Tinnitus

[*rfaulk34*]

(06-15-2024, 11:17 PM)HarleyDog Wrote: Anyone? I can't hear you, literally. 

I've been living with this progressive hearing loss for so many years. Nothing but ringing constantly, which, I could deal with in my younger years with things like white noise, music, or a fan would block it out enough to take away my thoughts about it. I'm 57 now and the ring is getting unbearable. It's always been a distraction but now it's getting to the point of robbing my concentration and quality of life. My hearing is getting so bad that when someone speaks to me I often think I heard one thing, but they said something else. My wife (God bless her heart for putting up with it) has to put up with me listening to the TV loudly, while still asking her, "What did He/She say?" 

The ringing is similar to a heart monitor when someone's heart stops beating but at a high pitch. It never stops. 24/7, 365. 

Does anyone else deal with this? Does hearing aids help at all? My wife keeps saying to get some because I always mishear her. I've had the same issue at work, so bad that I finally stopped trying to fake what I understood and started saying I didn't hear it or didn't get it.

Yep. For a long, long time. Ditto for my wife (putting up with me). I think i hear something or, i'll hear most of what she says but don't understand a couple important words. I don't really need the TV up loud and if i make it a point to concentrate on waiting to hear people say something instead of reacting when they do, it helps. 

My ringing changes in intensity though and i don't know what makes it louder or softer. Sometimes i don't hear it at all while others it's really loud. I guess i'm fortuante in a way because i learned to ignore it a long time ago and it's never bothered me to the point it affects my daily life, other than having to say "huh?" to my wife more than i should. 

My biggest goal right now is getting her to not go on some rant when i don't hear her and just simply repeat what she said without some lecture. 

I will say this. It's not altered my bad habit of playing music waaaaayyyy too loud in my car or even in my headphones when i'm at the gym or just listening to music while i'm at home. I've been doing that for as long as i can remember. 

EDIT: After posting this, i decided to go online and do a few tests. They all said i had mild to moderate hearing loss. The last one i took actually gave me graphs to show where i was.



https://www.mdhearingaid.com/hearing-test/