June 14, 2009 Issue
HEARING
LOSS HELP E-zine
"The premier e-zine for people with hearing loss"
Volume 4, Number 3 June
14, 2009
Publisher: Neil Bauman
neil@hearinglosshelp.com
http://www.hearinglosshelp.com
Copyright Center for Hearing Loss Help 2009
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"Hearing loss may change your life,
but your life need not be any less
rewarding and fulfilling
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— Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
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================================================== In this issue ==================================================
1. News Items
— Captionfish Finds Captioned Movies Showing Near You
— Control Your Hearing Aids from Your Cell Phone—You Gotta be Kidding!
2. Beware of (Ototoxic) Drugs That Can Damage Your Ears
— Can Adalimumab (Humira) Cause Tinnitus?
— Safer Alternatives to Anti-Anxiety Drugs
3. Answers to Your Questions
— Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and Ear Pain
— Convincing Elderly People That They Are Hearing Phantom Sounds Can be
Most Difficult!
4. Effective Coping Strategies
— Instructing/Disciplining a Hard of Hearing Child
— Bluffing—Here's the Key to Overcoming It
5. Information on Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants and/or Assistive Devices
— Should My Baby Get a Cochlear Implant Now?
— Finding a Good Cochlear Implant Surgeon
— Wax in Your Ear Canal Can Cause Sudden Feedback
===============================================
1. News Items
===============================================
Captionfish Finds Captioned Movies Showing Near You
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
Back in February, 2006 I
wrote about a website called
"Fomdi" that finds
captioned movies near you.
Fomdi was much better than nothing, but it had its limitations. Now something
better has come along.
On May 18, 2009, DeafCode LLC released the beta version of their brand new
"Captionfish" captioned movie finder. This free website automatically provides
information about captioned movies in your area based upon your computer's "address".
Their "blurb" reads: "It is the first website to integrate an Instant CC Film
Finder™, which provides immediate and effortless custom results within 30 miles
of a chosen location, refreshed on each visit to Captionfish.com."
I found it better to put in my own address manually rather than accept where
Captionfish thinks I am. For example, when I first tried Captionfish, it
calculated its results as though I lived in York, PA, not in Stewartstown, PA
where I actually live—a difference of about 20 miles. When I put in my
Stewartstown address, it replaced the 1 movie in my "area" with 3 others that
were actually closer to me, but to the south.
By default, Captionfish shows you the captioned movies that are showing today
within 30 miles of your location. You can easily change this to the next 7 days
if you want to. You can also set the radius from 30 miles to 15, 45 or 60 miles
depending on how many movie theaters are near you, and how far you are willing
to drive.
Another cool feature of Captionfish is that it indicates whether the theater
uses Rear Window Captioning (closed captions), or whether the movie is open
captioned.
In my opinion, open captioning is much nicer than Rear Window Captioning as
there is nothing you need to have (a small, smoked glass screen available at the
theater, but you need to ask for it), or do (set up the screen and aim it at the
back wall where the captions are actually displayed), and you can sit anywhere
(and not only where you get a clear shot at the back wall).
With Rear Window Captioning, you read the captions off the small, smoked glass
screen in front of you while you watch the action on the big screen at the front
of the theater. Thus, you are trying to focus on, and watch, two different
places at once, not always an easy task.
Now, back to Captionfish: when you click on the "Movie Details" link,
Captionfish shows you a printed description of the movie, and also shows you a
short preview of the movie. Note, this preview is also captioned! Nice!
Another cool feature for those hard of hearing people on the move is that
Captionfish provides a mobile website optimized for mobile phones so you can
start driving and find the film you want as you go.
For those of you that use custom RSS feeds, Captionfish enables an RSS feed so
you can check for the latest captioned film results using your preferred RSS
reader.
To find captioned movies in your area (Captionfish just covers the USA), simply
click on Captionfish. It's
that simple!
—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—
Control Your Hearing Aids from Your Cell Phone—You Gotta be Kidding!
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
What will they think up next? Did you ever want to change the settings on your
hearing aids, but felt embarrassed, and didn't want to be obvious about it? That
is where a remote control comes in handy. I loved to be able to do this with the
remote that came with my old Widex Quattros. I could change programs, adjust the
volume, or turn on or off the T- coils or microphones, even if the remote was in
my pocket. No one had a clue that I was doing that.
Now Starkey Labs, the makers of Starkey hearing aids has come up with these
features, but with a new twist. Their new "S" Series hearing aids have a cool
feature built in called T² technology.
With T² technology, your cell phone can double as a remote control. T²
technology allows you to use your cell phone (or any touch-tone phone for that
matter) to conveniently switch memory settings, adjust the volume, or mute your
"S" Series hearing aids.
To learn more, click on
Starkey "S" Series hearing aids,
then click on "View Features" to
learn a bit about the T² technology and other features of these new hearing
aids.
If controlling your hearing aids via remote control is something you always
wanted, and you are "married" to your cell phone, maybe the new Starkey "S"
series is something you might want to investigate.
**************************************************
Having trouble hearing your iPod (or MP3 player) in true stereo?
If you wear hearing aids that have t-coils in them, the dual Music-Links will let you hear beautiful, clear, true-stereo sounds in both ears!
Click here to learn more.
**************************************************
===============================================
2. Beware of (Ototoxic) Drugs That Can Damage Your Ears
===============================================
Can Adalimumab (Humira) Cause Tinnitus?
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A man explained: "I have had rheumatoid arthritis for 35 years. About a year
ago I was put on 40 mg shots of Adalimumab (brand name Humira) every two weeks.
My tinnitus was bad during the last few years and I attributed it to stress.
This past Saturday I took a shot after not having had one for about a month.
Coincidentally, my tinnitus was getting better during that period. A few hours
after the shot, my tinnitus acted up again, and has been very loud 24/7 ever
since.
Do you have any information that would indicate that Adalimumab should be on
your list of ototoxic drugs?"
Interestingly enough, the current Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR) does not list
a single ototoxic side effect for Adalimumab. However, a number of other sources
list tinnitus, hearing loss, dizziness, vertigo and ear pain as side effects of
this drug.
Therefore, it is very likely that your tinnitus flared up because of getting the
Adalimumab shot. I have no reason to believe otherwise.
I'll add this drug to the 3rd edition of "Ototoxic Drugs Exposed" which should
be coming out in another year or so, depending on how much time I can devote to
that project.
To learn which drugs are (or can be) ototoxic, see "Ototoxic
Drugs Exposed". This book contains information on the ototoxicity of
763 drugs, 30 herbs and 148 chemicals.
—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—
Safer Alternatives to Anti-Anxiety Drugs
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A lady wrote: "I have been suffering from tinnitus for several years and it
drives me crazy when I'm trying to get to sleep. I have tried every thing from
counting, meditation, etc. I have been to an ear, nose and throat specialist and
my local doctor and I have been told I will just have to live with it. I was on
Prozac for a few years. I ended up on just half a tablet, but I found it made me
feel flat and I didn't like it so I went off it. Is there any thing I could take
to stop me feeling anxious, especially when I'm trying to go to sleep? After
reading some posts it seems Prozac could have made my tinnitus worse, is this
correct? Does Effexor make tinnitus worse?"
"Live with it," is a doctor's typical response to complaints about tinnitus—and
in one sense it is true—you do have to live with it. However, you can learn to
manage your tinnitus so it doesn't bother you. I have had tinnitus day and night
for 40+ years, but it almost never bothers me because I am habituated to it.
Doctors often prescribe drugs such as Fluoxetine (Prozac) and Venlafaxine
(Effexor) to help you reduce the anxiety you feel towards your tinnitus. These
drugs work for some people, but for others, they actually make their tinnitus
worse.
For example, Fluoxetine can cause tinnitus in about 2% of the people taking it
according to the Physicians' Desk Reference (PDR). Since multitudes of people
take Prozac, this is a pretty significant number of people. Venlafaxine is no
better. In fact, it causes tinnitus in about 3% of the people taking it.
Just because you have to live with your tinnitus doesn't mean that there aren't
things you can do to help you successfully cope with it. You can learn about
many things you can try to help you successfully live with your tinnitus in my
book "When Your Ears Ring—Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here's How".
If I were anxious about my tinnitus and had trouble sleeping because of it, the
above drugs wouldn't be my choice. I'd much rather use natural means, and there
are a variety of them you could try. I'll only mention two here.
First, you could use herbals rather than drugs. Herbals are typically ever so
much easier on your body—no harsh action—and have few, if any, side effects.
Best of all, ototoxic side effects from herbals are almost unheard of.
There are a number of herbs that have been used for hundreds and hundreds of
years—long before drugs hit the market—to reduce anxiety and promote sleep,
and they did (and still do) work. You seldom hear about them, but if you are
concerned about ototoxic (and other) side effects, they are a good place to
start.
My choice of a herb that reduces anxiety, calms you down and helps you sleep is
Valerian (Valeriana officinalis). You can get it at health food stores, or see a
herbalist or a naturopathic doctor (ND).
Note: you should not take herbals like Valerian along with prescription
anti-anxiety or sedative drugs without checking with your doctor or pharmacist
for any drug interactions. For example, you wouldn't want to take Prozac and
Valerian at the same time as the combined action may be too much for you.
The second way to help reduce anxiety is exercise. Far too many people lack an
adequate exercise program—and it can show up as anxiety and other things. A
vigorous exercise program will work off that extra nervous energy and make you
healthily tired, resulting (hopefully) in a good night's sleep in spite of your
tinnitus.
You might want to try these and see how they work for you.
**************************************************
Having trouble hearing on your cell phone because of lack of volume or interference?
If you wear hearing aids that have t-coils in them, try the dual T-Links and
hear beautiful, clear, interference-free sounds in both ears!
Click here to learn more.
**************************************************
===============================================
3. Answers to Your Questions
===============================================
If you have a question, or if something has been puzzling you
concerning your ears, email it to
mailto:neil@hearinglosshelp.com
and put "e-zine question" as the subject. Suitable questions will be answered here.
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and Ear Pain
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A lady explained: "I have recently started taking HRT [hormone replacement
therapy] (estrogen only) via a transdermal patch 50mcg, for the last 11 weeks.
Since starting HRT I have had a constant pain deep inside my left ear, with
intermittent nerve pain radiating behind the ear. It can happen anytime and last
from 1 min to 1 hr to all day.
My doctor has examined my ear but can not find anything wrong. I decided to stop
the HRT for one week. The pain subsided quite dramatically, however my
menopausal symptoms got worse. My doctor suggested I start a lower dose 25mcg.
With the lower dose, the pain is mild compared to what it was, (I can live with
it), the pain behind the ear has gone and my menopausal symptoms are manageable.
Do you think HRT could have caused this ear problem?"
I haven't heard of ear pain specifically associated with HRT, although it is a
reported side effect of Progesterone and a number of "hormone" drugs, so I
wouldn't be at all surprised if that is what is happening. (Incidentally, a
number of antidepressants have ear pain as a side effect too—all the SSRIs for
example.)
The fact that when you stopped the HRT the pain went away is very strong
circumstantial evidence that the pain was indeed related to the HRT. Also, the
fact that the pain came back when you restarted the HRT is strong corroborating
evidence. The clincher is that taking a reduced dose gives you reduced pain.
Obviously, taking the lowest dose that will control most of your symptoms is a
wise way to go. Alternately, you could dump the HRT completely and use alternate
medicine—herbals, etc. which can help relieve your symptoms without the painful
side effects.
—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—
Convincing Elderly People That They Are Hearing Phantom Sounds Can be Most
Difficult!
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A concerned daughter wrote: "My mother, who is 83, has hearing loss and lives
alone in an apartment in a quiet area. My brother lives next door. She has been
hearing phantom music for some years now, and we cannot get her to accept
that it is all in her head. We have taken her to several doctors for help, but
they don't seem like they want to be bothered. She has had tests which have come
back fine, so she refuses to believe that it is her.
She is accusing the woman that lives next door to my brother of playing music
all day. Then she is accusing my brother of continuing playing the same music
when he gets home from work and all night long.
We have had people go over to her place to listen, and when they tell her they
don't hear anything, she insists that they are all crazy. We have tried
everything we can to convince her that she is the only one hearing the music,
and that she has MES [Musical Ear Syndrome]. She refuses to accept it. Do you
know of someone we can talk to, or some place we can take tor to that will help
us convince her of her problem? We are at the end of our rope and need help!"
I understand. Doctor's don't seem to be of much help, mostly, I think, because
they know nothing about Musical Ear Syndrome (MES). As a result, they don't have
a clue how to treat it—so give you the brush-off.
Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any doctor or facility that is truly
knowledgeable about MES and hearing loss, and thus is qualified to help your
mom.
The best information available on MES (at least in my opinion, and I'm a wee bit
biased because I wrote it) is the article "Musical Ear Syndrome—The Phantom
Voices, Ethereal Music & Other Spooky Sounds Many Hard of Hearing People
Secretly Experience", and my book on the subject "Phantom
Voices, Ethereal Music & Other Spooky Sounds".
Now let's look at your mom's situation. Blaming the neighbors for the phantom
music she is hearing is unfortunately, a common tactic for those that experience
MES and refuse to admit these sounds are phantom. I hear such complaints quite
often. Since this phantom music often appears to have directionality, your mom "KNOWS" it is coming from the room next door (as opposed to the one across the
hall, or on the other side of the street, etc.) This gives an added layer of
reality to these phantom sounds, which makes it so much more difficult for her
to accept that these sounds are all in her head.
Some people also "feel" their phantom music—they can actually "feel" the room
or floor vibrating in time to the music. When you "hear" music, can tell exactly
from which direction it is coming, and can "feel" the beat, can you blame
someone for refusing to accept that the music is phantom? That's how "real" it
is to them.
From time to time, I both "hear" and "feel" certain phantom sounds so I know
just how eerily real these sensations truly are. This is quite a hurdle to
overcome, and is one of the problems your mom has to deal with.
When she hears the phantom music so loud and clear, it is hard for her to accept
that other people can't hear the same music she is hearing. As you explained,
"We have also had people go over to her place to listen and when they tell her
they don't hear anything, she insists that they are all crazy."
Some people even insist that these "listeners" are hard of hearing themselves,
and that is why they can't hear the music. Your mom says they are crazy instead.
You are doing the right things in getting others to listen and corroborate what
you already have found out, that there isn't any real music playing.
In my experience, a number of people in their 80s and older refuse to accept
this. (People in their 60s and 70s are much more willing to accept a hearing
person's word that the music is phantom.) However, when people reach their 80s
and 90s often it is like talking to a brick wall. You just can't seem to get
through to them as is the case with your mom even though they are not crazy.
I think the real underlying problem is that to her, if a person hears "voices"
or music, they are crazy. That is her only point of reference, and she has held
this deeply-rooted belief all her life. Therefore, if she admits that what she
hears is all in her head, then she is admitting, at the same time, that she,
herself, is crazy. Although she may secretly believe that she IS going crazy,
she will never admit it to anyone else. Therefore, the only alternative she has
(from her perspective) is to believe that the sounds are indeed real, and
therefore, someone or something is causing them.
If she would listen and try to understand, you can explain that there are not
one, but two kinds of phantom sounds—the kind she knows about (and fears) where
the person has a mental problem, and the other kind, which we call MES (and
which she has not heard anything about) that happens to many hard of hearing
people who are perfectly sane (but who are, at times, completely fooled by the
activity going on in the auditory circuits of their brains). This will be a new
concept for her, and some elderly people have a most difficult time grasping
such new concepts. Continue to drill it into her that it is her ears (actually
the auditory circuits in her brain) that are not working properly, and that she
is not crazy (or whatever favorite term she uses).
In addition, many elderly people have very short memory spans for current
events, so what you explain to them today, they have forgotten by tomorrow. Thus
each day you may need to explain over again about the phantom music.
Another important aspect of this problem is dealing with the supposed
perpetrators of the "music". What happens is the person with MES begins to think
very badly towards the neighbor who is so "mean" and "inconsiderate" as to play
this loud music all night long just so they can't sleep.
The person with MES may knock on their neighbor's door at 3 o'clock in the
morning and demand they turn the music off. They may complain to the other
neighbors about the "bad" neighbor, refuse to talk to them, or snub them in the
dining room.
By the same token, the "bad" neighbor gets tired of all the false accusations
and gossip about them and snubs her "crazy" neighbor.
Make no mistake, there are often very real interpersonal problems between those
involved. Thus, you need to try to defuse this situation as much as possible.
Explain to the "bad" neighbor what is going on, and how MES sounds seem so real
and have direction so that they are being blamed for something this is not their
fault at all.
When the neighbors and management understand what is going on, they can make
allowances for her, and hopefully keep the situation from escalating.
===============================================
4. Effective Coping Strategies
===============================================
Instructing/Disciplining a Hard of Hearing Child
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A mother explained: "We have a 5-year-old daughter who is hard of hearing, and
wears hearing aids in both ears. She received speech therapy and hearing support
at her pre-school as well. Her speech is delayed from not being able to
hear for so long.
We're having a hard time disciplining her because she’s not understanding what
we're saying and we're not understanding what she is telling us. We talk it out,
but she gets frustrated and just starts crying.
The problem I think we're having is that she is not understanding when we tell
her something is right or wrong. Her right ear has a moderate to severe loss and
her left ear has a moderate loss.
Do you have any advice on what to do when it comes to explaining the rules and
disciplining children with hearing loss?"
You have raised a most important point. I have had experience on both sides of
this issue—first as the hard of hearing child, and then later, as the parent of
a hard of hearing child.
Before you discipline a hard of hearing child, you have to be sure that they
willfully disobeyed. If they didn't know something was wrong, because they never
heard previous warnings, its not their fault, its yours for not communicating in
a way that they could hear (understand).
Therefore, you need to use all the normal hearing loss coping strategies—get
close, face the child, cut out background noise, make sure there is light on
your face and not in your child's eyes, etc., etc. before you begin talking. If
you don't do this and then punish a child, the child is traumatized because they
don't have a clue why they are being punished.
I still remember when I had just turned 4, my mother was in the hospital having
my brother, and my dad was home looking after my sister and me. The first night
my dad developed severe ulcers and the ambulance took him to the hospital.
Co-workers of my dad's, but strangers to me, came to look after
us for a few days.
Was I ever terrorized! I was punished for things I didn't even know were "wrong"
because I couldn't hear/understand what these strangers were saying. They
assumed that I was being disobedient, when in fact, I didn't have a clue what
they wanted me to do. Such situations can leave deep emotional scars.
Therefore, before you jump down a child's neck, you first have to find out their
understanding of what they did. For example, if you say, "Don't jump on the
sofa" and the child does it, you need to ask, "What did I say about jumping on
the sofa?" For all you know they never heard the first word "don't" and thus
heard you tell them it was ok to jump on the sofa and thought, "Wow, this is
great!" They may not have even heard the word sofa at all, and so didn't have a
clue what you were talking about.
Children can become very anxious when they don't know the rules, and thus
punishments seem to come out of the blue at random.
Also, always reinforce what you are saying with visuals. For example, in the
above example, when you say "Don't jump on the sofa," at the same time you
should be shaking your head so even if they don't hear the "don't" they see it.
By the same token, nod your head when you tell them to do something.
I can remember lots of times not understanding what I was supposed to be doing
because I only got part of the message/warning/command. All you need to miss is
one word and it completely changes the meaning, and with our poor
ears, we miss a lot more than just one word!
To be sure your child understands you, here's a simple rule. Have your child
repeat back to you any warnings, orders or instructions you give him. Say, "tell
me what I just told you to do/not do" so I know you understood me. only
what he repeats back is what he heard/understood/can remember. You need to take that
literally, and in its narrowest sense. Don't read into it more than he just
said.
Let me give you an example of this from my adult life so you can see how even
making the smallest assumptions about what we hear can have major consequences.
A number of years ago, I was a volunteer firefighter on the Canadian prairies.
There were large grain farms as far as the eye could see. As
you can imagine, we had a lot of field fires in the spring and fall when the
farmers were out working their fields.
Because I couldn't hear much, the chief typically had me doing "support" roles
rather than active firefighting, although I was trained in everything and had to
step in at a moment's notice if they were short-handed. On field fires I was
often designated to drive the water tanker.
On one such fire call, the chief told me to take the tanker. I asked, "Where's
the fire" He said, "3 miles east and 4 miles south." I repeated it back to be
sure I got it right—3 miles east and 4 miles south. I repeated it again to be
sure, and the chief, deputy chief and captain all heard me repeat it back.
I took off immediately in the tanker (a lumbering cow to be sure) and I hadn't
gone a mile before the other trucks all passed me and were soon long out of
sight. When I got to the intersection 3 miles east and 4 miles south of town
there were no fire trucks, no signs of a fire—nothing.
I got on the radio but couldn't reach them—just static. They were down in a
coulee and their signal couldn't get out. What do I do now. I'm alone in the
water truck and can't understand anything on the radio. Where do I go? I know
I'm at the right location.
There was a little rise in the road behind me, so I turned around and drove to
the crest and radioed again, "Where are you?" Back came the reply, "Where are
you? We're out of water!"
I said, I'm 3 miles east and 4 miles south and you're not here.
That's when I discovered I didn't have the whole message. You see, we always
used as our reference point for out of town fires, the intersection of the road
to the town and the north-south highway, so that is what I used.
For some strange reason, this one time, they used an intersection 4 miles south
of town on the main highway as their reference point (and I never heard that).
So when I repeated back what I had heard, the chiefs and captain mentally read into it that I was starting 4 miles
south of town just like they were
thinking—yet they all heard exactly what I had repeated back and I had not
repeated anything about a different reference point. The result was I had the
water they
needed, but was exactly 4 miles north of where it was needed!
This kind of thing happens with our hard of hearing children too. Therefore, ask
them to repeat back your orders and instructions, and only what they repeat back
is what they understood—nothing else. It is up to you to be sure that they
have all the essentials included. If they don't, try again (and again) until
they get it right.
Remember, earlier I said to also use visuals (nod or shake your head). Well, in
our fire department, it was standard procedure that the first or second person
arriving at the hall would find the location of the fire on the map and make a
prominent circle around it so everyone coming in later could see where it was.
All truck drivers were supposed to check the map before the left the hall so
they knew where they were going.
Most of the time the chief and I got there first—he worked across the street
and I lived right beside the fire hall, so I typically marked the map as he
scribbled the directions down. But this time I was working out of town so didn't
get there in
time to do that—and no one else had bothered to mark the map. Thus I had no
means of visually checking where the fire was. To hard of hearing people, that's
how important those little visuals are when added to any verbal instructions.
When children are old enough to read, its not a bad idea to have a "book of
rules" so they can be sure they understand them properly, or leave a printed
note listing what they are supposed to do/not do. Make it easy for your hard of
hearing child to know what is expected of them.
One more point. Few people realize that it is difficult for a hard of hearing
person to remember more than one or two directions at a time. This is because we
work so hard trying to understand the words, that the message never really sinks
in. It's hard to recall a "fuzzy" message, and that's all we have to work with.
Therefore, if you have more than a couple of instructions, write them down so we
get them all correctly.
Many's the time I have listened to instructions and at that time, I was sure I
had them, but by the time I walked out the door, too late I realized I could
only remember the first one or two.
—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—
Bluffing—Here's the Key to Overcoming It
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A lady explained: "I recently received your book "Help! I'm Losing My
Hearing—What Do I Do Now?"
My hearing loss has been a gradual loss—but now it is more pronounced. As your
book points out, I am having difficulty telling people I am hard of hearing. I
bluff all the time. It's getting increasingly stressful.
I am trying to come to terms with this, but am very frustrated. I can't
understand why I can't openly deal with it. I do wear hearing aids—they help,
but not all the time.
Are there any "support groups" in my area I might be able to connect with?"
The "Help" I'm Losing My Hearing" is a great little book, but I think you need
to learn more about the basic reason why you bluff, then you will better
understand how you can overcome this tendency. I cover this in detail in my
latest book called "Keys to Successfully Living with Your Hearing Loss. You would do well to
study Key No. 2 in this manual until it becomes a part of you. It contains the
real secret to overcoming bluffing.
Very briefly, we bluff because it meets our immediate need to appear normal, and
to keep our anxiety over not hearing/not hearing correctly to a tolerable level
because we don't know the proper way to deal with our hearing losses.
To break this cycle, we need to analyze the long-term costs of this action vs.
the short-term benefits. When we only focus on the short-term benefits and
ignore the long-term costs, we continue to bluff to our detriment.
Furthermore we bluff because we are using what is called emotion-focused coping
strategies rather than problem-focused coping strategies. You see, the goal of
emotion-focused coping strategies isn't to help us hear better, but to
make us feel better. We need to focus on using problem-focused coping strategies
that help us hear better.
Yet another reason for bluffing could be that over your lifetime you have
subconsciously bought into the "stigma of hearing loss"—that having a hearing
loss is somehow shameful, that you are less of a person if you have a hearing
loss, that you are slow and stupid if you have a hearing loss, that hearing loss
needs to be hidden away, and other such thoughts.
Now that you are hard of hearing yourself, you impute these same stigmatized
feelings onto yourself. You don't want anyone to know your "shameful" secret, so
you try to hide your loss by bluffing. Because bluffing doesn't work in the long
run, your overall stress and anxiety levels build up. (These are some of the
long-term costs that you ignore in the heat of the moment, but they ultimately
make you feel worse, not better.)
Therefore, it is so much better to be up front about your hearing loss, and tell
people what they need to do in order to help you communicate with them. This
ultimately gives you confidence and your anxiety level drops. A wonderful by-product of this problem-focused coping behavior is that you not only hear
better, but you actually feel better too!
As far as "support groups" go, the best "in person" support organization is the
Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA).
They have chapters in almost all states. You can
find the
various
chapters here.
Scroll down to the map of the USA and click on your state to find the chapter
nearest you, then contact the leader of that chapter. They'll be delighted to
have you join them.
If there is no chapter near you, or if you want "support" more often than once a
month, then you might want to try an on-line support group. The best one, bar
none, is the SayWhatClub (SWC) To
join the SWC click on
the button for "Joining". I'm a long time member of the SWC. We "meet" daily via
emails.
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===============================================
5. Information on Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants
and/or
Assistive Devices
===============================================
Should My Baby Get a Cochlear Implant Now?
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A concerned mother wrote: "I have a daughter who was born with congenital CMV
[Cytomegalovirus], and she experienced a progressive hearing loss. She was
fitted with hearing aids at 13 months, and she has had them for two months. It
is great to hear her making more sounds and responding to more sounds. I am
encouraged by her progress, but I am also wondering how much benefit she can get
with her hearing aids versus what a cochlear implant could offer. I have
difficulty trusting that my daughter's hearing aids are giving her enough sound
information! (And of course she can't tell us!) Any input would be greatly
appreciated."
Actually, your daughter is telling you that her hearing aids are working for her
by paying attention when you talk, and is now talking herself. These are both
good signs.
Hearing aids aren't perfect by any means, but you typically can't get a cochlear
implant until you can no longer receive much/any benefit from wearing hearing
aids. Therefore, your daughter may not be a candidate for a cochlear implant at
this point.
If your daughter is progressing normally for her age, then I'd think the hearing
aids are doing an adequate job. However, if she is way behind, then by all means
have her evaluated for a cochlear implant. (They won't give her a cochlear
implant if she does not meet their criteria. Therefore, if you are really
wondering, you could have her evaluated for a cochlear implant now—then you'd
know for sure.)
—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—
Finding a Good Cochlear Implant Surgeon
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A lady wrote: "I have bi-lateral Meniere’s and was recently approved as a
candidate for a cochlear implant. Your article "Which is the Best Cochlear
Implant?" published December 6, 2007 mentions one surgeon in Baltimore as
being “one of the top rated CI surgeons anywhere”. Could you tell me how us
non-medical people can find a list or ranking of CI Surgeons? What was your
source that told you Dr. Niparko was top rated? A medical journal? A magazine
article? I'd love to see the source so I could find a top rated CI surgeon near
me."
As far as I know, there is no list ranking cochlear implant surgeons as such.
What you need to do is "listen around" and see who's name comes up the most
often in relation to cochlear implant surgery; who is thought of most highly;
who has a particularly good success ratio with few complications; who has done
hundreds or thousands of CI surgeries; etc.
When you do this you'll hear names like John Niparko and other good CI surgeons.
Those are the ones you want to go to.
One way to "listen around" is to join on-line groups specializing in cochlear
implants such as the SayWhatClub's CI list (click the button on
"Joining") and ask the people there which surgeon they
had, and who they recommend in their area. You'll learn a lot that way.<
—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—
Wax in Your Ear Canal Can Cause Sudden Feedback
by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
A lady explained: "Last night, all of a sudden my ear began itching so I took my
hearing aid off and with my little finger I was scratching in my ear canal. When
I put my hearing aid back on, it started to give feedback all the time. This
morning I'm still getting enormous feedback when I put my aid in. It's driving
me crazy. What can I do?"
There are two likely causes of your feedback. The good news is they are both
easy to fix.
When you were scratching your ear, you likely dislodged a piece of wax (or other
debris) and either one of two things happened.
One, the dislodged wax is now blocking your ear canal, so when you put your
hearing aid in, the wax butted up against the hole in the ear mold, basically
blocking it. The result is feedback. It's basically the same thing as your
hearing aid squealing when you cup your hand around it. This is not as true of
modern aids that have feedback suppression.
Two, when you put your hearing aid on, you pushed the wax into the hole in the
ear mold—again causing the feedback.
The first thing to check is your ear mold. If any wax is blocking the hole,
clean it out. That should fix your problem.
If the ear mold hole is clear, then you likely need to clean out your ear canal.
When we wear hearing aids, the body's natural action to work wax and anything
else in our ear canals out over time is prevented by the ear mold. Thus, each
time we put in our hearing aids, we push wax further into the ear canal until it
completely blocks it.
Therefore, it is a good idea to have your ears regularly cleaned out to prevent
this from happening again in the future.
Epilogue: This lady went to her ear doctor, and he found her ear canal was
completely plugged with wax. Cleaning out her ear canal instantly solved the
feedback problem.
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HEARING LOSS HELP E-zine
Neil Bauman, Publisher
Center for Hearing Loss Help
49 Piston Court
Stewartstown, PA 17363 USA
Phone: (717) 993-8555
Fax (717) 993-6661
http://www.hearinglosshelp.com
neil@hearinglosshelp.com
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