Hearing Aids

Mikebits said:

Wow, this is amazing stuff. cochlear implants. I doubt my VA would cover this sort of thing however.

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One of out students Francis, was born completely 100% deaf - just before she started school she was fitted with cochlear implants (she's now 11 or 12 years old). It took a good while for the tuning of the implants to be finalised, and she hated the effects of sound for a good while - and if the teacher was telling her off, she just used to turn the implants off!

Now you wouldn't know she has a problem, the implants have worked that well - but for martial arts purposes we need to be careful not to do anything which might cause damage to either her external hearing aids, or the internal implants.

Nigel Goodwin said:

she hated the effects of sound for a good while -

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That's something someone who has alwasy been able to hear or see wouldn't expect. I wonder if there's anything similar with sight (supposing it could be given for someone who has never had it).

Nigel Goodwin said:

and if the teacher was telling her off, she just used to turn the implants off!

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Owned lol.

Hero999 said:

An ear infection, drugs can often be to blame and sometimes tinnitus can come and go for no reason.

I have slight tinnitus but it normally doesn't bother me much accept when it's quite at night and I'm trying to sleep.

Changes in air pressure can cause your ears to pop like taking off or landing on a plane. I imagine that the air pressure changes quite quickly where you live which probably causes it.

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I have tinitus and wax buildup my ears pop when the weather changes or is about to or my ears will feel pressured (bad weather) or lighter (good weather) now i'm on holiday I'll go see the doctor and hopefully have something done as i can't hear easily in crowds or strange accents. I had gromets as a child

dknguyen said:

Owned lol.

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The teacher also used to wear a microphone with a transmitter which directly fed Francis's hearing aids, often the teacher would forget to turn it off, and Francis could hear all the gossip in the staff room!

saturn1bguy said:

That's good to hear, certainly. Hearing aids can assist when hearing diminishes with age, or other effects that affect the sensitivity of the hair cells in the cochlea.

For those who have have lost their hearing in the fashion as being described here, however, i.e. overnight, typically the auditory nerve has sustained irreparable damage, and thus no hearing aid will ever help because it's not the sensor that's necessarily damaged, but the "wiring" between the sensor and the brain, if you will.

This is sort of where cochlear implants come in...

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thats like what happened to my nan and it was caused by a stroke she just woke up deaf in one ear, she was treated with a device called a Skenar and we later bought one as it is usefull for the whole family but sadly we didn't know how to use it well enough to recover her hearing like the people that sold it to us. it does a great job for ther things though can replace many drugs and of course thats not a nice idea for medicine companies and govs so its hardly recognised anywhere. in the UK it is just recognised as a pan killer but it does WAY BEYOND that

One of my students has been deaf for most of his adult life (he's now 56). He got fitted with cochlear implants and is amazed. He had trouble hearing most of the instructional videos, so we got a equalizer ,wired it to the tv and let him dial in the frequency range he could hear the best.Worked great

There is a website with demos of cochlear implants that have up to 32 frequency channels.
I recognised speech with 32 channels but not the music.
**broken link removed**

Not that anyone probably is interested, but I thought I would give an update. 7 or so days ago, I was deaf in one ear. Since then I been taking prednisone 3 times a day. After about day 5 my hearing made a dramatic improvement, now day 8 and my hearing seems back to normal. A few problems though, bad heat flush, insomnia like you would not believe. I think I manage about 2 hours of sleep a night right now. I feel like a zombie for most of the day, but after nightfall I feel anxious, and very hyper. I hate the feeling actually. I feel so exhausted, but even in my rem like state I am unable to rest my weary soul for one good nights rest. Other side effect is I have gained weight and get the munchies. lol. Tomorrow is my last day of a 3 times a day dose, I then began my taper off dosages. I am looking forward to a restful night. My only worry is that the hearing improvement does not last.

Good it's improved.

I hope your hearing stays as good when you come off the drugs.

Hero999 said:

Good it's improved.

I hope your hearing stays as good when you come off the drugs.

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Thanks for the sentiment

best of luck Mike I can underdstand how you feel

Thanks TC. Hey that sounds hiphop. TC Solder no, Electro TC no thats not it. TC Jammer..Yeah lol

well glad to see you still have humor....

Yeah it's important to keep a sense of humor through situations like this. Good luck with everything.