School is back in session, the summer is winding down and all I have to say is, "Hallelujah!" I say this for a variety of reasons, some of which are obvious (trying to keep a 12 year-old busy), but this year I have a particular reason for being happy to put the summer behind me.
On the evening of July 18, out of nowhere, I started hearing a beeping sound in my left ear, my implanted one. I asked Noah and Tom if they heard it and they said, "you're probably hearing the Wii." They were in the middle of fixing a connection problem and I was sitting close by watching. I didn't think anything of it until I took my cochlear implant off and the beeping didn't go away. It sounded like a heart monitor, like the ones you see in hospitals that beep to the rhythm of the patient's heart rate. By the time I went to bed the beeping was louder and I wondered how I was going to sleep with this annoying, unrelenting sound in my ear. I was used to complete silence when I slept!
The next day I decided to ask my group of hard-of-hearing friends if they had experienced anything like this. The overwhelming response was, "Go see your ENT" (ear nose throat doctor). The soonest I could get in was the next week, but it was worth it to see my ENT as he is known as the best in the area when it comes to ear problems.
In the meantime, I did what many of us do these days...went to the internet in search of a possible diagnosis. My symptoms matched those of a particular type of tinnitus called pulsatile tinnitus - hearing your own heartbeat. Tinnitus is rather common, but this type of tinnitus is not. The more I read about it the more I decided it was time to stop searching or I'd freak myself out.
When I woke up two days later, on a Wednesday, the heartbeat sound was replaced by more common tinnitus sounds, like ringing and roaring. I also noticed my ear ached a little bit. That afternoon I began feeling like I had the stomach flu and had to cancel my plans to meet with two friends from out of town. It was a good thing I did because I spent my evening throwing up and in bed through Thursday. By Friday my face was sore, especially around the jawbone and around the eyes so I went to a local Primary Health thinking I probably had either a sinus or ear infection.
The doctor saw a little bit of fluid in my left ear and prescribed antibiotics and anti-nausea medication. Finally! I was going to start feeling better. I was relieved to finally have a diagnosis.
The following Monday I decided to keep my appointment with my ENT. I described all the weird symptoms I had experienced to the nurse. When the doctor came in, the first thing he did was ask me if the tinnitus and ache was on the side of my CI or hearing aid. When I told him it was my implanted side, he then asked me which one I heard better with. I had never been asked this before, but given the fact I can talk on the phone with my CI and not with my hearing aid, I told him probably my CI side. I thought it was weird that he would ask me these questions, especially right off the bat.
He had me lie down so he could look in my left ear. After examining both ears he pulled me up and said my left ear was red and inflamed and had a couple of ulcer-type sores. Then he said I was showing all the signs of having ear shingles. I had never heard of such a thing so I was completely shocked. That emotion was quickly followed by dread. The mention of shingles meant one thing to me. Pain. Severe pain. Tom, who had driven me there because of my vertigo issues, asked him how long it would take to get over it. "Three months," the doctor said.
Tom and I looked at each other without saying a word, but we both knew what the other was thinking -- would we still be able to go on our planned vacation to New York City?
The doctor prescribed four medications and I started taking them as soon as I got home from the pharmacy. I also stopped taking the antibiotic I didn't need. A couple of days later I had a great day and even got out a little, but the very next day I had vertigo so bad I had to stay in bed all day. I never developed the bad pain like I expected. Instead, I had equilibrium issues that occasionally were severe enough it caused me to throw up. After a week of it I was almost wishing I had the pain instead.
At my follow-up appointment the following week the doctor looked in my ear and said the sores were gone and it looked normal. He said it was okay to fly and I should go ahead with my vacation plans. Three days later we were all on our way to NYC.
I'm thankful I went to the ENT when I did so I could start treatment before the ear shingles got any worse. If not treated soon enough, the painful blister-like sores could have spread out of the ear and onto my face and I could have experienced paralysis on that side of my head. Even though I lost about three weeks of my summer from ear shingles, I feel fortunate that I received treatment early and didn't experience severe pain. My equilibrium issues will slowly get better over the next couple of months. While our trip to NYC was one of our favorite vacations, I'm still happy that summer is almost over.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Trying the Aqua+ Accessory
Today I offered to take my son and his friend to the neighborhood pool, which is only two doors down from our house. For most people, embarking on such adventure would be no big deal, but when you have a hearing loss and wear a cochlear implant or a hearing aid, you have to think ahead.
This was the first time I went to the pool with my CI and I wanted to try out my aqua+ accessory. With my CI protected in the aqua+, I could be fully emerged in the water up to 10 feet under, for up to two hours. While I had no plans to do anything like that, I was still excited try out my new accessory.
I pulled out my Cochlear America suitcase that holds my batteries, accessories, and more gadgets and paraphernalia than anyone knows what to do with. I jokingly call it a suitcase because it's a bag the size of a small carry-on piece of luggage. Until today I kept all the original boxes that everything came in because I didn't know how to store everything. I didn't feel comfortable letting little pieces of equipment that cost hundreds of dollars lie in a big compartment where they could easily get lost or ruined. Today I reorganized and got rid of a few of the boxes, but I still need to develop some kind of an organizational system for all the little pieces.
Last month at the SayWhatClub convention I talked to a lady who had the aqua+ accessory and she told me that it would only work with a particular battery. Of course, when I went to put everything together today I couldn't remember which battery it was -- the rechargeable or the disposable. I started with the disposable battery pack, got it all assembled so it looked like the picture above. I got it in place, it beeped like it always does, telling me what program it was on, and voila! I could hear. I probably had it on only a few minutes before it started making a weird beeping noise. I had never heard it do that so I knew something was wrong. After fiddling with it to no avail, I figured I had picked the wrong battery. This is when I discovered a minor pain when using the aqua+: if you make a mistake like I did, you have to take the entire thing apart. Once I put on the rechargeable battery, though, it worked perfectly.
I took out my hearing aid, warned the boys I was only hearing out of my left ear, and off we went. I didn't actually swim or get fully emerged. I went into the pool and sat down on the steps, something I never would have done when I wore hearing aids. The nice thing was I didn't stress out about it, I knew everything was okay. The next trip to the pool I'll get the CI wet. Really, I will. I'll have my son purposely splash the left side of my head, which being a twelve year-old boy I'm sure he will be happy to oblige. By the end of summer I will be completely in the water with my CI in the aqua+.
If you don't wear hearing aids or a CI you probably think I'm being overly cautious. After decades of wearing hearing aids that cost thousands of dollars, I've become a little paranoid when it comes to getting my ears wet. So I need to approach this in steps. Baby steps.
Thursday, June 4, 2015
Hearing Loops and T-Coils
You may have noticed I haven't posted in a few weeks. No, make that a month. Shortly after dealing with a family emergency I went to the annual SayWhatClub (SWC) convention, which was held in San Antonio May 13-17. All of us that went feel fortunate that the con wasn't a week later or we all would have started building a modern-day ark.
The meeting room at the convention hotel was looped as has been the case at the three previous cons I attended. This was the first year that I took advantage of it. Prior to flying to Texas I went to Boise Speech & Hearing and had my hearing aid audiologist set a program so I could manually switch to the T-coil setting. I knew I had a T-coil in my hearing aid, but it was set up to automatically switch to the telecoil only when using the phone. It seems as though the hearing aid processor automatically adjusts to the T-coil settings only for phone use since that is predominantly why people use T-coils. I also made sure I knew how to switch my CI into the T-coil. I believe there was a way to do it directly on the processor, but I decided to use my remote control because it was easier for me and I didn't have to remember what button to use on the processor.
After sitting in the first workshop for a few minutes I remembered I needed to switch my hearing aid and CI to the T-coil program. I started with my hearing aid, pushing the program button until I heard two beeps indicating it was in the second program, the T-coil. Instantly, the speaker's voice was right in my ear. So amazing! Then I pushed the T-coil button on the side of my CI's remote and voila! I was listening in stereo! The sound was synced and the speaker's voice was crystal clear. Who needs extra listening devices when you have T-coils and a loop system?
So what is a hearing loop? A hearing loop, or induction loop, is a wire that goes around the perimeter of a room and is connected to a sound system, allowing the sound to be transmitted electromagnetically straight to the telecoil in your hearing aid or CI.
Europe has been on the hearing loop bandwagon for years. As a matter of fact, in 2003, at the beginning of the program to honor the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's coronation, an announcement was made to remind people wearing hearing aids to switch them to the telecoil setting. You can even find loop systems in the back seats of a taxi in London and the departure area of Gatwick airport. It sounds like one more reason I need to get to England. I need to try all the looped public areas and report back!
In the meantime, here are some articles and websites that will provide you with more information about hearing loops:
http://www.hearingloss.org/content/loop-technology
http://www.hearingloop.org/fq_preferred.htm
To sample the difference in sound quality with a loop, click on the video on this website:
http://hearingloopsystems.com/hear/
The meeting room at the convention hotel was looped as has been the case at the three previous cons I attended. This was the first year that I took advantage of it. Prior to flying to Texas I went to Boise Speech & Hearing and had my hearing aid audiologist set a program so I could manually switch to the T-coil setting. I knew I had a T-coil in my hearing aid, but it was set up to automatically switch to the telecoil only when using the phone. It seems as though the hearing aid processor automatically adjusts to the T-coil settings only for phone use since that is predominantly why people use T-coils. I also made sure I knew how to switch my CI into the T-coil. I believe there was a way to do it directly on the processor, but I decided to use my remote control because it was easier for me and I didn't have to remember what button to use on the processor.
After sitting in the first workshop for a few minutes I remembered I needed to switch my hearing aid and CI to the T-coil program. I started with my hearing aid, pushing the program button until I heard two beeps indicating it was in the second program, the T-coil. Instantly, the speaker's voice was right in my ear. So amazing! Then I pushed the T-coil button on the side of my CI's remote and voila! I was listening in stereo! The sound was synced and the speaker's voice was crystal clear. Who needs extra listening devices when you have T-coils and a loop system?
So what is a hearing loop? A hearing loop, or induction loop, is a wire that goes around the perimeter of a room and is connected to a sound system, allowing the sound to be transmitted electromagnetically straight to the telecoil in your hearing aid or CI.
Europe has been on the hearing loop bandwagon for years. As a matter of fact, in 2003, at the beginning of the program to honor the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth's coronation, an announcement was made to remind people wearing hearing aids to switch them to the telecoil setting. You can even find loop systems in the back seats of a taxi in London and the departure area of Gatwick airport. It sounds like one more reason I need to get to England. I need to try all the looped public areas and report back!
In the meantime, here are some articles and websites that will provide you with more information about hearing loops:
http://www.hearingloss.org/content/loop-technology
http://www.hearingloop.org/fq_preferred.htm
To sample the difference in sound quality with a loop, click on the video on this website:
http://hearingloopsystems.com/hear/
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