New here, deaf in left ear

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jackie010307

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Hi everyone! I am so glad to have found this site! I have had hearing problems in my left ear since 2009. I have not been officially diagnosed with anything but lots of things have been ruled out. From my research my best guess is sudden sensorial hearing loss (probably spelled that wrong!). I woke up one morning in February 2009 feeling like my left ear was full of water. Everything was muffled, and while I could still hear sounds I could not distinguish words. A trip to an ent proved useless and I basically learned to deal with it. Then in mid April of this year I woke up unable to hear anything in that ear. I went to my gp who sent me to another ent the following day. The day after that I had my first steroid injection and began a super dose of oral steroids. Nothing has helped. The balance testing was normal. This ent basically said sorry, done all I can do, see you again in 6 months. I asked about a hearing aid several times and was told no for several reasons. The first was that since the hearing in my right ear is nearly perfect I don't really need one, and the second reason was that because of my hearing loss it wouldn't help. I have no word discrimination in the left ear at all. The lowest frequency (250 I think) I cannot hear below 90 decibels. As the frequency increases it gets worse, and at the highest frequency I cannot hear below 120 decibels. I have taken it on myself to get in touch with an audiologist who believes that she can help me. I may end up with a cros aid but to me that would be better than nothing. A cochlear implant or a baha are not an option for me because my insurance will not cover either. They will, however, provide $2500 toward hearing aids every 3 years. Sorry it was so long, I'll quickly add that I'm married with 3 kids!
 
Hello and welcome. Enjoy reading and posting. You are lucky, many have NO insurance or like mine, pay much less every 3 years. Keeping positive will help you find creative ways to deal with it.
There used to be a late deaf forum here. It has lots of good information.
 
Thanks everyone! I haven't found a forum for people who have hearing loss later, but I have learned a lot already! It is nice to have so much information in one place and to be able to ask questions and have people with real life experience answer!
 
jackie010307 said:
Thanks everyone! I haven't found a forum for people who have hearing loss later, but I have learned a lot already! It is nice to have so much information in one place and to be able to ask questions and have people with real life experience answer!
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:) Glad you're enjoying Alldeaf!
And you may just have to start a thread for late-deafened people! :lol:
 
welcome to Alldeaf, like you I'm pretty almost a lil deaf in my left ear this year (mine is sensory) ;)
 
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