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Show Hearing loss is not an uncommon problem By DANIEL S. SUMMERHAYS M.S., CCC-A Lakeview Hospital Hearing Center Most people won't admit it. It is a difficult thing to accept. Most people who have it did not know they were getting it. Too many refuse re-fuse to do anything about it. What is it? SOME, WHEN seeking help for it, are told nothing can be done about ab-out it. Others are told they don't have it when they really do, just in a less obvious form. The social consequences can be devastating: withdrawl, severed friendships, job discrimination, and strained family relations. Do you remember Aunt Alice? She had it. So did grandpa and "Ole Man" Webb. "It" is hearing loss. location? Is your hearing loss caused by damage to or aging of the auditory nerve? Can you only hear men talking? If any of these symptoms symp-toms appear familiar, then you need a thorough evaluation of your hearing system. THIS TESTING should be performed per-formed by a clinical audiologist. Once you've seen your local audiologist, au-diologist, what is likely to happen? Some hearing losses, such as was in the ear, are very simple to remedy. re-medy. Often the hearing loss can be a symptom or a result of a disease dis-ease process which may be treatable. treat-able. This is why it is so important that your physician be involved with your hearing remediation. IF YOU have a nerve type of loss, you may have been told that nothing can be done about it. Although the nerve cannot be restored, res-tored, something can be done to enable you to hear better. You have probably been doing one or more of them for years: telling people peo-ple to speak up; turning up the television tele-vision until everyone else leaves the room, or answering the phone with one particular ear. What you really need is a device that will make these sounds loud enough for your ear to do its job - a hearing aid. Over 90 percent of the people who successfully wear hearing aids are those who have hearing losses and were told, "You can't do anything any-thing about it." May is Better Speech and Hearing Hear-ing Month. Do something daring and have your hearing evaluated. For further information call 299-2200. IT SNEAKS up on you. You don't see it coming, and many people peo-ple don't even know when they have it. If you live long enough, you are almost certain to get it. If you have it, you may notice an absence abs-ence of birds singing. You may even notice that a lot of people, especially women and children, don't speak very clearly. Also the actors in the movies seem to mumble mum-ble or the music seems too loud. Maybe you feel as if you have a cold, except your nose and throat aren't showing any symptoms. Perhaps you have to "aim" one of ' your ears toward what you want to hear. You may also avoid groups and activities, including church, theatre, movies, family reunions, etc. and that's a shanie. These are things most people do for their emotional or spiritual well being and should not be avoided simply because of a hearing loss. WHAT DO you do? You need to learn as much about your hearing loss as possible and find out what can be done about it. Is your loss caused by a bean in your ear or is it plugged with wax? How about a fluid bulid-up behind your eardrum or a growth of bone or other substance in the same |
