Friday, April 11, 2014

Single-Side-Deafness, Hearing Aids and My Inner Space
By John Lalley
Marketing Manager, Marketing and Communications
Part 2
Continued from Part 1.
So there I was, with my first hearing aid, connected to people and the world and it was beautiful and I was grateful to have the access to the technology. But once the honeymoon was over, it started to seem sort of mid-range heavy and tinny and fake-sounding, like I was in a room made of stainless steel. Needless to say, I stopped wearing my hearing aids as much. Sound familiar? It might not to everyone, but to any hearing aid user who ever became disenchanted with hearing aids - even a little bit…it might.
I lost my custom-made musician’s earplug (yup, I need just one) a few weeks ago, while playing drums at a rock show. I made an appointment to see Maria Michaelides, one of our audiologists at CHS Toronto. She started fitting me for the mould, and wasted no time steering the conversation toward improvements in technology and how In-the-Ear hearing aids might not be best for me, for which I will be forever grateful.
“John, I’d like to talk to you about your hearing aids. I don’t see you wearing them a lot. I’d like to work with you on what I think might be a better solution for you.”
Wow.
I agreed, and told her that they sound a little tinny, and they echo.
“You have In-the-Ear (ITE) hearing aids. Don’t your ears feel plugged, or full?”
Again, I agreed. “Uh, yeah.”
And from there, she was all in, reviewing my recent hearing test, asking me about my behaviours and expectations, and, most importantly, addressing the fact that I have some good usable hearing on my hearing side in my bass frequencies and lower midrange. Because of this, she wanted to call my hearing aid manufacturer to get me a trial set of Behind-the-Ear (BTE) hearing aids, as I was still within my warranty period. She called them on the spot. She said she was pretty sure I would find the BTE hearing aids a great improvement from a sound and comfort perspective and they would enable me to maximize efficiency from the usable frequency range on my hearing side.
They came in a few days later, she fitted me and my excitement grew. If I thought my ITE aids were low profile, these were practically invisible. Like, seriously. They made me feel like a hipster, especially the black ones I chose. The units tuck in behind my ears and are tiny - I can barely see them, and they are as light as a feather. My ears didn’t feel full! I could feel my excitement continue to grow. She turned them on and started working on the settings. Then my life changed…again.
I experienced a fullness and richness of sound like I haven’t heard in decades. Music, conversation, phone calls – everything sounds so amazing and natural and full of beautiful frequencies. It’s clear and open. My hearing ear is doing the lifting that it can and assisting in the process, as it’s not being blocked off. I was overwhelmed and grateful.
Maria is amazing – great client care, excellent advice, patient, and has a firm consultative hand when it counts most. I am thrilled and extremely happy with my new hearing aids and with the service I got from Maria and team. I actually forget that I’m wearing them, which is very cool.
If you’re not happy with your hearing aids, or think there might be better technology out there, please make an appointment with the Hearing Clinics Plus team. They’re a passionate group of talented professionals who value client satisfaction and put patients first, and I hope you make a commitment to yourself to make hearing aid technology work for you. If you have a loved one who could benefit from enhanced technology or a setting adjustment, I hope you pass this along. It’s so worth it.   
-- John Lalley is Marketing Manager, Marketing and Communications, at CHS. He is a Juno Awarding-winning drummer, kite surfer, and life enthusiast.


Single-side-deafness, hearing aids and my inner space
By John Lalley
Marketing Manager, Marketing and Communications
Part 1
I came to CHS as a client in 2004 for a hearing test, and through a series of tests and consultations with the incredible Dr. Wade and his team, was referred to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre where I was diagnosed with a 5.5cm benign skull base tumour called an Acoustic Neuroma.
I had surgery to remove “my little friend” in early 2005. The required surgical approach was through my inner ear, and I came out of the surgery deaf on that side. It was a better than expected outcome; we knew going in that the hearing had to be sacrificed in order to remove the tumour, there was no other choice. The surgeon, Dr. Chen, and his team at Sunnybrook are amazing and they did an incredible job; I am forever in their debt.
I recovered quickly and was generally happy. But coupled with moderate hearing loss from decades of playing music – and the majority of those performances without hearing protection – Single-Side-Deafness presented a challenge. Because of my willingness to get used to my “new normal” as naturally as possible, as well as what I saw as limitations of Single-Side-Deaf hearing aid technology at the time, I was determined to deal with it on my own – and I actually did well. If doing well means lip-reading, strategic seating in meetings and in restaurants, a constant mix of "Pardon me? Excuse me? What was that? Huh? Eh? Say again? Could you repeat that?" and answering "How are you?" with a reply about the weather. My ability to communicate was stilted to say the least. Quick banter, witty repartee and tight conversations in small groups were often lost on me and I love people and conversation and community. I didn't realize how much I was missing.
Then I saw an audiologist at Sunnybrook and my life changed. I told her I was ready to explore a bi-cros hearing aid. These are used by people who have a profound hearing loss in one ear as well as a significant loss in the other ear. A transmitter picks up sound from the device on the ear with the greater hearing loss and sends the signal to a hearing aid worn on the better ear. After conversation and consultation, I chose In-the-Ear (ITE) hearing aids because I thought they would look better. 
Pretty cool technology. The remote is worn around my neck which has Bluetooth capabilities. I hear the phone ring and the caller’s voice from my hearing aids- I’m glad to say these are the only voices inside my head. I can also stream music through the hearing aids, and thanks to the smart people at Apple, I can use the on-board accessibility features of the iPhone to switch the signal from stereo to mono. I set up different audio programs and did some fine tuning and was amazed at the results…for a while.
Read more about my experience with CHS Hearing Clinics Plus and some new hearing aid technology in Part 2. More to come!
-- John Lalley is Marketing Manager, Marketing and Communications, at CHS. He is a Juno Awarding-winning drummer, kite surfer, and life enthusiast.