| Hearing Aids: For the next 18 years or so, my hearing did not change. In the summer of 1989, I was playing softball and was hit in the left eye with the ball. Along with the "black eye" I also experienced dizziness and temporary hearing loss. I had a CT Scan and it showed no abnormalities that would cause these effects. I would temporarily lose my hearing after extraneous activities, such as running. And then it would return. In the following year, I started to notice that my hearing was deteriorating. It finally had gotten so bad that I had to turn to hearing aids. I went for an exam and the audiologist told me that I should get one for my left ear, but that my right ear would never benefit from a hearing aid. At that time I was referred to Vocational Rehabilitation and then on to John Berry at Blount Hearing & Speech in Maryville, TN. John Berry, who also became a good friend to us, worked very hard at getting me the right hearing aid. He did such a good job in fact, that I was able to hear with an aid in my right ear as well! I wore the analog hearing aids for years until I no longer benefited from them. At that time, the new digital Senso aids had come out on the market. I was fitted with them and was able to hear again. I wore the digital aids for several more years. My hearing continued to deteriorate and my speech discrimination was horrible. I could hear sounds with the aids, but couldn't understand the words without lip reading. In the summer of '01, I stopped wearing the aid in my right ear. |