Testing Your Hearing

Testing your hearing is more important than you think. If you had asked several years ago, if I should be concerned about my hearing, I would have replied not yet, I’m too young. I was so wrong. Take my advice and protect your hearing now, before you lose it.

This is what I suggest you do this month, or at least start the process. You never know when you have waited too long, to save your hearing.

Suggestions

1. Turn down the volume. Loud noises or music over a period of time can cause hearing loss. Be sure to turn down the stereo in your home or car. If needed, wear protective earplugs at work, if you are in a loud workplace, even if you don’t like to wear them.
2. Testing your hearing – Free Test. If you are a member of AARP, they offer you a free hearing test each year with the National Hearing Test. The cost is $8 if you are not an AARP member. I highly recommend becoming an AARP member. They have a wealth of information on their website and in their magazines. Whether you are a member of AARP or not, please get an annual hearing test. My test this year confirmed that something was wrong. For information about the test see this website https://www.nationalhearingtest.org/wordpress/?page_id=2730
3. Establish a base hearing test. If your phone test recommends you need further testing, call your primary care doctor to set up an appointment with an audiologist. This test will determine if you have a hearing loss. Even if your phone hearing test doesn’t show any problems, I would attempt to get an appointment, if your insurance allows. To do it over, I wish I had started having an annual audiologist appointment at age 50 or sooner. It would have saved my hearing. My base test was perfect, but that was over ten years ago, so it wasn’t very helpful for comparison since there was not a pattern of gradual loss.
4. Find out why you have lost hearing. My audiologist said I was a candidate for a hearing aid in my left ear, due to hearing loss. His professional opinion was that before I get a hearing aid, we needed to check further to see if there was something causing my loss of hearing. Be sure that you do find out the reason you have hearing loss. Do not rationalize that it’s a small loss and you can live with it.

Learn from my story

I was on vacation when I first realized there was something wrong with my left ear. It took a few months for me to realize that my hearing was slightly impaired in that ear. I then took the phone hearing test through AARP. It was recommended that I get my hearing tested in my left ear. Once I had it tested and found out it was bad enough for a hearing aid, I accepted that that was what I had to do. Instead, my audiologist wanted to find out why.

Two MRIs later (one regular and one with contrast,) I was told I had a non-cancerous brain tumor. It was medium-sized and I had it removed in November 2019. (The picture is of my scar three days after my surgery.) There were no guarantees with the removal of my brain tumor. If things went great, I could get by with a hearing aid. Or I could completely lose hearing in that ear. After several months, it became clear that I had lost all my hearing in my left ear. An upcoming surgery should help me adjust to this loss.

Be sure to get your hearing checked before you lose it. You may be in a situation to prevent any hearing loss or stop it. The odds are good that you do not have a brain tumor. Take a proactive role in your ear health, one day you may be thankful you did.

Help Others

If you already have a hearing aid, be sure that when you upgrade, you donate your old one to an organization like the Lions Clubs International. They will take used hearing aids and refurbish them. The refurbished hearing aids are sold to people that have limited finances, at a low price.

Please let me know if you have had your hearing tested in the reply section below. If you haven’t it might be a good time to get a baseline test.