Me sky diving
INSTRUCTOR, "Pull your chute!"
ME, "My shoe?"
Instructor, "Your parachute!!"
ME. "My pair of shoes?"
CORONER,"Where are his shoes?"

Chas, do your hearing aids have different settings? Mine has: 1 - all-around, 2 - restaurant, 3 - music, and 4 - wind. If yours has similar, try music or restaurant at meetings.

The ear-stopped-up feeling is common. I still have that. So at first I thought something stuffing up my ear canal was inhibiting my hearing. But no. It's just part of the hearing problem. I also have pulsating tinnitus in the right ear. That is not correctable either, but it is ignorable.

Is your right ear distorting sounds with or without the hearing aid?

Also the type or quality level of the hearing aid could be an issue. Maybe ask your audiologist.

Caveat: everyone's hearing issue is different. Mine is not the same as yours, so maybe my opinions are not always helpful.

Real Player,
Thank you.
I try all the settings.
The ear distorts sound. The hearing aid makes the distortion louder and makes comprehension more difficult.
Trying to the the ear unclogged. Probably a swollen sinus. Want to know if that makes a substantial difference.

Music is the reason I am hesitant.
Then again, I had to drop out of the county band because I could not hear the conductor.
If I get the implant I expect to turn it off for listening to music until my brain gets trained.

CHAS, I'm relieved to hear it's not cancer or something worse. But I'm sorry you have to deal with this and all the complicated choices which don't really seem like they offer good solutions.

quote:

Music is the reason I am hesitant.

I have a colleague who had profound, or perhaps total hearing (I don't recall) hearing loss as a child, and was fitted with cochlear implants, I think sometime when he was in elementary school.

I do know that he listens to and enjoys music, so his brain must have figured out how to "hear" music properly, or at least in an enjoyable way. But then, he had implants fitted as a child, so I suspect the process (of brain adjustment) is not the same as it would be for an adult.

What kind of background does your ENT doc have? I think surely there must be ENTs who focus on hearing issues for musicians, so maybe you can make sure to find someone who takes your concerns seriously and works on the music aspect with you.

I just googled "cochlear implant and music" and there were tons of hits. I noticed this article in particular:

Pianist David Holzman discusses his experiences with hearing loss and cochlear implants

I extend great sympathy to all suffering from hearing loss, if possible, all the more to those of you who are serious musicians (RP, how DO you manage?)

My experience with hearing loss is unusual and ended fortunately, but perhaps a PSA is in order. Apologies for the lengthy description, but it may save someone's hearing.

quote:

Called SSHL - Sudden sensorineural (“inner ear”) hearing loss, commonly known as sudden deafness, is an unexplained, rapid loss of hearing either all at once or over a few days. ... Sudden deafness frequently affects only one ear.

They say treatment within 24-48 hours is best!

About 1 1/2 years ago, I completely lost hearing in my left ear within a matter of less than an hour. Scenario: talking to a son, I put my cell phone on speakerphone as I often do, cursing immediately: "Damnation! My brand new Verizon phone has already failed! Not another interminable visit to that miserable store!"

In short order, though, I realized that the situation was much worse than imagined. My ear, rather than my phone had failed.

Luckily for me, that son (former DJ now suffering from tinnitus and hearing loss) was familiar with such hearing issues. I needed immediate steroid treatment, he said. Otherwise, I'm sure I'd have trivialized it, thinking I was suffering from either water in my ear (how it felt) or some reaction to changed altitudes.

I saw my PCP immediately. He referred me to an audiologist to confirm the hearing loss (yes, it was true and profound. Left ear was completely deaf), after which he prescribed a high dose of prednisone. In my medically accursed area, no ENT doc was available, so I called Johns Hopkins ENT (the closest good center). A mere description of my symptoms yielded an appointment within 24 hours!

Results, less than a week after that phone upset, I'd been treated not only with powerful oral steroids but eardrum injections too (eventually, three) Within a month from the deafness onset, I completely regained hearing in that ear. The audio clinic in town said they had never encountered such a complete, fast remission.

Specialists told me one of their most painful tasks was informing patients who'd delayed seeing them, that their seemingly innocuous "stuffed up ear" and lost hearing was permanent. Tragically, patients who either delay seeing a doctor or whose physician, ignorant of the risk, encourages a "wait and see" approach (or at best, antibiotic ear drops) remain deaf in that ear.

The cause is unknown in the field, but it's thought to be the result of either a virus, trauma or an acoustic neuroma, which causes the acoustic nerve to swell in the surrounding bone. It dies rapidly without immediate intervention.

I know how lucky I am to have to regained my hearing (I've actually not heard of anyone else struck by this condition who did). That's why I'm detailing my experience. SSHL is rare but it happens often enough for me to have heard of dozens of patients since it happened to me, all of whom lost their hearing permanently. Hope this helps someone else. It was chilling to sit in that audiologists' test booth unable to hear ANYTHING in my "dead" left ear!

have agreed to some strange things when in noisy gay bars.

Shirokuro,
Thank you very much. That URL led me to the best thing I have read about music and transplants.
You have made my day.

I highly recommend that URL page to RealPlayer. in the event he ever needs it.

Just reading this.

Happy to hear it's not cancer.

Hope you find a solution that works.

Thank you all

I just read that pianist's page about his experiences with the cochlear implant, and I must say I'm surprised, but happy to hear how well it worked. My received impressions earlier were rather negative. Well, that's good news then!

Chas, glad you have the info you need to decide. Wishing you all the best!

quote:

Shirokuro,
Thank you very much. That URL led me to the best thing I have read about music and transplants.
You have made my day.

Keep us posted on how things go!

quote:

Originally posted by RealPlayer:
I just read that pianist's page about his experiences with the cochlear implant, and I must say I'm surprised, but happy to hear how well it worked. My received impressions earlier were rather negative. Well, that's good news then!

Chas, glad you have the info you need to decide. Wishing you all the best!

RealPlayer,
Hope you never need an implant. If you do, I hope you get excellent results.

quote:

Originally posted by RealPlayer:
I just read that pianist's page about his experiences with the cochlear implant, and I must say I'm surprised, but happy to hear how well it worked. My received impressions earlier were rather negative. Well, that's good news then!

Chas, glad you have the info you need to decide. Wishing you all the best!

RealPlayer,
Hope you never need an implant. If you do, I hope you get excellent results.