March 4th, 2009

I arrived at the audiologist office downtown Grand Rapids with an eagerness to find out why I hear like an 80 year old. I wasn't nervous because of my hearing loss. I fully expected them to see a huge piece of disgusting ear wax in my ear canal, get the firehose out and splash around, and I'd be on with my life + better hearing.
The first test in this adventure was a basic audiogram. You get placed in a booth about 8 feet high, 5 foot wide, 5 foot deep with dimple padding on all sides. I thought for a minute maybe they figured out I'm a crazy person, and in this box I can't hurt myself. But alas, the friendly audiologist gave me some big, over-the-ear headphones to put on.
It took about half an hour, she would give me different sounding beeps in one ear at a time. I would press a clicker button (I pretended I was on Jeopardy to make it more fun. She didn't laugh when I said, "What is a high pitched beep?") whenever I heard a beep. After the beeps, she read a word, and I would have to repeat the word if I could make it out. If she'd say a short word that I couldn't understand, I would say something ridiculous, like "Encyclopedia", "Gesundheit", or a personal favorite, "Do you talk to your mother with that mouth?"(Just kidding about this last one...).
After sitting alone in an exam room for about ten minutes, I received the results from her. I swear doctors know exactly how awkward and difficult it is to wait for results of tests. They get a sick enjoyment out of you sitting there, just waiting in a tiny room with a Newsweek magazine from 2004 and a trash can, while your brain goes insane thinking of all the horrible diseases you may have.
The results were that my left ear was near perfect, about 95% hearing ability. And then for the news that I thought were coming, but was not happy to hear. I had about 50% hearing ability in my right ear. She said she was surprised at how well I did at the word repeat portion of the test, considering how much hearing loss I have. She then asked if I wanted to see an ENT that same day, and I told her that would be great.
About 1/2 later, Dr. Hart comes in the room. He looks into both my ears, touches my face, throat, chest, and neck. He doesn't seem to have any reaction to this. He explained that some people just have hearing loss, and it is sometimes unexplainable(I think this is what he said, I don't exactly remember). He said that the hearing loss could stop, and I'd be at 50% hearing for the rest of my life, or it could get worse. There is no way of telling what the human body will do sometimes. He went on to say that if this hearing loss effects my quality of life, I could look into getting hearing aids. I told him for the time being, I was not interested! I'm 25, not 100. He said that it'd be very rare for a MRI to show something, but as a precaution, he would like me to have one. He asked me if I thought that was ok, because he said it was up to me to decide. I don't know why, usually I say 'no' to things like that. I'm only 25, why take precautions? But I didn't even hesitate. I said, "That sounds like a good idea".
After that appointment, I felt pretty good. I knew where I was at with my hearing loss. I was dissappointed it wasn't something as simple as a glob of wax in my ear, but I didn't think it'd be a big deal. I still have one ear at 95%, so no big deal...and my MRI was scheduled for the 12th of March.