000 computers that I guard them with my life. My father could have had hearing aids to prevent him from getting dementia but he decided against it. So many others do the same.
This is the time of discovery we live in. We are the people who are helping to bridge the new age of hearing. While we may not benefit from it all, we can help to augment and channel the direction it takes by helping those who need it most. Our world is noisy and polluted bringing with it hearing loss and allergies and all kinds of other things with it. So this won't go away. Join the class of hearing aid wearers and lets show how its done.

@bobbyboomer I have heard many people are disappointed with the life of the rechargeable batteries. I like being able to put in new batteries so I am never without.

My cell phone (iPhone 7) is great, I stream right into my hearing aids. My son suggested I change the setting on cellular to WiFi calling and that helped even more. That is with Verizon, I don't know if that's available on other carriers.
JK

Yes, I'm disappointed that the rechargeable batteries won't last 16 hours. If they could engineer a few more hours per charge, it would be great.

Still, it's better than 4 days on a disposable cell. The plastic and the cell itself are trash items, and I'm not sure if that little piece of cardboard I put in the recycle bin ever gets processed.

and nurseheadakes I am happy with the hearing aid technology, but I still have trouble conversing with people. With all the armed forces people coming back with hearing problems due to exposure to the sounds of explosives, you would think more money would be spent on research for a cure. If someone developed a way to repair damaged hearing, there would be a big market and plenty of profits. Of course, the Hearing Aid manufacturers wouldn't like that.

OK I'm being impatient and I know it because I have hearing loss and not heart disease or anything else that I know of.

I'll continue doing the best I can and hoping someone will come up with a better way to get me to be less isolated from other people.

Bob

Has anyone used OTC hearing aids? Rechargeable? and inexpensive.? I lose them

Please clarify your question about OTC. Did you mean 'love' them? I don't know how 'lose' them fit your quesiton.

I too would like to hear more about how OTC products are working for hard of hearing people.

So others have mentioned, you should definitely try InnoCaption. It’s a free service paid for by the federal government if you have hearing loss. It makes a huge difference in your ability to use a phone. You don’t need to get a new number because you can set it to forward your incoming calls to your InnoCaption line. And it shows captions almost instantly as well as providing audio church can be speaker amplified or via hearing aid Bluetooth if you have that capability. The other thing you can do is download transcribe to your phone and hold it or place on a table near you. It offers speech to text translation and I find it incredibly helpful. No , it’s not the same as being able to hear but these 2 apps can definitely lower the stress and energy drain caused by hearing loss

I had InnoCaption but found out that in the apartment I live in I couldn't use it. We have a call box to enter the property and the buildings. It would not work with the call forwarding. So I had to get rid of it.