Audiology Visit/Booth Test

I am so ecstatic to have a fixed hearing aid. Our electrical tape supply was beginning to run a tad low! Lucky for us, the aid is still under warranty, so all repairs are free. This repair would have been free, anyway, because our wonderful audiologist had battery doors hanging out in the office. It is amazing how much easier it is to work with an aid that is fully functional. The loose battery door and constant re-application of electrical tape was getting old!

Nolan also had a booth test. He did lose some low frequency hearing (we've never really had two audiograms that look exactly the same), but his high frequencies are stable. From what I remember (which isn't much-I was totally focusing on the good/stable high frequency numbers), he lost about 10dB in the lows (in his "good" ear- the "bad" ear stayed about the same).

I think his "good" (left) ear is now 60dB at 500Hz and 1000Hz, rising to 35dB at 2000Hz and 4000Hz. So moderately severe rising to mild- there's a reverse slope for you! His "bad" ear was 65dB rising to 45-50dB, so moderately severe rising to moderate. His hearing aids are still working well for him, and I'm thrilled that his high frequencies are mild in his good ear. It is harder to amplify the softer sounds of speech that occur at the high frequencies, so having a mild loss there is definitely a plus. The low tones are not unimportant, though. Consonants like /m/ /j/ and /z/ reside there. Plus, most of the vowels hang out in the low frequency range.

This does explain why Nolan has been unable to hear my husband's voice recently. He used to hear Dennis unaided, and now doesn't respond unless Dennis gets REALLY loud. He has a rather deep voice and a 60-65dB threshold is just below the speech sounds in that range. He still hears his mama just fine, though!

We took new impressions and will pick up earmolds on the 14th of July. His hearing aids will also be reprogrammed on that day, to add some amplification to the lower end of the spectrum.