About Me and My Blog

Hi Carly,

My name is Terri, and I also am a teacher. I will be beginning my 29th year of teaching in a couple of weeks. (4th grade). And I am also in the middle of my 8th year dealing with almost exactly the same thing you deal with. I have to try to give you the short version of my story, and to be honest, it probably won’t be short, and I understand if you aren’t able to take the time to read it all. It’s just nice to have a forum to express myself with others who understand.

My doctors think that my unilateral hearing loss stemmed from a sinus infection I had that damaged the nerves in my right ear. For the first 4 years a regular hearing aid helped greatly sending the tinnitus I was experiencing to the background. However, in 2014, I got the flu with more fluid in my ears. I had my first and only debilitating vertigo attack and couldn’t move off my bed for 3 hours because of the dizziness. When I woke up the next morning I was “off” and could tell something happened with my hearing. I tried to go to school, but soon realized that I couldn’t do it. I was bumping into things and losing my balance. After an emergency trip to my ENT and then the audiologist, my hearing loss had gotten even more severe . . . and so did the tinnitus. I also started experiencing vertigo attacks where I would get nauseous turning over in bed. To top it off, I was “leaning” quite often and my word recognition had decreased. Of course, the over sensitivity to noise was the icing on the cake. Because of that, my hearing aid was useless. The tinnitus was my biggest obstacle in the beginning because it changed my mood. My poor students had to deal with a very ornery and impatient teacher that year. But I discovered a sound therapy called “Sound Cure” from a licensed audiologist who specialized in tinnitus. (http://www.hearingreview.com/2014/09/study-shows-soundcures-s-tones-effective-quieter-volumes-broadband-noise/) It GREATLY helped my brain habituate the tinnitus, and while it was still there nice and loud, it wasn’t changing my mood as much. I will still use it once in awhile when I feel the tinnitus overpowering me. (I would definitely recommend this treatment to anyone dealing with debilitating tinnitus.) Anyway, fast forward to the fall of 2017. I still get an audiogram every year. Frankly, the process fascinates me. Well, my hearing hasn’t changed, but my word recognition is at 0%. This has made the last year or two in the classroom very difficult. Like everyone else, I try to avoid noisy situations, but that is impossible in the classroom. I’ve been to specialists, I’ve had every test done, including dizziness testing to look at the nerves in the inner ear. Just like almost everyone else, the doctors aren’t sure what happened. They THINK it was a virus, but they’re not sure. The one thing they all agree on is that there is nothing to be done except try to live with it. After this last round of testing, I am done trying to figure it out. My next journey is to help the quality of my life become better. I have not stopped doing what I was doing before this started in 2010. I have worked through most of the frustrations and have really learned not to beat myself up when I make mistakes (and there are many! Haha!). I am learning to wait out the panic attacks that come when I get overwhelmed by the noise. Sometimes I have to excuse myself to go to a quiet room or outside for a few minutes, but it always passes. And my next step is trying a CROS hearing aid. That is actually how I found your blog. I read your experience with this and look forward to reading more of your experiences.

I am so sorry to take up so much of your time, but if you have read this far, I want to thank you. I have a very close circle of friends and family who are supportive, but it is much different talking to someone who is dealing with the same thing. Just writing this has felt like a big release. 🙂 Thank you, Carly, for putting yourself out there and describing your experiences so eloquently. You give a voice to many who don’t really have one.

Terri

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