Or perhaps it’s “I think I can hear!” but I’m not too sure of that yet either. As the previous post stated I Laurie and I traveled down to Vermont’s VA facility for my annual audio exam and the good news is that there has been no further significant degradation of my current physical hearing ability. This of course, doesn’t mean that I don’t have to wear these high end hearing aids any longer, it just means I’m not getting any deafer than I already was. Still, because the act of “hearing” is so much more than just a simplified tonal test, the ability to hear something leans a lot on the brain end of things as well meaning that the brain might actually begin “tuning out” those frequencies where most of the nerve cilia of the cochlea have burned out.

What this basically boils down to is that there is a perceived and absolutely valid sense of worsening hearing ability as time goes by. The person who is wearing the hearing aids slowly finds it more and more difficult to hear everyday sounds that they were able to hear before and having trouble making out what people are saying in general. It’s simply a matter of the remaining ability of the cochlea to exercise that part of the brain which interprets these audio signals from the ear sufficiently enough for the brain to remain receptive in those areas. In other words, if you don’t exercise it, it ain’t gonna’ work right.

At least that’s the way I understand the whole concept.

Because of this there have been new ways introduced to properly program these top of the line hearing aids with different curves of sound reproduction which can be used to make up for those lost frequencies of a damaged cochlea (picture a 10 band equalizer for an old style, high-end stereo system adjusted for the lousy acoustics of a room.) These different modes of equalization allows the patient to experience and judge for themselves which provides the most comfortable and satisfying hearing experience. I had three to choose from and my hearing aids were the type that could be plugged right into a PC and programmed right on the spot. I’m not going to get into the type of “curves” that I could try out or what their names mean since I don’t really know that yet but after trying both the DSL and then the NAL approach and taking a short walk outside after each programming, I settled on the DSL method and the world became a hell of a lot noisier.

It also became a hell of a lot more natural sounding too! It’s as if the rest of the spectrum was turned on for me and it became quickly obvious what I had been missing out on these last couple of years. Boy…it’s going to be a different experience at work tomorrow, that’s for sure.

It turned out to be a great day after all despite all the traveling. Besides…this time I had my honey with me.

Technorati tags: deaf, deafness, hearing impaired, hearing aids