purplishspacerock
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- May 13, 2015
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Hi all. I've been to 2 audiologists, one a horrible experience (where they called me a malingerer, produced incorrect SRT, and the doctor may have deliberately hurt me?). I just got back from a much better experience, but I'm still frustrated and puzzled.
I tested with borderline normal hearing and I have really bad tinnitus. It's constant, a horrible high-pitched wail and sometimes a weird noise kinda like running water or wind. The shrill noise never lets up. It's playing 24/7. It's horribly loud and I wonder if that is what makes it hard for me to hear voices. I'm often asking people to repeat themselves, and I also tend not to hear smoke alarms (which is recent), but the most noticeable thing is that ALL of my media (headphones, TV, laptop, etc.) is consistently called "really loud" by friends and roommates. It doesn't seem loud to me, though.
The audiologist I saw today didn't take much history, but we did a basic hearing test that lasted less than 10 minutes. She said my hearing was borderline normal. I wanted to talk about the tinnitus (I JUST learned that not only is constant ringing in the ears not normal for a 24 year old who likes their quiet, but that there are treatments for it!). She told me that there is basically nothing anyone could do for me but she did suggest that I buy a white noise machine and play that at night. She did mention that there are devices that mask tinnitus.
So, okay, white noise at night. I already play white or ambient noise at night, every night. Although she did mention tinnitus maskers, she said I wouldn't be eligible for anything because I don't have hearing loss and that I wouldn't get any benefit from hearing aids. She seemed kind of like she didn't want to do anything? It makes me think that so far audiologists don't like me because I can't hear a lot of the pure tones but have pretty good SRT (though keep in mind every word they played was not in other noise). The first doctor literally spent less than 5 seconds looking at my audiogram, no exaggeration.
I dunno, I kind of feel like I'm just being brushed off and told to suck it up and deal with this for the rest of my life.
TL;DR version: I have an okay PCP, so my question is this- Can my PCP prescribe me a tinnitus masker or hearing aid with my audiograms and I can have it adjusted at an audiologist? Or can only audiologists prescribe them?
I tested with borderline normal hearing and I have really bad tinnitus. It's constant, a horrible high-pitched wail and sometimes a weird noise kinda like running water or wind. The shrill noise never lets up. It's playing 24/7. It's horribly loud and I wonder if that is what makes it hard for me to hear voices. I'm often asking people to repeat themselves, and I also tend not to hear smoke alarms (which is recent), but the most noticeable thing is that ALL of my media (headphones, TV, laptop, etc.) is consistently called "really loud" by friends and roommates. It doesn't seem loud to me, though.
The audiologist I saw today didn't take much history, but we did a basic hearing test that lasted less than 10 minutes. She said my hearing was borderline normal. I wanted to talk about the tinnitus (I JUST learned that not only is constant ringing in the ears not normal for a 24 year old who likes their quiet, but that there are treatments for it!). She told me that there is basically nothing anyone could do for me but she did suggest that I buy a white noise machine and play that at night. She did mention that there are devices that mask tinnitus.
So, okay, white noise at night. I already play white or ambient noise at night, every night. Although she did mention tinnitus maskers, she said I wouldn't be eligible for anything because I don't have hearing loss and that I wouldn't get any benefit from hearing aids. She seemed kind of like she didn't want to do anything? It makes me think that so far audiologists don't like me because I can't hear a lot of the pure tones but have pretty good SRT (though keep in mind every word they played was not in other noise). The first doctor literally spent less than 5 seconds looking at my audiogram, no exaggeration.
I dunno, I kind of feel like I'm just being brushed off and told to suck it up and deal with this for the rest of my life.
TL;DR version: I have an okay PCP, so my question is this- Can my PCP prescribe me a tinnitus masker or hearing aid with my audiograms and I can have it adjusted at an audiologist? Or can only audiologists prescribe them?
