ear infection

Makes me want to dig out my hearing charts, done quite a while ago now. What? Nothin' I can do about it at the moment. Mumble.

Hearing aids are designed to help people hear.

I had an adjustable one for a while, when my hearing was all over the place and in different ways, and it could be adjusted to emphasize low tones or high tones (as well as varying strengths). I can't imagine that the technology has gotten WORSE in the 20 years or so since I had that one.

Are you saying that you don't feel you need one though?

why, i think they represent sounds. dog for barking, piano for...well, piano. plane for the sound of plane... the only one that baffles me is the monkeys. why would you want to listen to monkeys shrieking anyway?

I'm not saying whether I need one or not. I'm just saying what they said.

I know. Probably should have separated it more, one thought lead to the other. Do you?

As in, if you feel you do, I might go the second-opinion route, as this just seems weird to me. If you don't, then it's pretty much moot.

Dasha, and the baby, why's the baby way down there?

Soz, I guess I don't think I need one. I have thought it would help in the past. I am ok with most speech. I do have trouble with mumblers (there are many in my family) and deep voices. Outside my family, I don't run into mumblers that much and most men's voices aren't THAT low. The extra noise only seems to hurt things a little. One of the feeds they put on me was a device that pushed up against the bone in the back of my ear - not a headset. Maybe they based their prof opinions on those results.

Well it's the common deep baby growl, you know. Aaaahhh, you DON'T know... sorry.

On the audiogram, down is loud, right is high, left is low. So the stuff that's the furthest down is the loudest. (The audiogram itself measures how loud a tone has to be before you hear it, ranging over low tones and high tones.)

So a fretting baby is louder than speech, and quieter than a barking dog; lower than a ringing telephone, and higher than a lawnmower.

The marks on your audiogram show that you can't hear about half of speech sounds, littlek. J mbd n ng e l u i o a r -- all (when spoken normally) are quieter than you can hear, according to the audiogram. That's a lot of speech sounds.

You may be lipreading or compensating in other ways.

Hearing higher tones better works out a lot better for being a teacher, too (I had a terrible time hearing kids).

Oh, I read lips a'right - more than a little.

True about teaching - kids are higher, most teachers are women. But, a lot of teacher asides are whispered. So, perhaps I'll be immune to gossip. Not such a bad thing after all.

Do you think I should contact the ENT office and ask about the voice stuff? So long as people are speaking relatively clearly and at a conversational tone I can hear fine. Another good aspect, I think, is that when I have my own classroom, I'll be able to tell kids to speak loudly and clearly on the very first day and make them stick to it. It's good for them, I'd say. Of course they'll know they can whisper and I won't hear..... hmmm...

I know that ENTs/ audiologists (the latter, really) let you test out hearing aids -- it's not that you have to buy them if you want to see if they work. (I think you may have to give some indication that you'd seriously consider buying one though.) Maybe testing the most appropriate types (whatever they may be) could help you decide where to go from here.

A 40-50 db loss in the lower half of speech sounds (which is what you have) has to be at least somewhat significant (see your sig line... ;-)) If it's been a slow creep, you may have become used to making do -- that's fine, but there may be significantly better hearing available to you. Seems like it'd be worth looking into, though I know there are a lot of limitations (time, money), and if it's not something you consider an urgent problem, probably no reason to act right away.

My bias is the I've dealt with SO many people (personally and professionally) with hearing loss in your range that were helped tremendously by hearing aids. Pretty much every single one of those people were resistant to the idea at first, and then once they tried it, so grateful for the additional information.

All kinds of caveats there, especially that people with more severe losses are often not helped (I'm at about 120 db and aids don't help, though I'm interested in testing out the latest generation and seeing what happens), and that I'm far more familiar with high tone loss than low tone loss.

Soz, at times it's annoying (my family mumbles), sometimes I even think it could be dangerous (can't hear dogs growling, people whispering). But, I also know that hearing aids are very expensive and that my health care doesn't cover them (I don't know that any health care does). I simply don't have the money. Maybe later, in a few years, after I've paid off the debt and started a retirement fund.

OK. That makes sense. And goes back to whether you want one -- the answer seems to be, "not now."

Hope you get a nice cushy benefit-y teaching job soon...

While everyone keeps talking about how there are so many opportunities in education these days, it seems that there aren't. Most of the recent grads I know are having trouble finding work. The old, no/little experience issue. I may have another year or two of this cheap-o labor crap before I get hired. But, hopefully that will be with benefits of some sort.

Boiling hot and humid outside. You step out there (I bike), get drenched in sweat...

You step inside, practically anywhere, and there is freezing air blowing on you.

I hate it so much. I've been back for less than 3 days and already have a swollen ear canal. it hurts like a mofo. The whole left side of my head. I'm grumpy. They freeze you in the summer and cook you in winter in all public places here. No moderation. No common sense. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Had lunch. Less grumpy.

Short of wearing a turtleneck and a hat... what can one do to protect self from air conditioning? i really truly hate it, but it's everywhere. I thought of putting cotton ball in my ear- but i can't even touch it right now. It's swollen and hurts. Usually I have to cup my left ear upon entering an airconditioned store or office for the first five minutes or so. But that's not very handy. Also looks weird in meetings and stuff.

Maybe a scarf to wrap around my head... which also looks weird, but I don't care anymore. Anybody any tricks in the sleeve?

Isn't that annoying?!

It's an ongoing war between me and E.G. He's in his air conditioned office all day, and likes to come home to a house about as cold. I think that's ridiculous on about 25,000 levels. Sozlet and I are in and out of the house all day, and I HATE being met by that frigid blast. Cool-ish, fine, COLD, no! If he's hot when he gets home, he can put on some shorts. Saves energy, saves money, better for the environment, and like you I expect it's better for our health, too.

I don't really have any suggestions, though, unfortunately. A silk scarf or something sounds like it might help... is there anything you can do about the air conditioning levels in the main places you spend time?

not really. i don't turn it on at the office, but the whole building is air-conditioned. so even if it's not a direct cold blast, it's still cold.
no air conditioning at home, but now i can't even turn the fan on, or not directly at myself in any way, not even from a distance, so i'm stewing. i still prefer that to a cold blast. Agree that it's insane on at least 25,000 levels.

that seems a particular issue with post-secondary institutions up here - colleges and universities have a particular gift for totally insane climate adjustments in their buildings

I also dislike the AC blast and the flux between hot and cold - but mostly the former. Something is not right about AC, especially the full-building style AC. It some how seems far worse than the window unit.

I hate the HEATING!!!!



I once worked in winter in an office so hot that I ended up wearing my thinnest summer frocks to work with sandals and no stockings, with a thick overcoat for the journey to and from work.