I don't think my audiogram today was right? TESTS INCLUDED

[jfgimmbfsbf]

I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE FOR THE LONG POST I NEED ADVICE AND AM STRESSING. THANK U!! <3

i am, as well, aware the difference isn’t huge, but i don’t feel the test from today does accurately reflect my hearing. the audio and the way i was tested felt rushed and just overall icky to me
i (f19) just found out about 3 weeks ago that i have moderate bilateral cookie bite hearing loss and that it was recommended i get hearing aids. i was worried about it but came to terms with it quickly. i told my mom after getting the initial test done and she did not believe me so she scheduled an appointment with the ent at her work to confirm. i had that test today and i feel really weird about it. the initial test was in the ear and the one today was over the ear.

when i got to my appointment today i was nervous, of course, but excited to meet the doctor my mom talked to me about who had also diagnosed my grandpa with hearing loss (not bio grandpa so not genetic from him). he came in and he asked what had brought me in and that i had been experiencing hearing loss? and i told him yes i had and for about a year or so its been worse. he looked in my ears, said they were clean, and then said they’d do a hearing test. i went for that at the front of the office. when she took me back i was nervous still but the audiologist seemed nice so i felt a bit reassured. she put the over the ear headphones on me but the right ear was not sealed. we started with spoken word where a man would say words and i’d repeat as it got quieter. on my right ear (which my initial test said was worse) i missed maybe 2/3 of the words and on my left it was a little less than that but still i didn’t get them all (like i either couldn’t hear anything or i would say “i don’t know”)… the audio said at the end i got them all right and my results were perfect??? then we did the spoken at 55 dB and she said i got 100% for my right ear which, again, there were at least 2 words i didn’t understand so there’s no way i got 100%… my left ear she said i got 92%… then was the pure tones. my initial test was much more thorough consisting of the guy asking me my symptoms first, going pure tones, word recognition at different volumes, word recognition at 70 dB, bone conduction, and then some new test that they do with static sound and a siren.

long story short, she told me i have mild hearing loss instead and that my left ear is worse (which i avidly do not believe is true as i DO have more issues with my right ear…) and asked me if i thought i needed hearing aids. i said i thought it would be helpful as i can’t hear my classmates like my lab partner or my boyfriend or family when they are talking to me and she made some weird joke about “wow… i see people with much worse hearing than urs and they don’t want to get hearing aids” of course i don’t want hearing aids at 19 but i’m really struggling socially to hear and it has caused a lot of frustration between me, my family, and my boyfriend. she then made a comment about how hearing aids won’t help me at all with how minor my hearing loss is since mild hearing loss impairs hearing in group settings or when someone is not close and that i shouldn’t be surprised when the ha’s don’t help at all. i was like ??? she sent me back to a room to wait for the doctor to come review and when he did, all he did was look at the referral form, sign it, and tell me that i could benefit from hearing aids… but i was not told who to make an appointment with to do so and we just had to leave after he signed it…

no one the entire time asked me about my experience with my hearing loss other than the tinnitus. i don’t believe the mild diagnosis even matches the experience i’ve had (which i did post on this forum before my initial test but will also attach here):

“i’ve been really struggling to understand people speaking to me and it has progressively gotten worse. it is at a point where i am becoming extremely anxious talking to people as almost 50% of what they say, i can’t understand at all. with my partner and some family members its less anxiety inducing (mostly my partner) as i can just keep asking them to repeat but i get very anxious when asking people in my classes to repeat or people at restaurants, drive throughs, appointments, etc. i often will just nod or say “ahh yeah i guess” or “maybe” when i can’t hear someone because i get nervous to tell them i didn’t hear it but if they look at me weird i will then ask them to repeat it. it has gotten worse though. i get frustrated when talking with my partner as i have to have them repeat things over and over or i have to be facing them and looking at their lips to understand them. i get frustrated when i’m showing them something with my airpods and they tell me it’s too loud but it feels too quiet to me. its becoming stressful and since i am a musician, i am scared about losing my hearing. i do get overwhelmed when there’s a lot of sounds going on around me and i was looking into getting loop earplugs but remembered that it would only make understanding people harder. thats what led me to think more about the actual issue”

i believe the moderate hearing loss diagnosis more accurately reflects my symptoms WHICH NO ONE HAD EVEN ASKED ME ABOUT TODAY AT THE APPOINTMENT . i was extremely worried something like this would happen today and of course, it did. my mom, though, now believes me and we are going to work towards getting hearing aids for me before the new year (insurance reasons lol) but this all just felt so wrong to me? (also the test from today does not have the AC PTA listed anywhere)

[jfgimmbfsbf]

to clarify in no way do i believe the audio’s offhanded comments reflect the ENT i visited, as i know he is very well known and trusted in my family… but i do wish there was more of a connection established and i wish my experience would have been asked about instead of him only really looking in my ears, telling me i’d be getting another test done, and then only coming to sign the paper after. i don’t know what step to even take next or what places i can go to get hearing aids so i feel like things were very unresolved. and i did not appreciate the audio and how little she made my issues feel. when trying to talk about a situation i had not being able to hear my lab partner, she cut me off and told me that the hearing aids will not help me hear people unless they were close… the situation i was talking about with my lab partner, we were face to face and he was talking at a normal volume somewhat close to me while we’d do experiments (this was a recurring thing). i can barely hear my boyfriend when he is sitting next to me talking and i get very frustrated after 3-4 times of asking him to repeat. the issue is not just with background noise like she TOLD ME it was…

[Emile030]

@jfgimmbfsbf
So now your ears are tested in two ways you know for sure there is some hearing loss. The two tests are almost look alike. Some difference could be expected.

Go to the most sympatic provider and ask for help and do the free test of hearing aids. Try them out and look if it fits you and works in the following weeks.

That’s it! If it helps it would be great. If not you can always discuss the problem further. It is not the scores of your ears by tests but the try out of the advice for hearing aids that could help you.

Good luck and hopefully you’ll get better.

[jfgimmbfsbf]

thank u for ur response!
yes i have seen that the tests are similar and i’m just averaging them out at this point lol!

the audio’s attitude though and the way no one stopped to ask me why i wanted to test for hearing loss just felt soooo strange to me. the jokes about how i wouldn’t even benefit from hearing aids felt so icky and it felt like the opposite of what she should’ve done/said. no one told me where to look for hearing aids in our insurance network so i’ve applied for some appointments near me and hopefully monday i will hear back and be able to talk to them about my insurance

[Emile030]

@jfgimmbfsbf
The world is full of people you’d like and others you don’t. Nothing to worry about, stay calm.

Next step already taken, that’s good.
You’ll be informed by the one you made the appointment with.

Start writing down some questions you would like to be answered, so you don’t forget. Your goal is to find out if they can help you in better hearing. And you’ll succeed.

Good luck

[GrayGhost]

If you add your location to your profile … someone near you may have suggestion where to get HA’s

[Neville]

Tests for ENT diagnostics and tests for hearing aid fitting can be really different in a way that is confusing for patients. They really serve different purposes. The ENT is looking for whether there is anything medically wrong that needs to be followed up on, as hearing loss CAN be associated with certain medical conditions. They are also looking for whether there is any possible surgical resolution to the hearing loss, which is sometimes the case. Based on your age, your experience, and the confuguration of your hearing loss, I was 99% sure that the ENT wouldn’t be interested in you and all the other providers probably felt the same, but you still needed that ENT clearance to be sure. But in this context “not interested in you” just means that he doesn’t see any possibly-frightening medical concerns nor any potential for surgery. Your hearing loss is just your hearing loss (likely genetic causes). ENTs know comparatively little about hearing aids. Hearing aids are not part of their coursework, and so the degree to which they know ANYTHING about them will be more related to their personal interest and what they have been told by other patients. Older ENTs remember the good old days of hearing aids being more crappy than good, and people waiting for very severe losses to get them because they performed poorly.

The person testing for the ENT is sometimes and audiologist and sometimes just a tech. They usually have less than 1/4 of the time to spend with you compared to someone who has you booked in for a hearing aid assessment, and they are just there to do the test. They MIGHT also fit hearing aids, but they might have done nothing but ENT tests for their entire career and also not know a lot about hearing aids. I’m sorry they said that hearing aids would do nothing for you. I don’t agree with them.

You are very young–still school aged almost. In regards to finding the best person to help you. . . if you can figure out who in your area does pediatric hearing aids, it might be valuable to go talk to them. They can either help you with hearing aids directly, or probably have a lot of young hearing aid users transitioning to adulthood and therefore good recommendations for adult providers if they themselves have an age cut-off for services.

[jfgimmbfsbf]

i really only wanted to go the ENT after to confirm whether or not they thought it was genetic (which he did confirm) and to prove to my mom that my issue was real. when i told her about my initial test and the results, she did not believe me at all and told me it was nothing. well, now she believes me since this was a doctor she trusted. the tester yesterday was an aduiologist but i just do not think she did a great job.
i’m already looking for places near me to do hearing aids with my mom’s insurance (unfortunately there aren’t a whole lot). i would have to do an adult doctor as opposed to a pediatrician but i think the issue is more finding people in our insurance group. my mom has great insurance because she works at the city hospital but most of the places that take our insurance are in SoCal (we live in the Bay Area). not much i can do now that its saturday but hopefully my grandparents, my mom, and i can find somewhere. my mom wants to ask the ent about it but i’m not sure i want that

[jfgimmbfsbf]

i have considered it but am a little hesitant since i am younger i’ve been stalked from a support group before but i can put my general location maybe

[Neville]

I’d consider calling, e.g. these guys Pediatric Audiology Clinic | UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals

Say you’re 19 with a recently diagnosed hearing loss and know your out of their age group but wonder if they have any good recommendations for providers in your area.

Worst they can do is never call you back.

[Terost]

You need to look for an audiologist that follows best practices to get the hearing aid matched perfectly to your hearing aid prescription. Go to hearingup.com to find the nearest audiologist.

[Davidjt]

Hi jfg, I’m now 76 i had this problem in my teens, i always wondered how others could understand words to songs i couldn’t, missing lots of teacher info. In class, not keeping up with conversations with friends, my hearing was tested over the years , indications are don’t need hearing aids, . Ive been wearing them for 3 year’s now, its a lot better but still have problems with comprehension at times, am still missing certain tones,
I’m looking at trying out a Bluetooth microphone, this will help talking to individuals and not picking up external noise, most schools and lecture rooms have Bluetooth loop systems and wow what a difference,
Good luck, stay with it, don’t ignore it ,the technology is there, you need to use it.

[EagleEar]

bone conduction thresholds?

[jfgimmbfsbf]

my bone conductions were essentially the same on both the initial and the newer test. the newer was maybe 5dB higher but the same shape as the initial one

[ronshere]

You have quite a few Costco’s around the East Bay area. They give free hearing tests. You do not have to be a Costco member to get one. Just call and make an appointment first. They will give you a very good exam and then you will know.

[threluja]

This is brilliant advice. Thank you Neville.

[threluja]

I have congenital hearing loss in my family and my Mum never believed it as she was always comparing to herself. Her experiences as a kid growing up in the 50s with a box she had to carry around for her aids meant that she didn’t want that stigma and life for me and denied. She always said don’t get them until you have to.

When I got to 25 I bit the bullet and they were a game changer for me. I was techie so I love playing with things and learned a lot on how they worked and what they did. My first lot were analogue but once digital came along and I got to play a lot more with Bluetooth connections and everything my life improved dramatically.

I am 52 now and been wearing them for 25+ years. My Mum comes to me for advice now and I have found audiologists that have transformed her life now too which is lovely.

My Mum was always shamed by hearing loss and she didn’t want me to experience that. What I have learned is that everyone’s hearing loss is very different. The thing about communication of any kind is that it is between two (or more sources). You can optimise your end all you like but if you don’t tell the other side what works for you they will never be able to adjust to help.

I am much older now and less worried about my image but what I will say is that if people genuinely care for you then telling them how to help you will only make things better for you.

It is easy to say don’t be embarrassed to tell people you are deaf or to ask them how to speak to you but it’s much harder to accept that leap of faith and actually do it. What I have found is when you ask for help people generally do really try. By knowing your grandad is deaf you adjust for him so what’s different?

You are brave at 19, my son is 24 and he also wears hearing aids and I am thrilled that the younger generation are starting to see hearing care just like glasses and be less conscious of using the tech you need to help you.

Good luck with your journey when you find a good Audi they are worth their weight in gold. As a musician you know that it takes a trained and talented person and an instrument to make good music and hearing aids are no different.

[Neville]

@threluja

What I have found is when you ask for help people generally do really try.

I agree.

Hearing loss can get tricky because it’s hard to see/notice so you often have to ask over and over before someone remembers. And it’s also hard to understand for someone who doesn’t have it, so you have to find creative ways to help people understand what it’s like so that they are better at understanding how to help you.

But outside of school most people are nice and will try.

(Middle school children can intermittently be little psychopaths though.)

[threluja]

I describe mine as like autocorrect. You’ll be typing a message on your phone and 85% of the time it gets what you say and the other…well how they hell did it get to that word

That’s my brain with hearing aids.

Completely agree on middle school children too

[ellisonvoice]

My school class, early 50s, age 10, was given a ‘hearing test’.
Ten headsets at a time were handed round, playing steadily fading numbers from a crackly vinyl.
Teacher put the phones on my head, not properly
fitted. As a radio hobbyist I knew a bit, and reached up to settle the things. ‘Leave them alone’ came the bellowed reaction. So, of course, test was useless. Could not hear many of the numbers. My poor score was duly handed onward. No follow up.