Hearing Loss · 5:47pm Apr 2nd, 2018
Not going to bury the lede here: I've got it and it is getting worse. Bad behavior as a youth and a strong genetic component (thanks Dad: I understand now) have turned my world into a somewhat quieter and definitely frightening place.
Now, here's the long winded story.
In last summer's walks there were at least two occasions where a bicyclist almost ran me over. They'd come up behind and call out or make some noise, but I didn't hear a thing. My son would pull me aside to let them pass and then, to some extent, berate me: "Didn't you hear them?" The answer was obvious.
After doing some research and taking a very deep breath, I made my appointment to see an audiologist. The results aren't pretty:
Red is right, blue is left by convention
Explains a lot, like why Pinkie Pie's dialog has become progressively unintelligible over the years, and why everyone complains I have the TV too loud, and why talking in group situations feels so weird and confusing. I'll even go so far as blaming some of my bad spelling on it.
Once they presented me with this diagnosis, they were more than happy to talk about getting me fitted for dual hearing aids. Now, if you've ever looked up the prices for them and found that your medical plan won't cover a dime, then you'll understand why I vacated their offices as fast as possible.
I'd been listening to an old album†, Zevon's Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School on the drive in, so armed with my new found data, I sat in the car and made some adjustments:
Pretty extreme adjustments, really
I can't remember when music sounded so good, but I still wasn't about to sign up for hearing aids, first because I'm cheap as hell and second due to anecdotal data. Asking around at work I got a pretty much universal response: "Yeah, my mom/dad/brother/sister/aunt/uncle got some. I guess they are okay, but they never wear them." Too much for too little was their consensus, so I began to examine PSAPs: Personal Sound Amplification Products.
So more history: I've suffered from tinnitus for a couple of decades at least. If you don't have it, and I hope you don't, check out this page for examples. Samples six and eight approximate what I hear. Additionally, to reduce noise at work they've got a white noise generator going, and to me it sounds like we work beneath a river. It makes me dizzy. Therefore, to suppress their sound suppressor, I wear a pair of Bose QC 15s. These are awesome in my book, and I don't know how I'd survive a flight without them. However, they can only mute, not amplify. But Bose recently released a new product with the weird name of Hearphones. Hey! Look at all the gray hair on that page. Looks like my kind of place, right?
Damn. Those things made the QC 15s look cheap, but the alternative was $1,500 to $2,500 per ear, and that's if you skip a lot of add on costs, like loss insurance and batteries. Bose had a 30 day return policy, so I bit, and they arrive, over packaged like all high-end electronics these days, just in time for some practical tests. The first was my friends concert:
Spooky Action At A Distance performs “Part Two: The Shopping Expedition” based on Neuromancer‡
A noisy bar. Loud music. The Hearphones worked great. I could adjust the world volume setting and directionality so I could hear people talking and didn't feel like shouting myself. Same for the performance: turning the volume down and the treble response up really helped.
Next night's tests weren't quite as good:
Tigerose's chorale group††
For a while I had to turn the phones off, because I couldn't get the left earpiece seated and feedback is a bitch. Then I had to keep adjusting the volume, down for the vocals and up for the bell choir. WTF. Only later did my wife tell me about the conductor chewing out the bell choir director because they weren't loud enough. Huh.
The batter charge/runtime is okay, but I don't wear them constantly because the in-the-ear fit isn't perfect. The world can seem creepy loud with them on, and too sharp, and when I talk I'm at the end of a tube. Any complaints I have are echoed by those on the Bose forms: I'm not special in any regards it seems.
But I've kept them and I use them, and although imperfect, they help.
One of the problems I have is explaining them. People think I'm tuning them out, like I'm paying attention to a call or listening to music, when I'm really trying to tune them in. So should I bump into any of you at any events, please, I am listening, probably better than I've ever done before.
As always, thanks for reading.
—
† "You sound old"
‡ BlueBook says they look like a pair of nuclear technicians trying to prevent a melt down
†† Yes, I've go no photographic skills. Also, tell the Unicode committee to approve the triple dagger so I can use it here.
Aww jeez, that sounds like a horrible experience. Of the people I know, I've got some friends that are the reverse, where they're very sensitive to noise.
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Eh, ya live with it. My form of tinnitus is more distracting than maddening, so I am grateful.
There are certain sounds I find too loud, 1㎑ and below I suspect, where my hearing is best, using that term generously. Hearing something drop to a tabletop or the floor bugs the heck out me.
Glad to hear things are getting louder if not better for ya.
I have some hearing loss myself, though mine tends to be in certain pitch and frequency ranges. I can hear moderate tones quite well but low pitch or moderate background noises can make hearing a normal voice very frustrating. My spouse thinks I'm being a jerk or just ignoring her. Which is partly true, but beside the point here. I'm happy you found at least a workable solution. Yay!