Thursday, December 4, 2008

Let Me Bend Your Ear About Mine

Final update...on Thanksgiving eve day I went to the ENT for my most recent appointment. I had another hearing test consisting of word recognition and pure tones. I thought I might have some additional improvement over the last test. This time I had 100% word recognition at 15 decibels. We had been testing at 65 dB. In the pure tones test I was in normal range in all but the last three tones. On the third highest frequency I was right on the line. On the 2nd highest, I gained back 15 dB that I had lost and in the highest frequency, I have finally gained back 5 dB. Small victories. Even if I never improved from this moment, my high frequency loss would be manageable. I can use a phone and listen to music. The loss is still in the moderate to severe range for those frequencies but I have gained back the ranges that are spoken word and that is most important. Rush Limbaugh had to have an implant to correct his loss. My ENT decided not to do the second treatment of steroids into my ear. Too bad, that made my knee feel great! I did tons of research and discovered that patients with my condition have an associated increase risk of stroke (150% increase). I have some things to work on. I don't go back to the ENT and audiologist for a year. I hope you all had plenty to be thankful for last week. You know I did.