Hearing Loss & Deafness Support Group

Have you ever seen one of those crime/spy movies where the tech guys wash a tape and remove background noise or piece together fragments of speech? Well, your mind does the same thing - sometimes better than others. That's why we ask huh?, and then understand what was said.

There will be times when your mind will substitute a message for the real one, you'll find yourself asking, "What pig in whose bathroom?"

Something else that I forgot to add: When I was younger my neurologist once told me that it had to do with the signals between my brain and my ears. Since he was more concerned with fixing migraines we ignored the hearing issue for the time.

The reason (for me)why we think we need to say what, but get it, after a moment........
The nerve receptors, behind ear drum are not long enough to reach drum, which relays sounds to brain. Thus, I say what, only to say a moment later, "I got it, I hear ya" It drives hearing people up the wall. Iam 42 yrs and have experienced all kinds of "on the job ridicule", due to my loss. now I perfer not too work~want to be fostermom.

So do you have a type of hearing loss? That sounds like me so I'm trying to figure out what it could be or what I need to look into.

Morena, Have you seen an ENT yet? Have you had a work up on your hearing? There are people who suffer primarily from high frequency hearing loss - this is the range of human speech and televisions- radios- movie theaters - they often (like me) need subtitles to survive the shows. You may find that you can hear fire trucks, traffic, music without words and such just fine - but when it is time to talk - your high frequency hearing loss makes people sound as if they are mumbling - or you got half of it and your brain inserts everything else. Now they have digital hearing aids that a computer programs exactly to the range of hearing you have lost - it only amplifies the frequencies your hearing organs are no longer receiving or receiving inadequately.

They also have totally different technologies now - some people are using bone conducting hearing instruments and now they have a special cochlear implant that is called the 'mini' implant because it only replaces high frequency loss - it doesn't replace all of your hearing and people are getting results with that.

It seems someone needs to show you an audiogram and explain the frequencies you have lost.

Until I put my aids in, I can hear cars outside my window, I can hear the dump trucks beep beep as they back up - I can hear the telephone ring but when a kid walks up and talks to me - I have to strain and concentrate to get all of it - and sometimes I fake it. I just say yeah, while I fumble for my aids - they can be asking for a hundred dollars and I just said yes.

So when people are hard to understand the audiogram usually shows a significant drop in the high frequency range. One friend at church says when she is not facing the person and concentrating it all sounds like mumbling and they told her it was high frequency hearing loss - she said she is not going to get aids yet - she just compensates for it - I tried to compensate but I couldn't function with my immediate family like turning the TV up to where I could hear it - it blasted everyone else in the house.

So, I already have it hard in a way - it's weird when I wake up in the morning to hear all their voices and not understand one word until I get the aids on - it's just garbled. I get frustrated having to have these aids on all the time.

sounds to me like you need to go to the audiologist to rule out a real hearing loss. If you don't have a loss, it could be a central processing disorder, which has to do with how your brain interprets the sound it hears and turns it into meaningful speech, look into it...an audiologist diagnoses that as well.

So I went to the ent today and I left feeling more confused and lost..I told him a summary of why I was there. He puts me in the chair and he comments on the weather&i was like huh, cuz he was right next to me and I couldnt understand him. He was on my right side. He did the basic "raise your hand when u hear the tones test". I had this done abotu 8 years ago and the results were still "normal" He didn't even do the basic rinne and webber tests we(nurses) do w/tuning forks. Then he told me he didn't know why I couldn't understand what people said or always heard stuff wrong but that I shouldn't worry about it2much. He didn't ask me about nausea/dizziness even though I said that was a problem. Plus my nausea medicine is listed on there! Then he tells me not2have the ipod 2loud &to wear ear plugs2really loud events. Then he's like if it gets worse come back. At one point we were talking about how my mother had noticed that I turn my body to hear better and he then he says and you read lips. So I must have been doing it again. At the end he said its not a big deal I read lips, use cc ALL THE TIME, or constantly have problems understanding everyday conversations with and without background noise. So any advice? I don't know where to go next. I know theres something wrong but I don't know where to turn.

he didn't do the word test. I mean you're having trouble with that specific area, god you need to find another Audiologist.

Morena, I have been through 3 ENT's and 3 Audiologists and I finally have a match. Please don't give up. At one point, I went to Sears and they did a complete hearing test for no charge - then they showed me that I had a high frequency loss right where human speech was and the loss was 40% on each ear - I now wear two hearing aids BTE Style and I can hear what people say until the phone rings and then I have to remember to pull the aid out and ask them to repeat themselves - but I manage one on one now - before it sounded like they mumbled.

My friend at church has the same problem, but she said she was putting off getting the aids - she just does what you do -

My loss was so bad - I could not hear the TV without CC I was lost on every show and my family could not take the high volume - now I can get along with the volume they set - if the movie has mostly dialogue and no action, I still turn on the CC's as I miss some of what was said.

Can you go to Sears where you live? Their aids costs $2000.00 more than another audiologist place I found - but they did the hearing screening for free and it included speech recognition and they scored everything for me - the speech part was scored by percentage right.

I have a similar story to yours. Your so called "symptoms" are exactly what occurs to me on a DAILY basis. I was diagnosed with a moderate to profound hearing loss at the age of 4 and years later is believed to be the result of neurological damage from the DPT shot that babies got when they were 18 months. The pertussis "P" is known to cause hearing loss and its a 1 in 3,000,000 chance I believe nowadays. I would consider taking yourself to get a hearnig loss. With the help of hearing aids I can hear more than what I can without them. I rely on lip reading and closed captioning. And endlessly have to have things repeated.

Know this: you're not alone. far from alone. and these things can be helped. Go to an audiologist or doctor and have an hearing test.

And as far as the "mis-hearing" things go. Happens ALL the time to me. It can be rather amusing at times though so look on the bright side that it makes you laugh. Believe me, I've created my own versions of songs and what people say simply cause its what I thought I heard.