By Michelle Pitts
I have been struggling with my hearing for quite some time, but finally made the decision to do something about it now, at age 40.
Even though I work with individuals with disabilities, starting the process of treating my hearing loss feels like I’ve been thrown into a new world about which I know so little.
After my hearing test and official diagnosis, I was shown a few hearing aid models to choose a pair. Simple, right?
So I thought.
Over the course of a few minutes, my audiologist tried to explain the different technological features, colors, and brands available. I knew that agreeing to one of her suggestions would also be an agreement to thousands of dollars of my family’s healthcare savings. I felt guilty and sick to my stomach about spending this money if, God forbid, a bigger health emergency came up.
Making such a big purchase felt like rolling the dice. I still knew almost nothing about the hearing aid options and I felt like I wasn’t given enough clarity on the matter. With every hearing aid brand making similar claims about their technology, it’s difficult to be sure you’re making the right choice for your hearing loss.
Testing pairs of hearing aids wasn’t easy for me, either. “How’s that sound?” my audiologist would ask after putting them in my ears. And I’d just think, I have no idea! Only a few seconds have passed, and this is a quiet room with only one other person in it. Then I’d leave the office and everything sounded harsh, giving me a headache and then at home having a difficult time understanding my kids.
I reflect: So maybe this will be harder than I expected, with trial and error adjustments. And maybe I need to do some of my own research to find the best technology for my ears.
Michelle Pitts and her family.
I dug into the technology offerings from each brand using their data sheets, often only to find that the features I desired were not available for my preferred style of hearing aid. And back to square one I’d go.
Eventually I discovered an exceptionally helpful internet forum. It contains users’ personal experiences with various aids, technology information, links to data sheets, and definitions of technical terms.
One of the terms I came across on the forum was a “cookie bite.” Someone wrote in a comment to another user, “Since you have a cookie bite, it’s more difficult to fit you with hearing aids. You need to find a very well-trained audiologist to handle your type of hearing loss.”
What’s a cookie bite? I wondered. Down the internet rabbit hole I went—and found that a cookie bite is a midrange frequency hearing loss, and the audiogram is shaped like a bite taken out of a cookie. Wait a minute! I grabbed my audiogram, and lo and behold, I have a midrange frequency loss. So what does this mean?
Midrange frequency loss is a type of sensorineural hearing loss that is genetic. It is present from birth, but usually isn’t severe enough to be noticed until someone is in their 20s or 30s. The midrange is where sounds like speech and music occur. Usually hearing loss is more prominent in the high frequencies or the low frequencies, like what my parents and my brother have.
Learning more about my hearing loss has prompted significant recent revelations about my life, too. Now I know why I have such a hard time understanding speech sometimes. I see why I miss a lot of lyrics in music and dialogue in movies.
I can even remember being at a wedding reception in my 20s when someone asked me, “Isn’t this your favorite song?” All I could hear was the thump of the bass. I was pretty amazed that they could hear the song, and they were pretty amazed that I couldn’t. I think that was one of the first times I started to question if I had a problem.
I usually have to turn the radio down in my husband’s car or tell my kids to lower the TV volume because I can’t handle the noise. Noise drives me crazy, and sometimes I think I’m turning into my mother. But now I know that it’s actually loud high frequency and occasionally low frequency sounds that drive me crazy, because that is what corresponds to my hearing loss. And I can pretty much forget about being able to understand someone if there are multiple, competing sound sources.
While I’ve wanted to throw in the towel several times on the whole hearing aid business, I have been pushing my audiologist to help me find a pair that will work for me, in part by using real ear measurements, a way to directly measure the sound that hearing aids produce in the ear canal.
Now I can understand when some people who have hearing loss won’t wear their hearing aids. Chances are their hearing aids don’t fit right, they are uncomfortable, and/or they are programmed wrong for their unique hearing loss and they can’t hear right.
If this is you, you should know that things can be much better after your audiologist works with you to adjust your hearing aid programming. Most importantly, I’m learning to advocate for myself while also better understanding what my clients experience, so that we can overcome our challenges together. My clients often come in and don't know what services are available for them or what technologies are available that can help them. These things can change their lives, but sometimes service providers don’t take the time to educate their clients or don’t keep up to date themselves. I try to make sure I pass along any of this information because I experience the difficulties of navigating a disability.
Michelle Pitts is an instructor for vocational rehabilitation with the state of Tennessee. After primarily working with people with vision loss, Pitts’ role has expanded to include people with all types of disabilities who are seeking to enter or re-enter the workforce through vocational rehabilitation.
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