I signed up for a Mindfulness course regarding chronic pain. We were 16 people and 3 leaders in a huge room. Sound bounced around and I had a terrible time hearing anything. So I was going past a store the other day and saw a sign for hearing tests. Why not. I know I have to keep asking people to repeat themselves.
So they gave me a quick test. Stuck some huge earphones on me and told me there would be a series of tomes - 4 tones in each ear but he said few people heard the bottom ones so not to worry about hem.
Out of the 8 tones I hear 1 ONE. Talk about shock. So I made an appointment for the full test.
I went on Wednesday.
It's worse than I thought. I have hearing loss in my right ear from mild to moderate and in my left ear from moderate to moderately severe.
I know what deafness is. I was a sign language interpreter for years as a JW. Many in the deaf group were my best friends. Most of the people in the deaf group were profoundly deaf. I'm not there.
When I called my older daughter last week I told her my hearing was worse than I thought. She said she wasn't surprised.
The guy who did the test on Wednesday said he could see scarring on my ear drums meaning I may have had a lot of ear infections. I don't recall any but told him I sure got boxed on the head a lot as a kid.
So I am being referred to an ENT (Ear/Nose/Throat) specialist to see if there is a physical problem. If so, maybe surgery. If not, then hearing aids.
I will cope with this. It was just a shock at first. Not sure how long it will take to see an ENT specialist.
IN the meantime I have quit the course. It was just too frustrating to miss half of what was being said. It made getting anything worthwhile out of it impossible.
So that's my sad tale for the week