Hearing Aids

I think hearing aids have really helped with both my hearing loss and my vestibular symptoms. I’ve had them for almost a year and a half, so I figured it was about time to detail my experience to this point. I will also share some things I learned that I’m hoping will help others.

In October of 2021, I made an appointment at yet another ENT clinic. I believe there were additional inner ear tests that I still needed. At this time, the only diagnosis I had was vestibular migraine. I felt like this was either wrong or only part of the picture. I was hoping additional testing would help settle the question. The ENT specialist I saw decided to have me set up an appointment with the audiology department for hearing tests.

Not much later, I met with the audiologist for the hearing tests. The results they showed were not much different, and maybe even nearly identical to, my previous hearing test results. This clinic was the third one who had tested my hearing. It was also the only one who recommended that I get hearing aids. The audiologist initially suggested that I just get one for my left ear, the one that was damaged by the cap gun. However, after speaking to my parents, who both use hearing aids, and my own research, I decided to ask for hearing aids for both ears. I was ready to make my next appointment, the one for hearing aid evaluation.

I ended up making an appointment at another clinic that happened to be under the same parent “company” as the one where I’d had my hearing test. It could happen sooner than if I had tried to make it at the same clinic. The specialist there talked to me about the different types of hearing aids and which type would work best for me. We decided to order the “receiver-in-the-ear” type. The hearing aids would have to be ordered and then shipped to the clinic. I then had to wait for them to arrive so that I could go back for my fitting.

When I went back for my fitting and tried on the hearing aids, the “receiver-in-the-ear” hearing aids with open domes on the speaker end, I really couldn’t tell a huge difference at first. I thought the music in the car that was playing on the radio as I went back home did sound a little better. Using them was pretty simple. I plugged them in the charger each night and put them in after brushing over the domes each morning. I later started wiping down the domes and the plastic strips next to them with alcohol wipes and since then have not used the brush. I never found that I had to make many adjustments to the volume or the program they were using. At this time, I didn’t use the bluetooth feature. I was afraid of draining the batteries too quickly, so I just avoided it. I used headphones with muffs that covered the entire ear when I was using my computer at work.

Later, I wondered if the domes I was using were too small. The audiologist had put small open domes on the hearing aids. I decided to check online and found that I could get larger ones from Amazon. Some of the reviews I read seemed to indicate that the large size was typical for adults. I ordered some and found they fit pretty snugly. I wore them for around the next five or six months. At the end of March 2022, my left ear was hurting. I was afraid of getting an infection, so I decided to get some drops and sprays to help heal the pain and hopefully prevent an infection. I thought it was getting better at first, but later that week, I did end up with an ear infection. I hoped to ride it out by using ibuprofen and cotton soaked with alcohol that I would place in my ear. I went to work the next day with no hearing aids because of the ear infection, so I didn’t wear headphones while using the computer. Before I got hearing aids, I thought listening to sounds with the headphones was making my vestibular symptoms worse, so I decided that it would be better not to use them since I wasn’t wearing my hearing aids. I actually felt much better that day. I wondered if even hearing aids would not help with wearing the headphones and decided to stop wearing them all day and only when I needed to wear them, like for online meetings. That weekend, I went on a vacation with my family. I continued not wearing my hearing aids and noticed that I couldn’t tell a difference where my vestibular symptoms were concerned. I was surprised because I thought the hearing aids were supposed to be helping with them. While I was on vacation, I went to an urgent care to get better treatment for my ear infection because the symptoms were not getting any better. The doctor said my left ear looked “angry” and prescribed an antibiotic to treat it. Things started getting better pretty quickly after starting the antibiotic. I wondered if the wrong size of dome might have caused the soreness in my ear and subsequently the ear infection. I went back to Amazon and ordered the medium size. These fit a lot better.

At a future appointment with the audiologist, one of the things I mentioned is that the hearing aids weren’t treating or helping with the vestibular symptoms like I’d hoped. She tweaked the programming for the left hearing aid, but I noticed when using my headphones at work the next day, there was feedback in the left hearing aid. I wondered then if the smartphone app for my hearing aids would allow me to make adjustments to deal with the problem. What I discovered is that none of my devices were compatible with the app. I bought a smartphone that was compatible with the app and tried to see if I could get something to work. I couldn’t, so I decided to reach back out to the audiologist. Because I had the app installed and working, she said that she would be able to adjust my hearing aids without me having to make an appointment and drive in to the clinic. During lunch, we connected via the app, and she made an adjustment. However, the adjustment didn’t help. The next time she tried again via the app, she couldn’t get any changes to save. I ended up driving in to the clinic so she could just put my hearing aids back to the way they were before the previous appointment. It turned out that the first time she tried making changes through the app that they were not saved properly. My hearing aids were back to functioning as they were. However, I was left wondering if there was something that could help my hearing aids work better concerning my vestibular symptoms. One thing I began to think about was the domes.

Since my hearing loss was mild, the audiologist decided to put open domes on my hearing aids. I didn’t think anything else of it at the time. However, at this point, I was wondering how much benefit I was getting from the hearing aid correction since the open domes were allowing a good amount of uncorrected sound to pass through. By this point in time, I had begun using bluetooth to connect my hearing aids to my computer at work. I did notice that I felt better during online meetings and watching training videos, probably because all the sound was coming into my ears corrected. I decided to see how closed domes would work. After some back-and-forth discussion with my audiologist, I ordered some small and medium ones from Amazon. I tried the small ones first. These seemed to fit fine. I could tell that I felt better after I started using them. I didn’t notice any issues with occlusion using them. I decided not to try the medium ones at all when those came in the mail. It finally seemed like my hearing aids were set up the way I needed them to be. When I later got an ear infection in my right ear, I found that I felt worse going without my hearing aids, where earlier I couldn’t tell a difference at all. The closed domes were definitely helping.

Other than the domes, I also learned that if my ears get sore from the hearing aids, I need to let the soreness work itself out, and if it doesn’t, contact my audiologist to see if adjustments to my hearing aids are needed. I believe, after having infections in both my left and right ears after putting drops/sprays in them, that the drops and sprays may have contributed to the development of the ear infections. Some time after I recovered from that second ear infection, my right ear got sore again. I decided just to let it go and see if things would get better on their own, and they did. I’m hoping that I won’t get any more ear infections for a very long time.

In December 2022, I was exposed to some really loud sounds that I believe caused further damage. I remember noticing ringing in my right ear. I had a hard time sleeping well over the next few days. I could tell that issues I thought had resolved or improved in the past were becoming more of a problem. I decided to send a message to my audiologist to let her know that I would like my hearing tested at my next hearing aid appointment. She responded saying to go ahead and make an appointment right away to see both her and an ENT doctor at the clinic. At the appointment, she did find that my hearing had changed and made adjustments to my hearing aids. The ENT doctor prescribed a steroid that he hoped might calm inflammation that might have been caused by the noise exposure. I think the hearing aid adjustment has helped. I go back next month for further evaluation. Perhaps they’ll find that the steroids made a difference.

At this point, I believe my hearing aids are working well and making a difference when it comes to my hearing and my vestibular symptoms. Hearing aids should definitely be considered even if you have mild hearing loss and especially if you have vestibular issues along with the hearing loss. They could result in an improvement of symptoms and a better quality of life. You should also make sure that the domes selected, if applicable, are truly what’s needed to improve hearing and vestibular symptoms. Also, if your ears get sore from wearing the hearing aids, see if things improve on their own, and if not, contact your audiologist. If you have reason to believe that your hearing has changed due to noise exposure or another reason, make sure to contact your audiologist and/or ENT doctor to see if your hearing aids need adjustment or if other treatment is needed.

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