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So i know this doesn't have anything to do with pregnancy however....i have great news! i had a appt with my doctors at the hearing audiology department in kings cross hospital today. =)
i had another hearing test to check the progress of my ears. Like the doctors said in the states my hearing has drastically taken a turn for the worse and my left ear is in 45 which is very very bad, about normal is about 15 and 10 depending on the pitch of the note. so i'm legally concidered deaf in that ear since i can only hear high pitched sounds there.
my right ear has been effected like they said. i went from 10 and 15 to 20 and 15 ...very slight change but still it proves that without any kinda of constructive surgery i will go deaf within a year or so.
after he said that, i burst out crying in the office, we did some more tests. i had a MRI on my skull to show things. this was just my first appointment in the u.k and he discussed all my options. they belive its an ear deformaty, that something in my ear isnt working properly causing ther est of it to become redundent.
So anyway, he refered me to Ninewells hospital where there are two good ear specialists who will give me another appointment and discuss some more options, do some more tests and another MRI. then they will tell me the options i have. from what the guy told me they would most likely be doing STAPES SURGERY. which is when they replace the structures inside the ear thats damaged or causing the problems and then regraph the eardrum. its an evasive surgery that will be about 2 to 3 hours long and recovery time is 2 weeks about. There is a chance however rare than i could lose permanent hearing and that the right will continue to slowly fail. and there is no gaurentee that it will be a sucess or how much will be fixed.
the next thing was that at kings cross hospital there is a new trial and new procedure thats they've done over 65 patients on where they place an implant behind the ear in the skull. it picks up the sound and bypasses the inside ear so if something is wrong in the ear then it wont matter because they wont be used, the sound waves and sound will go directly from the implant into the ear organ. they've had a sucessful 65 patients from young and old who have drastically had improved hearing. hearing aides are no longer gonig to work for me. so. itsjust hard to choose which one to do. this surgery is 2 hours long and 1 1/2 week recovery and lots of follow up appointments. so far they have guarenteed results.
so i dont know, which to choose. whether to do something that isn't natural with a high sucess rate or try and fix what i already have... ahhhh.
but. he says that there is a chance i can gain 80 percent of my hearing back =) and that i wont lose function in my right ear cause they will fix that.
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HEy, that's pretty cool! Choosing what surgery sounds like it's going to be hard, but hey, whatever is going to help you! Congrats PB :-)
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thankx hun!! i was told for ages that i was going to go deaf and now they have something to prevent it. i'm so happy and i feel sooo lucky!
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That's really awesome, that makes me very happy for you!
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I'm glad to hear that worked out for you. Actually this is the first time I've heard anything about your hearing issues, and in a strange way I take comfort in it. I have hearing issues and wear hearing aids-well I wear one hearing aid because I accidentally stepped on the other one right after my son was born and I don't have thousands to spend to replace it. I was told that my type of hearing loss was not any kind that could be fixed with a surgery (maybe that's changed by now-I don't know) but it makes me sooo unbelievably happy to know that you have similar issues and that option is open to you!!!! Good luck with it, and keep me posted on everything.
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wow V thats amazing. yeah i've had it aparently since birth. do they know whats wrong with your ears, i may be able to ask my specialist on my next appointment whether there are any options to repair yours. i used to wear hearing aids but its not going to do anything these days because i'm actually losing my hearing. i just dont know which option to choose, they both seem okay. i can try and repair whats naturally there, or i can just avoid and replace it with the thing in my skull. i'm more partial to the second one because the first one has no guarentee...and so...uhg. that sucks that you dont have the money to replace your hearing aids, it was the same way when i did all this in the states......it cost a fortune, over 20,000$ for just a couple of surgerys and equiptment and check ups at the michigan ear inst_tute. anyway thank god my parents had decent insurance and they covered it which most dont cover hearing difficulties. but now that i am not on any kind of insurance i'm just glad that its all free over here otherwise there'd be no way around going deaf as we just dont have the money. but i'm so happy, i was crying when he said there were treatements they could offer thatwould fix everythign i was sooo scared of. i even had to learn sign language. uhg.
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Wow!!! You've really been through a lot over this. I think I have separated myself so much from my hearing problem because it's always been the shameful thing with my mom so I really haven't asked enough questions or really tried hard to do anything. To answer your questions 2 out of 3 docs I've seen don't think it is something that I've had since birth, they think that it may have been an illness that went undetected or treated too late and it damaged my parts. My dad says that as an infant I'd show signs of ear infections constantly but they weren't really alarmed because I'd never get a fever. As I became a toddler I seemed healthy and never got ear infections, but as a child I always got in trouble for not hearing people yelling for me-they thought I was like the devil child, being obstinate at a young age and pretending not to hear them. Well, at 5 my dad had enough and took me to get a check and I was diagnosed with a hearing loss and given hearing aids. I've had a test to see if I could have the more common surgery where they remove scar tissue from the ear, but it came back showing no signs of scar tissue or blockage. I often do wonder if maybe I was born with the problem because nobody fully seems sure and I do have other symptoms that have bothered me as far back as I could remember-(warning-sorry if this grosses people out) I've always remembered having a ringing in my ears and I can remember all the way back to being a year old. Certain times of year my ears tend to leak a little bit, and in my grade school years I had constant problems with sinuses. I'd alternate between sinus infections, swollen throat, or ear infections and each one would come with that painful ache with the ringing in my ears. As for you, you are so brave. I'd be scared of surgery, but it's so exciting to know that they can do something to help you and you don't have to worry about complete hearing loss. God when I read that I about cried. It's something about having hearing issues, you fear full loss or any more loss almost as much as you fear slow and painful death. It offends me when I see people be so careless with their hearing. You go through a lot when you are a healthy individual with a hearing problem because society still a__sociates hearing problems with the developmentally challenged and senior citizens. I think you get what I'm trying to say-I'm sooo dead tired, I'm sure I'm barely making sense.
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awesome! i believe my mother in law had that done and her hearing is way better than before, so i'll be hoping for you!!
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