I wasn’t sure I even wanted to write any more about the hearing issue, but then something happened today which I’ll share at the very end of this for a bit of a laugh … and that made the rest of it okay for my head and heart. But I’ll start at the very beginning (a very good place to start):

Wednesday I went to see the audiologist. She had implied she might be able to get my hearing aid to work somehow. After she updated it (I wonder if I could have done that on the app. Hm. I suppose I should have asked!), I put it back in and she asked how things were. Well, they were awful. Just lots of horrible distortion. Plus I still couldn’t hear the little “welcome notes” it always plays when I insert it. So she lessened something on the computer (she adjusts things there as she looks at the screen and sees some sort of diagrams and don’t even ASK me about that because I’ve no clue, aside from seeing that she could remove things from the low frequencies and that sort of thing). Since I HAVE no low frequency hearing she nixed that all together. Still distortion. She pulled everything back. Eventually I said I could go ahead and try it for a while to see if I could deal (and if my brain would finally not hear the distortion). Fat chance, I knew, but at that point it was that or nothing.

I went home. I put my phone up to the left ear while playing music. Distortion. That was about it. I honestly couldn’t hear anything of value otherwise. I played music on the computer with the hearing aid in. Still distortion, but not as horrendous. I took the hearing aid out. NO difference in the volume and no distortion. So never mind. Obviously it wasn’t doing a thing! Perhaps the hearing aid is dead to me, I thought. As dead as my ear, I suppose.

Friday was a meeting at the ENT department. I was assigned to ENT-otolaryngologist Dr. Seth Pross. I immediately thought he was fabulous. I brought along my hearing aid in case he wanted to see it or have me try it, but it was clear he didn’t think it was even a possibility for me. He actually thought I was there to start moving on getting a cochlear implant and I explained my misgivings. He clarified some things, but understood why, as a musician, it might be challenging. He gave me some links to read and I could even contact someone from UCSF where they are doing a study of musicians with cochlear implants (but I suppose I shouldn’t bother unless I get the implant). Meanwhile I told him, “I now have this horrible high pitched F# in my right ear.” I had noticed it the day before when I walked into our bedroom and while it sometimes disappeared it was quite bothersome. I told him I was hearing it right then, in fact. With that he quickly sent me to a hearing test because he wanted to be sure I wasn’t losing my hearing in THAT ear as well. But I did the hearing test and he said all was well with that ear. I again told him the high pitch was still there, but sometimes it made another funny sound. I also told him that if I turned my head one way I didn’t hear it. He suggested tinnitus can behave oddly sometimes. So we talked for a while, I was told to schedule an MRI (to rule out a tumor, which was quite unlikely so no, I’m not worried), and I went on my way.

When I got home the high pitch was just awful. BUT I later realized it was only in our bedroom and the attached computer room where I am now typing this. Crazy making! So it was in our bedroom and it was in the Doctor’s office. But not in the rest of our house? Ridiculous.

To add fun to my day I then had to go for a bone density test. I am really living the high life, I tell you!

Then it was lessons to teach, dinner to eat, Rick Steves to watch. And back to my computer room I went. Doggone high pitch noise was there and getting louder! I had already turned off my computer and printer to see if one of those was making the noise (but why, then, was it at the doctor’s office as well?!). Dan suggested I’d need to unplug everything and then plug things in one by one to see if something was the culprit. I said I’d try that tomorrow maybe, but then I realized the sound seemed to be coming from a certain area in the computer room.

Well waddya know?! It was my darn hearing aid! The thing was in its case but sort of loose in there I guess, and was apparently given some sort of feedback or something. Heh. No wonder I heard it at the Doctor’s office as well! It was in my purse on my lap while I was talking to him. (But hey, the Doctor didn’t hear it, nor did an intern? I think they need their hearing checked. Hah!)

So that’s the funny part that is causing me to write all this. And the good news? Obviously my right ear is working quite well with high frequencies. it was an F#7 I believe. And it was loud, loud, loud!

Meanwhile … I will continue to read about a cochlear implant, but the Doctor suggested I wouldn’t want to use it in the orchestra until I adjusted to it which could take six months to a year. So would it be work it? I would then hear people talking to my left. I would have directional hearing again. There are definitely plusses. Restaurants and parties would work for me (right now they really don’t). I’d also have this thing attached to my head that looks bionic. I’d have a huge thing behind my ear. And they’d be drilling into my skull. I don’t think of those as a plus. But I’m not saying yes or no quite yet. I will think. Ponder. And do more research.

PS If anyone who read this already has done the cochlear implant thing I’d love to hear about it. I’m especially interested in hearing from someone who plays an instrument like oboe, clarinet, or bassoon — one that includes a reed in the oral cavity. I worry that that might cause issues.