May 11, 2009 Issue

               HEARING LOSS HELP E-zine
"The premier e-zine for people with hearing loss"

Volume 4, Number 2              May 11, 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
                        because you have a hearing loss."

                                                              — Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

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Please recommend and/or forward this issue of Hearing Loss Help e-zine to at least one of your hard of hearing friends, or to anyone you know that is interested in successfully living with their hearing loss. We just ask that you keep this e-zine intact and only forward it in its entirety.
 

================================================== In this issue ==================================================
 

    Dear Readers

1. News Items

— Gentamicin Treatment for Meniere's Disease—Here's the Scoop
— Driving Safely with Hearing Loss
— Seven Myths Hearing People Harbor Concerning Hard of Hearing People
— Otosclerosis, Stapedectomies and MRIs

2. Beware of (Ototoxic) Drugs That Can Damage Your Ears

— Will Taking Sodium Thiosulfate Prevent Ototoxicity?
— Drugs and Tinnitus: Put Yourself in the Driver's Seat

3. Answers to Your Questions

— Can Excessive Exercise Cause Hearing Loss?

4. Tinnitus

— Neuromonics: Is It For Real?

5. Effective Coping Strategies

— How Do I Best Cope with My Spouse Who Won't Do Anything About His
    Hearing Loss?

6. Information on Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants and/or Assistive Devices

— T-coils Have Been Around Since WHEN?
 

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Dear Readers
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If you have been wondering where your regular monthly HearingLossHelp eZine got to for the past couple of months, blame me. I got tied up in two major projects plus all my regular duties, and I just plain ran out of time.

Now that I've completed these projects, here is your next edition of this eZine. I know that some of you eagerly await each edition.

Welcome to the hundreds of new subscribers that have joined us since the last issue of HearingLossHelp eZine came out.

One of the projects I just completed is my new seminar series called "Keys to Successfully Living with Your Hearing Loss". Too often, people cope with their hearing losses in a haphazard way. Many think that just getting hearing aids is all they need to do.

Surprise! Getting properly fitted hearing aids is only one of the 6 critical keys to successfully living with your hearing loss. There are 5 other keys that are equally important.

Learn about these 6 critical keys in my new seminar manual.

Be one of the first to read this new manual, and save 12% in the process. (This offer is for HearingLossHelp eZine readers only and is good until May 31st. so order your manual now before you forget.) Just put the word "KEYS" in the coupon code box in the shopping cart and click on "Apply" to receive your special discount.
 

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1. News Items
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Gentamicin Treatment for Meniere's Disease—Here's the Scoop

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
 

A lady wrote: "Dr. Timothy Hain has written an article about low-dose Gentamicin treatment. What do you have to say about this treatment?"

I respect Dr. Hain and his work, although, in my opinion, he is too conservative when it comes to the side effects of ototoxic drugs. By this I mean that he doesn't think the ototoxic side effects are as common and severe as they really are.

Gentamicin, as a treatment for Meniere's disease, has been around for quite a while. As the above article explains, in the past, high-dosage Gentamicin treatments have resulted in pretty significant ear problems including hearing loss.

This new low-dose protocol seems to cause far less damage to the inner ear than the high-dose one, and that is all to the good.

However, there are a few things this article doesn't mention of which I think anyone contemplating this procedure should be aware.

First, a significant portion of the population have a genetic variant that leaves them very susceptible to aminoglycoside ototoxicity—much more so than the general population. Since Gentamicin is one of the aminoglycosides, it would seem wise to be tested to see if you have the 1555A-G variant of the 12S rRNA gene (see page 109 in my book "Ototoxic Drugs Exposed for more information), and if you have it, really consider whether the supposed benefit will be worth the greatly increased risk.

Second, this treatment can work great and "kill" the balance system in one ear, hopefully eliminating the severe vertigo. But what happens if later your Meniere's switches to your other ear, as it does in approximately 20% to 25% of the people with Meniere's?

With your balance system dead in one ear, you don't dare do the same procedure on your other ear, or you will be left without any inner ear balance function at all. Among other balance problems, this will almost certainly result in such conditions as oscillopsia (bouncing vision), ataxia (staggering gait like you were drunk), blurred vision and other problems with your eyes. If this happens to you, you will never be able to drive again. You will likely find movement such as riding in a car, or even just watching action movies on your TV can make you "sick".

Third, there are no guarantees that even in low doses, the Gentamicin will not affect your hearing. Gentamicin typically damages the balance system (a good thing in this case) more than it damages the hearing system (a bad thing)—but this is not always the case. Are you prepared to lose some or all of your remaining hearing in that ear? It can and does happen.

If you have severe vertigo with your Meniere's, (and I can't even imagine what that must be like) and nothing else works, you may want to try this treatment. Remember, this is a treatment of "last resort"—one not to be taken lightly.

If you have considered the above points, read the above referenced article carefully, done your own research and talked it over with your ear doctor, you are ready to make an informed choice. What you choose is up to you.

To learn more about Meniere's Disease and some of the things you can do to help bring it under control, check out "Please Make My World Stop Spinning—The Agony of Meniere's Disease".

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Driving Safely with Hearing Loss

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

“How do you drive if you can’t hear?” is a question I’ve been asked a number of times. And I normally answer, “I use my eyes when I drive. What do you use?” “Judy”, a hard of hearing lady, responding to this same question, quipped, “I use my hands. My ears aren’t able to reach the steering wheel.”

Indeed, when my wife (before I met her) first noticed she was losing her hearing, one of her first worries was, “Will I still be able to drive?” Apparently, many people think you need to be able to hear in order to drive. I think a better criterion is being able to see!...

The above is the introduction to my article "Driving Safely with Hearing Loss" that was published in the Spring 2009 edition of Hearing Health magazine. Read the rest of this article, which is packed with practical information on driving safely even though you can't hear honking horns, sirens or your car's warning alerts.

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Seven Myths Hearing People Harbor Concerning Hard of Hearing People

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Hearing loss is typically misunderstood by the general population. Thus, it is not surprising that many hearing people have bought into the following 7 myths regarding hearing loss and the people with these losses.

Myth No. 1. Hard of hearing people are less intelligent than "hearing" people. Thus, they attach this social stigma to having a hearing loss. This myth is so deeply ingrained in the general population that even today most hard of hearing people refuse to wear hearing aids for fear of being thought stupid. The truth is, hard of hearing people are just like other people. Some are smart and some are not. Don't blame any perceived lack of intelligence on hearing loss. Place the blame where it should be—on communication difficulties.

Myth No. 2. Wearing hearing aids returns hearing to normal. Not true. Hearing aids can improve hearing—typically reducing the hearing loss by half—but never bring it up to normal. Thus hard of hearing people still have a hearing loss even when wearing their hearing aids. They often need to supplement what they hear by using assistive devices, by speechreading and by using other effective hearing loss coping strategies.

Myth No. 3. Hard of hearing people have selective hearing. They only hear what they want to hear, but they can hear if they really want to. While it is true that hard of hearing people do indeed have selective hearing, it is not because they don't pay attention. Rather, it is because their ears do not hear certain frequencies of sounds. They have no choice over which sounds they hear and don't hear.

Myth No. 4. Only old people have a hearing loss. Not true. Because of excessive noise exposure, taking medications that damage ears, ear infections and other factors, hearing loss affects children, adults and seniors alike. One study showed that on any given day, 15% of the children in elementary schools have a significant hearing loss.

Myth No. 5. When you have a hearing loss you somehow (magically) become a good lip reader. Thus, since hard of hearing people can read lips, it doesn't matter whether they hear or not. Fact: lip reading, (now more correctly called speechreading) while invaluable, is far from perfect. Only about 30% of English sounds can be easily read on a person's lips. That leaves the hard of hearing person guessing at the remaining 70%. While a few are remarkably good at this, no one is perfect.

Myth No. 6. If a hard of hearing person can't hear you, raise your voice at them. The truth is, most hard of hearing people need you to speak up just a bit, but they really want you to face them, then speak slowly and enunciate clearly. This is because when you lose some of your hearing, you hear people talking, but often you can't understand much of what they are saying.

Myth No. 7. Hard of hearing people understand sign language. Therefore, in order to accommodate people with hearing loss at meetings, you just need to provide a sign language interpreter. Fact: of the 70 million people with hearing loss, fewer than 1% know how to sign. Hard of hearing people typically need to use, in addition to their hearing aids, various assistive devices and real-time captioning (CART).

And one bonus myth—Myth No. 8. If you speak normally, you obviously can't have much of a hearing loss, therefore you are really faking it when you speak properly but say you can't hear. The truth is, the vast majority of hard of hearing people speak normally. Some people that have more severe hearing losses and don't wear hearing aids talk louder than normal. Other people with profound hearing losses speak in a flat tone (deaf speech). And surprise, some people with severe to profound hearing losses speak perfectly normally too. I'm one of them!

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Otosclerosis, Stapedectomies and MRIs

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
 

Otosclerosis (OH-toe-sklare-OH-sis) is a condition where spongy bone grows in the middle ear and often "fixes" the stapes (stirrup), the third bone in the middle ear, to the oval window so it can't vibrate freely. The result is a conductive hearing loss. To correct this condition, an ear specialist performs a surgical procedure called a stapedectomy (stay-pee-DEK-toe-me). He typically removes the fixated stapes and replaces it with a plastic or metal prosthesis.

Now comes the insidious part. IF the prosthesis contains any magnetic metal (iron, nickel, cobalt), then you mustn't have an MRI or you can totally destroy your life in a heartbeat and never know about it until too late. This actually happened to "Stephanie" (not her real name). Here is her story. She writes:

"I came upon your article "Protect Your Balance System—Or Else..." and was so happy to find something that describes me so well.

Five years ago I had a MRI done. I explained to the attendant that I have a wire [the stapes prosthesis] in my inner ear to help with my hearing loss. (I had this surgery back in 1972. I had it looked at again in 1985.) However, in 2004, the hospital did a CT scan and said there was no wire there. I then had the MRI. Immediately upon coming out of the machine, I discovered I had lost my balance. I could not walk. I was nauseated, I could not hear as well, and the noise in my head was unbearable.

To make a long story short, I had to have emergency surgery on my ear to see if any fluid was draining [perilymphatic fistula]. I then had to take physiotherapy for two years for my balance. My eyesight also changed 50%, but has since gone back to the way it was.

After this fiasco, the hospital had another look at my CT scan and they saw the wire but it was too late. Please let people know just how much damage can be done to your body if doctors miss finding this metal prosthesis.

My ENT said the damage to my inner ear was like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat at full speed. (That is what the tiny stapes prosthesis did to my inner ear under the influence of the powerful magnets in the MRI machine.)

I have come a long way in healing but I still have issues. I am still learning everyday about things I cannot do. My first time going to a movie after the MRI was a disaster. I had to keep my head down during most of the movie. I was sick to my stomach, and my head felt like it was spinning. But I did not know this was from the damage caused because of the MRI and having a wire in my head.

I also lost more hearing in my ear. But it is different now than before. I can hear sounds, but I cannot tell where they are coming from. You can be right behind me talking but I do not know where you are. I call out to the person (usually my family) asking where are you. (To them, this is funny but it certainly gets to me at times.)

Also, if two people are talking, I cannot tell what they are saying. I can hear their voices, but the sounds are jumbled together.

If I am talking on the phone and another noise presents itself (like someone asking something of me) I lose the conversation on the phone and I don't know what the other noise is, or what the person has said. Trying to cope in public—talking to people—is difficult. Ordering a coffee, lunch, etc. with noise around me is very hard. To see the look on the other person's face, like I am retarded, is hard on me. I usually get my husband, or my girls, to order for me instead. It
makes me want to stay home because it is the only place I am comfortable. Needless, to say, I have not returned to work.

You talk about the emotional side of hearing loss, and until you go through this yourself, it is hard for other people to understand. My family is still trying very hard to understand what I can no longer do.

I can no longer multi-task. I cannot do two things at once. After 5 years, I still see this in my everyday life. For example, I cannot walk down the stairs with something in each hand. I have to put my body against the wall to steady myself and even then it is difficult, and my legs are very shaky. I cannot ride a bike anymore. It was such a shock to me when I first tried. My hands were shaking the handle bars back and forth with such force, that I could not stop. (I keep trying every year, but it is the same every time, and has not improved.) I will never get on a circus ride again in my life.

Walking is interesting. I feel every dip or hump in the road or sidewalk that no one else feels. My body thinks I just stepped down into a two foot hole, or I will not notice when the pavement has gone up and I stumble. I constantly "bump" up against my husband when we are walking together.

When I am in a store shopping, I cannot look at something one way and then turn my head to the other side because I get dizzy and it feels like I am being quickly shoved. This feeling goes away quickly, but if I continue to turn my head side to side, I get "shoved" again. Think how many times you turn your head side to side in a day.

When I stand in the shower, I plant my feet firmly against the sides of the tub, so my hands are free to wash my hair. I can keep my eyes closed a little while now—long enough to rinse the soap out.

And yes, when the lights are out or dimmed, I hold onto furniture, walls, etc. to get around.

You talked about memory and being distracted. I have been telling my husband I don't "feel smart" like I used to. I have trouble finding words to have a conversation. I have to look at the person talking with such an intense stare, and try as hard as I can to hear and understand and remember what they are saying. It is so hard to understand why I am like this and explain to my doctor, or husband, or family that I feel dumb. I knew there was something wrong, but did not realize it was related to the damage done to my inner ear.

Needless to say I have slowed down in life, which is why I only feel comfortable at home.

Sometimes when I feel "down", I think my family is better off without me and my problems. I know this is not true, but I can't help feel like that at times. I have given them a copy of your article and asked them to read it. I think what makes all of this so difficult, is the fact that if you look at me, I look perfectly "normal" but I'm not."

"Stephanie's" tragic story reveals the enormous life-changing differences that can result from destroying the inner-ear hearing and balance mechanisms in just one ear (and its even worse if it happens in both ears).

Therefore, if you've had a stapedectomy where a metal prosthesis was put in your middle ear, do not ever allow an MRI to be done on your body. Some of the prostheses used in stapedectomies are now made of plastic. If that is your situation, having an MRI shouldn't be a problem, but check with your ear doctor to be sure.|

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2. Beware of (Ototoxic) Drugs That Can Damage Your Ears
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Will Taking Sodium Thiosulfate Prevent Ototoxicity?

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
 

A man wrote: "I was wondering if you had an opinion on a drug called STS (Sodium thiosulfate). It's being developed to protect chemotherapy patients taking platinum-based anti-cancer drugs from hearing loss. Is this (STS) something that could be more broadly applied to the numerous drugs that could cause ototoxicity?"

The research looks promising so far. It's certainly possible that STS will help protect against hearing loss from some ototoxic drugs. Because different ototoxic drugs have different mechanisms of damage, the trick is to find an "antidote" that interacts specifically with each ototoxic drug.

I think more likely, that there will be different drugs found to protect hearing against specific classes of ototoxic drugs. For example, Sodium thiosulfate may work best for the platinum-based drugs such as Cisplatin, Carboplatin and Oxaliplatin.

For the aminoglycoside antibiotics, maybe iron chelators such as Deferoxamine will prove to be the ticket. Unlike how Cisplatin affects our ears, preliminary research indicates that aminoglycosides such as Gentamicin only are ototoxic when they react with iron found in the bloodstream. Thus, in this case, iron chelators that "soak up" excess iron in the bloodstream may prove to be the route to go. Another possibility is Aspirin taken with Gentamicin to do the same job.

In general, it seems that many ototoxic drugs produce free radicals that damage the hair cells and cause them to die. Thus, using free-radical scavengers to zap the free radicals before they can damage our hair cells is probably a good way to go as well. A couple of good, natural free-radical scavengers are N-acetyl-cysteine and glutathione.

What I took the long way around saying is that doctors need to research the exact mechanism that causes a drug to be ototoxic and then find the specific antidote. I think they will continue to come up with a number of specific antidotes as I've shown above, and also a number of general ones.

Unfortunately, few drugs are specifically studied to determine their ototoxic mechanisms. The notable exceptions are the platinum drugs and the aminoglycoside antibiotics. The rest get the short end of the stick, so it may be a long time before anyone finds a specific antidote for them. However, in general, the free-radical scavengers look like the most promising line of protection against ototoxicity available at this time.

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.

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Drugs and Tinnitus: Put Yourself in the Driver's Seat

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
 

"When “Jonathan” took a course of Erythromycin prescribed by his doctor, the last thing on his mind was that this drug would cause him to lose hearing in one ear, give him hyperacusis and balance problems, and result in “horrific bilateral tinnitus.”

No one warned “Eunice” that taking the anti-depressant drug Amitriptyline would result in “screaming tinnitus”, a condition much worse than her original depression.

Without warning, drugs that were prescribed for Jonathan and Eunice to treat other health issues resulted in loud, intrusive tinnitus, making their lives almost unbearable. (These stories are true, although I’ve changed their names.)

Ototoxic (OH-toe-TOKS-ik) drugs are those medications that can cause ototoxic (ear damaging) side effects to your ears. Such drugs can cause hearing loss, hyperacusis (normal sounds now too loud), tinnitus and other phantom sounds, and a whole host of balance problems. This does not happen to everyone who takes drugs by any means, but it does happen to a significant number of unfortunate people.

Note this well. Even though a drug’s description lists tinnitus as a side effect, it does not mean that you will develop tinnitus if you take it. Some people do. Many don’t. The problem is that you don’t know into which class you will fall. Therefore, you should learn about the side effects of any drug before you begin taking it. Be particularly cautious until you know that any given drug won’t adversely affect your ears...."

This is the beginning of my article on drugs and tinnitus that the American Tinnitus Association published in their April 2009 edition of Tinnitus Today. Read the the rest of this article here.

 

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3. Answers to Your Questions
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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.

Can Excessive Exercise Cause Hearing Loss?

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
 

A man explained: "I came across your blog post regarding LVAS and hearing loss, and was looking for assistance or more information.

I am a 48 year old with profound sensorineural hearing loss in both ears. I've worn aids for 10 years and had many medical and hearing specialist exams but no explanation of the cause. It keeps getting worse, but mysteriously seems to vary, becoming milder, or more severe, on a weekly basis. I've never been able to correlate it to any food or activity.

Recently, I took a vacation during which I paused my regular and typically strenuous aerobic and anaerobic exercise activities. That week, my hearing was much better. Upon return to my normal exhausting exercise, I'm having one of the worst hearing weeks ever. This clued me to the possible correlation between hearing loss and exercise. Your article is the only one I find tying the two together. Is there any treatment or test to verify if this is the cause?

The suggestion I fear is 'give up exercise'. I play competitive tennis, and train extensively for it. It is a lifelong passion. Making that sacrifice would be a drastic step, but at least I'd like to understand if that could be an answer to a hearing problem that is now affecting my ability to earn a living and support my family."

This is not a well-known subject, so you may have to do your own experimenting. When you stopped exercising for a week and your hearing returned to whatever degree sounds like a positive correlation to me. In order to prove or disprove this theory, do the same thing again. Stop exercising for a week and see if the same thing happens. If so, you know that for you, at least, strenuous exercise negatively affects your hearing.

In order to find out why this is happening, I'd suggest you have an MRI or CT scan specifically looking to see whether you have Large [or Enlarged] Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome (LVAS). Be sure to have them measure the vestibular aqueducts and give you the results in mm. Some doctors just eyeball them and say—yup, you got LVAS. That is not the way to do it.

As you read in the above-cited article, some people with LVAS lose hearing due to strenuous exercise. You may be one of these. If that is the case, don't think you have to give up all exercise. What I'd suggest is give up strenuous exercise—where you really exert yourself—cut it down to moderate exercise for a week and see what happens to your ears. What you want to do is cut down the exertion in the exercise to below where it causes hearing loss. Once you find that point, then stay below it if you want to preserve your hearing.

Straining to run faster, lift more, etc. increases your internal body pressure, and this is what causes the problem if you have LVAS. Thus, exercise that doesn't substantially increase your internal pressure should be OK.

Once you have tried the above and see what the results are, then you can decide whether you want to protect your ears (and to what level), or continue with competitive tennis (and at what level). Perhaps there is a happy medium that will meet both needs.

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4. Tinnitus
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Neuromonics: Is It For Real?

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
 

A man asked: "What can you tell me about Neuromonics. Is it for real? Does it really work?"

"Neuromonics Tinnitus Treatment is a relatively new treatment for tinnitus. Developed by audiologist, Paul Davis, Ph.D. of Australia to reduce the disturbing effects of tinnitus, Neuromonics opened for business in Australia in 2001. It came to the USA in late 2005. More and more tinnitus treatment centers are adding it to their arsenal of tinnitus treatments.

You see, no one tinnitus treatment protocol works for everyone. Some tinnitus treatment protocols work for some people and not for others depending on the kind and cause of their tinnitus. Neuromonics is the same—it works for some people but not for all...."

This is the beginning of my article on Neuromonics. It explains what Neuromonics is, what you need to know about it, how well it works and whether it might work for you. Read the rest of this article here.

 

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5. Effective Coping Strategies
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How Do I Best Cope with My Spouse Who Won't Do Anything About His Hearing Loss?

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
 

A frustrated wife asked: "Can you please offer suggestions on how to live peacefully with a hearing impaired spouse who refuses hearing aids and other assistance?

My husband recognizes he has a "mild to moderate" hearing loss however, he does not admit to its severity, or how it affects his day to day life. He did obtain hearing aids on a one month trial and "didn't like them". He only wore them for a few hours on two or three days and refused to attend any of the classes offered by the hearing aid dispenser on how to use and adjust to them.

I have become his "hearing aid" both in and out of our home. At home, even though our television has closed captions, he continually interrupts my TV viewing, or attempts at reading to ask, "What did they say". He does have remote earphones for TV viewing, but prefers not to wear them.

For me to talk with him, I must stand in front of him to get his attention and then speak slowly and loudly. My friends and coworkers complain that my speech has become very loud.

When we are out of the house, i.e. his recent medical appointment, he only heard those looking directly at him. The remainder of the time, I repeated the questions for him. We have not attended a movie in years, and rarely dine out or attend social events due to his problem.

I do not think he is going to change his behavior patterns. What can I do to make our mutual lives less stressful?"

You are in a tough position. You can continue to put yourself out and be his "hearing aid" so he doesn't get too upset about his hearing loss. He will then be reasonably happy. This will bring short-term peace. However, you will have to give up your own interests to be his "ears". This will cause you to become resentful and angry at him, and that will not be good for your marriage. In other words, you can have peace in the short term, but this will ultimately erupt in war.

The better way to handle this situation is to exhibit "tough love" (which will likely result in some warfare now), but ultimately, it will bring long-term peace and harmony as needed changes take place.

Let me explain what I mean. Currently, your husband is still largely in denial. You cannot effectively help people when they are in denial because they don't believe there is a problem in the first place, so why should they address it?

Your strategy is to keep the peace by being an enabler (being his hearing aid as you said). This strategy just helps him keep on denying that his hearing loss is a real problem.

The only way he is going to get out of denial and accept that his hearing loss is a real problem is if you don't be his "ears" anymore. You need to let him make his own hearing mistakes. This will eventually bring home to him that he really does have a hearing problem, and that it is up to him to solve it.

Your husband gave his hearing aids a very cursory trial (a few hours over 2 or 3 days is not a fair trial) and announced they didn't work for him. This is part of the normal reaction that those in denial make. If they don't really have a hearing problem, then of course they don't need hearing aids. (I'll bet he only tried them at your insistence—not of his own free will.)

You see, now is not the right time for your husband to be trying out hearing aids even though he really does need them now. A person is ready to try out hearing aids only after he reaches the acceptance stage in the process of grieving for his hearing loss, not when he is still in denial. Your husband is just not psychologically ready at this point to wear hearing aids.

In any case, when your husband eventually realizes he needs hearing aids, he also needs to realize that it will take his brain up to 90 days to adjust to wearing hearing aids. It does not happen overnight.

Furthermore, I'll bet your husband went about it all wrong in learning to wear his hearing aids. He likely wore them in loud places right at the start, announced he couldn't hear a thing and yanked them out. The proper way to learn to wear hearing aids is slowly. You start out with an hour or so the first day and add half an hour a day to that on each successive day. At the same time, to begin with, you only wear them in quiet situations, then in slightly noisier places and finally in noisy situations after you are reasonably adjusted to wearing them.

Now, what can you do to help your husband? First, you have to stop being his "ears". You need to let him "hear" on his own most of the time. There are situations when it is ok to jump in—for example, in emergencies—but when you do it all the time he will never change because he doesn't have to face up to the problems his hearing loss is causing.

When he interrupts you to ask, "What did they say?" when he is watching the TV, all you have to say is "read the captions" and go back to whatever you were doing. He can read the captions as well as you can.

When you want to talk to him, you need to practice good hearing loss coping strategies. You say, "For me to talk with him, I must stand in front of him to get his attention, and then speak slowly and loudly."

Believe it or not, this is proper procedure when talking to hard of hearing people. First you need to get close to him because the volume of sound drops off rapidly with increasing distance. Second, you need to get his attention. Wait until he is looking at you before you say a word. Just doing these two things will save you a lot of repeats ,and reduce frustration in both of you.

When you are with him at the doctor's office, if he misses something, instead of repeating it for him, say to the medical staff, "Look directly at him when you are talking to him so he can hear you". Do this as often as you have to, and eventually they will learn.

I sense that you are missing dining out and attending various social functions since your husband can't hear in such situations. There are a number of good coping strategies to use in such places—but your husband has to be willing to do them—and he won't do them while he is still in the denial stage. You'll have to wait until he reaches the acceptance stage.

When he is ready, dining, even in noisier restaurants, can work very well if he uses the right assistive devices. For example, I use a PockeTalker personal amplifier and lapel microphone. I just clip the microphone on my wife and put ear buds in my ears (or use my hearing aids and a neckloop instead of the ear buds) and hear her wonderfully well. He could do the same, and you could chat again without a lot of hassle.

For social situations he could also do what I have found effective for myself. In such situations I use a super-directional handheld microphone plugged into my PockeTalker, and again use either my ear buds or hearing aids and neckloop. This way, I hear very well one-to-one as I walk around and chat.

Your husband will not change his behavior patterns until you quit acting as his ears. Thus, the first thing you have to do is quit your "ear" job. Tell him that he is going to have to hear for himself from now on. It shouldn't take him too long to realize that he needs help. I know it is hard to refuse to be his "ears", but that is what you have to do—"tough love," remember.

Doing this is not going to make your mutual lives less stressful in the short term. You have to let it get worse so he moves out of the denial stage and accepts his hearing loss. He has to accept that it is his loss and thus he has to be a big part of the solution. There is going to be a bit of "rough sledding" before he accepts responsibility for his own hearing. Statistics show that the typical person takes an average of 7 years from the time he acquires a hearing loss until he is willing to do something about it.

Typically, people work though the 5 stages of grief as they learn to deal with their hearing loss. Denial is the first stage. After the denial stage comes the anger stage. Be prepared for this anger when you do not help him. You are the closest person to him, so unfortunately, you will bear the brunt of his anger. Don't take it too personally.

This is not to say that you don't love and support him. You can largely do this, not by nagging, but by suggesting a good way to cope in any given situation—for example, more closer so you can hear better, turn on the light so you can see what they are saying, mute the TV (or other background noise) when you want to talk so you'll be able to hear better, etc.

Once he gets through the denial and anger stages, (I'm skipping the bargaining stage here) then comes the depression stage. This is where he will essentially give up acting like a hearing person. This sets the stage for his becoming the best hard of hearing person he can be. As he progresses through the depression stage, get ready for good things to happen as he starts to accept his hearing loss.

It is in the acceptance stage that he will become willing to do what he needs to do in order to hear as well as possible. Now, at last, he will be willing to try hearing aids, or use a an assistive device such as the PockeTalker, or read the closed captions on the TV. This all takes time. You can't rush it. Each person progresses through the grieving process in his own time. (It often depends on how "stubborn" he is. Some of us men can be pretty stubborn, you know.)

The good news is that when he progresses to the acceptance stage, you will find it reasonably smooth sailing again, but to reach this point, you will have times of "heavy seas". Encourage yourself that this too will pass. You just need to persevere. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it!

You (and he) would do well to read my book, "Grieving for Your Hearing Loss—the Rocky Road from Denial to Acceptance". This short book has helped many work though their grief due to their hearing losses.

Also, my latest book, "Keys to Successfully Living with Your Hearing Loss" covers the essential keys needed to successfully adjust to living as a hard of hearing person.

When he is ready, your husband may be interested in using a PockeTalker with a lapel microphone and/or a super-directional microphone. They really do work for me. They should also work well for him also.

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6. Information on Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants and/or
     Assistive Devices
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T-coils Have Been Around Since WHEN?

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
 

A lot of people think that t-coils and loop systems are a relatively new invention. I'll bet you'll never guess just how long t-coils have been available in hearing aids.

If you're like most people, you probably guessed some time in the 1970s or 1980s. If you guessed that, you'd be way off base. In actual fact, the first hearing aid to have a t-coil was a vacuum tube table model that Tel-Audio came out with back in 1936!

Two years later, in 1938, Multitone of Great Britain produced their model VPM (vest-pocket model)—the first wearable hearing aid with a t-coil. Here in the USA, it took until 1946 before RadioEar produced their Multipower "Phonemaster", the first American hearing aid with a t-coil. Since the 1950s, t-coils have been standard features on a number of hearing aids.

As some of you may know, I am the owner of the largest on-line hearing aid museum in the world.

Recently the museum acquired a Sonotone Model 200 transistorized body-style hearing aid made in 1956 with a built-in t-coil. That is nothing unique. But what was unique is that it came with a small loop pad that you could hook up to your TV and so listen to your TV via this loop pad. (I'm not aware of any other of these loop pads still in existence!)

You hooked the loop pad to your TV by simply clipping two alligator clips to the TV's speaker wires. Then you set the loop pad down beside you and placed the body of your hearing aid on the loop pad and turned the mic/t-coil switch to the t-coil position.

If you'd like to see this Sonotone 200 hearing aid set on the loop pad, it is shown on the 11th picture down. Cool isn't it? (For more information on this loop pad, click on the "Sonotone Miniature Loop Pad" link beside this picture.)

Compare this antique loop pad to a modern loop pad that is in use today. (Scroll down to the 4th picture.)

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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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