Hello everybody. This is my first post, so I’d like to introduce myself.
I have always had sensitive ears, perhaps because I had frequent ear infections as a child. But I did not have any noticeable hearing loss, just slight, “hissing” tinnitus in both ears. In December, 2018, I had a lumbar MRI scan at a different facility than one I had been to previously. I was given foam earplugs. After about 5 minutes, I was experiencing ear pain and discomfort, so I asked for headphones to wear in addition to the earplugs. I am a small-boned woman, and the headphones I was given were more appropriate for Shrek’s head than mine; they did not even cover my ears. By the time the scan was over, I was in pain, had severe tinnitus, and my perception of my own voice and the voices of others was completely distorted and sounded “electrical”–like what cartoon martians sound like. After a week the pain had subsided, but the distortion persisted, so I scheduled an appointment with an ENT. There was disparity between my right and left ear (left was worse), with a sharp increase in threshold (up to 70db) at frequencies above 1,000Hz. My word recognition at 75db was was 100% in the right ear and 96% in the left ear. Hearing aids were recommended, but I wasn’t psychologically ready for them until about 18 months later, when I realized I could not hear the spring peepers in the wetlands near my home, or crickets and katydids at night in the summer.
Fast forward to 2025. My most recent audiogram (the fifth one since 2019) shows that my tone hearing has been fairly stable, with thresholds increased by about 10-15db across all frequencies. However, word recognition has changed drastically, and is now only 24-35% in my left ear, but still 88-92% in the right ear. If I hold a telephone to my left ear, I can hear, but cannot understand any of the words because they sound so distorted.
I had a brain MRI last year, and there was no acoustic neuroma or any other abnormality. Everything else about my hearing anatomy is normal, and my ENT and audiologist have no explanation of the loss of word recognition, or suggestions about what can be done.
I wore Signia 7AX HAs for about 2 1/2 years. I loved the portable charger, the disinfection/chargine unit, and the fit. They helped with amplification, but I was unable to recognize the direction from which sounds were coming. This made birdwatching impossible, since I couldn’t locate the birds, and when there were police sirens while I was driving, I couldn’t tell what direction they were coming from. The worst experience was at a large (200 people) event at a country club last July. I could barely hear the person sitting next to me because of the noise of all the other people, I could not understand the emcee at the microphone, and I saw people dancing, but could not hear the music.
I did a 3-month trial with Oticon Intent 1 HAs with custom molds. There was improvement with direction determination, but I still could not hear my companions clearly in restaurants, and still had to use closed captioning while watching TV.
I am now doing a trial with Phonak Audeo Sphere 190s with custom molds. They are great for direction discernment, acceptable for TV watching (I hear dialogue perfectly, but can never hear background music or other sounds), and more helpful than the other brands in loud restaurants or stores. But the dealbreaker for me is the Bluetooth function. ALL sounds from my iPhone go directly to the HAs. So every time I got a message or text or any notification, or when the phone rang, there was a loud blast in my ears. My audiologist toned it down today, but this evening, my phone was ringing, and I no idea where it was; I was unable to locate it unless I removed my HAs. This was not an issue with the Signia or Oticon HAs. According to Phonak, if I am bothered by the notifications via Bluetooth, I should turn off the notifications. That is not an acceptable option for me.
So next, I will do a trial with the new Starkey Edge AI, which my audiologist thinks will most likely solve my problems better than any of the types I tried (except word recognition, which nothing can improve; the volume is fine, but words still sound like “electrical martian language”).
I’d like to put out two things to the helpful people in this forum.
First, has anyone else experienced progressive, permanent hearing loss following an MRI?
And second, does anyone else have poor word recognition with severe word distortion, regardless of amplification, in just one ear? If so, does anything help? Crossovers are not an option, because I would lose the ability to identify direction of sound.
I am running out of options, and wonder if I am expecting too much of a hearing aid. I was hoping to be able to hear everything-- human voices, music, nature sounds, etc. like I used to, but maybe that is not possible.
Thank you!
