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Hearing loss

O

oldironman

Member
I'm a tractor collector like some of you. I was working on an old tractor about a mouth ago and it backfired really loud near my ear. For a while I couldn't hear out of my left ear but the next day it was better. It still isn't right and I was wondering if any of you have had something like this happen to you and what you did about it. Went to an audiologist and they said that I have got about 50% loss in that ear and wanted to sell me some hearing aids for an exorbitant cost. No surprise there because that's there business. I would like to know what experience any of you guys and galls have had. I learned a lot of good info on here and sure could use some help with this. Thanks and have a Marry Christmas.
 
Depends on what you did to your ear drum. Some you can recover from in time and others you won't. I am 90 dB down from the normal hearing range as a result of my profession. But mine was continuous over the years and my ears never had a chance to recover. The best money can buy only gains me 30 dB and that isn't much help from where I am.

I have bought their best hearing aids and they are just a pain to the point that I don't worry that I can't hear a lot because a lot of stuff is not worth listening to. The aids do a great job of amplifying all the stuff you don't want to hear (background noise) but little to help with the voices you want to hear.

Those (folks) that matter know to speak up and talk while looking at me. If an outsider, I tell them I am hearing impared and ask them to speak up which they do.

HTH,

Mark
 
(quoted from post at 08:09:00 12/16/11) Those (folks) that matter know to speak up and talk while looking at me. If an outsider, I tell them I am hearing impared and ask them to speak up which they do.

HTH,

Mark
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That is the worst drain on my people skills.... I am on the phone a good deal at work and get pretty rank with folks that mumble on the other end..... Never lonely tho with the constant ringing........
 
I'd say get a 2nd opinion but you couldn't hear it anyway......sorry!

I wear hearing aids. From people I've talked to about them I've learned a few things.

Your better hearing aids are programmable to cover the frequencies that you don't hear well unless your loss is across the entire spectrum then that is a wasted option. I would say that in the later case the less expensive ones would work.

I have no idea what mine cost. My hearing loss is service connected and VA issued them. I do know a guy who paid about 3500 for his.

The down side ot hearing aids is that while wearing them you can't tell your wife you didn't hear her!

Rick
 
(quoted from post at 08:16:37 12/16/11) I'd say get a 2nd opinion but you couldn't hear it anyway......sorry!

I wear hearing aids. From people I've talked to about them I've learned a few things.

Your better hearing aids are programmable to cover the frequencies that you don't hear well unless your loss is across the entire spectrum then that is a wasted option. I would say that in the later case the less expensive ones would work.

I have no idea what mine cost. My hearing loss is service connected and VA issued them. I do know a guy who paid about 3500 for his.

The down side ot hearing aids is that while wearing them you can't tell your wife you didn't hear her!

Rick
Click to expand...

Thing that really torches me about VA and hearing is watching these guys play thier music/bass so loud that they rattle other cars and set off arms rooms alarms in the barracks, but then claim hearing loss cause they are/were a DAT etc......

done now, gonna sit back and listen to my tenitis a while.......
 
When I was a young pup, the wife and I went to a club to hear a band I wanted to see.

We sat right beside one of the damned main speakers as it was the only place open in the house.

Didn't notice a thing that night, but the next day I could hardly hear. Still to this day, I have a strong 'ringing' in my ears.

Bummer,

Allan
 

I shopped around for hearing aids this summer and ended up buying a pair of Simplicity Premiers from Sams club online. The pair cost less than $750 and work as good, or better than, ones that cost thousands more. Read the reviews and judge for yourself. I highly reccommend them.
 
I made that exact same mistake, went to a concert, and sort of a different louder "genre" of music than I prefer for the most part, some of that thar heavy metal but kind of a ballad with a story line and did not know the tickets were front row, show was really good, but I should have sought out an usher for some earplugs, (was a nice theater actually) forgot to bring em. One of my friends and fellow long time concert goe'rs did not, I sure did, ear protection and concerts don't make sense, but actually, because of either sensitive ears, or just being so loud, ear plugs makes it just right for me. They rang quite a bit after that, I should have left, but they did ring before that, still do today, I guess there is not much you can do about that ear ringing.
 
I have tinnitus - permanent ringing or noise in the ears.

My chiropractor started me on drenamin (OTC). Its very inexpensive and works. It has reduced the ringing by at least 60%. Can tell a big difference if I forget to take it.
 
(quoted from post at 08:51:05 12/16/11) I have tinnitus - permanent ringing or noise in the ears.

My chiropractor started me on drenamin (OTC). Its very inexpensive and works. It has reduced the ringing by at least 60%. Can tell a big difference if I forget to take it.
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any side effects that you notice???? Don't know how I'd act if I could actually sit in quiet......
 
Squeezed off three quick 357's once without ear plugs & was pert near deaf the rest of the day. Terrible ringing for several weeks before it eased off. The light ringing has been my normal since then. Can't stand loud noises now & if it's the higher notes that are loud it feels like a knife stabbing through my ear. I'm probably the only nut out there who has to carry ear plugs with them to church. When the choir gets too loud they go in. The pain is too severe without them.
 
I have to remember that OTC drug. I've had tinnitus for years. Comes from many years of rivetting on aircraft components before they made us wear ear plugs.
 
(quoted from post at 08:21:43 12/16/11)
(quoted from post at 08:16:37 12/16/11) I'd say get a 2nd opinion but you couldn't hear it anyway......sorry!

I wear hearing aids. From people I've talked to about them I've learned a few things.

Your better hearing aids are programmable to cover the frequencies that you don't hear well unless your loss is across the entire spectrum then that is a wasted option. I would say that in the later case the less expensive ones would work.

I have no idea what mine cost. My hearing loss is service connected and VA issued them. I do know a guy who paid about 3500 for his.

The down side ot hearing aids is that while wearing them you can't tell your wife you didn't hear her!

Rick
Click to expand...

Thing that really torches me about VA and hearing is watching these guys play thier music/bass so loud that they rattle other cars and set off arms rooms alarms in the barracks, but then claim hearing loss cause they are/were a DAT etc......

done now, gonna sit back and listen to my tenitis a while.......
Click to expand...

That is true.......and VA tries to limit who gets em. When I went in for my hearing test a guy was in there bitterly complaining because he needed hearing aids but VA was only going to cover about 10% of the cost. The guy had served 3 years as a clerk but was trying to claim his hearing was due to his service. Another old guy in the waiting room (ret Marine) told him "them darned loud typewriters will get you every time"!

20 years on tanks is what got my hearing. Don't think it was any one event.

Rick
 
Have sung in barbershop quartets since just a lad. Gig at a nursing home one time, back in the '70's- we "rang" a particularly good chord, guy in a wheelchair right in front of us starts clutching at his chest- we thought he was having "the big one"- turns out he was just trying to get to the control box for his hearing aid, to turn it down.

I have ringing in my ears, too- I always wear earplugs for lawmower, tractor, chainsaw, etc.- but I think I started about 30 years too late.
 
(quoted from post at 09:21:20 12/16/11) Have sung in barbershop quartets since just a lad. .
Click to expand...

that'd sure be nice to offset some of the other "music" that gets posted on here......... Got any to post?

Dave
 

I guess there can be multiple causes of tinnitus, but I've had it since I was a kid before I was around loud equipment, guns, etc.

Sitting in first grade the teacher asked us to listen and then say what we could hear - as we went around the room one kid would say "footsteps in the hall", "bird chirping outside", etc...

When they got to me, I said that "that high pitched ringing noise that is always there when it gets quiet..."...

A few years ago, I had a defective shotgun go off right in my left ear - and it definitely permanently hurt my hearing in that ear...

Howard
 
I spent 20 & 1/2 years in the military working on jet aircraft, went to V.A. tyo get hearing aids , they wouldn t even consider it. Cost me around $3500.00 for the pair.
 
When my son was about 5 we spent the day on a buddys farm picking up flat rock to make a flower bed for Momma. At the end of the day he wanted to see me shoot my little .22 pistol at some cans. We were in a dry creek bed next to a large bluff. I think I fired maybe 8 shots and the sound off of that bluff was awful. That night he told me that he heard bells in his little ears. He now is 20 and cant hear it thunder. Had him tested and the dr.s said he has near total loss of hearing in the gunshot range and hi pitch stuff. Caused him lots of greive in school. I can be a real idiot sometimes. It breaks my heart that I caused this.
 
Back 5 years ago I was installing guard rail with another guy.We could sit down next to it and put our shoulder under it to balance while we bolted it up.Smart a$$ kid decides to hit it right behind me with a hammer to let us know it's lunch time.Got his check and when I gave it to him I said you learn from your mistakes.He looks at me and says HUH.My left ear hasn't been right since.
 
As a result of old age, firing guns from age 6, hanging around loud rock and roll bands, making a living using skill saws for 15 years, delaying going to an audiologist for 10 years, missing out on a lot of conversation, and having my family tire of me asking "what did you say" I finally had my ears tested.

Got my hearing aids 4 months ago, and I can honestly say that I should have done this many years ago. I can hear things that I forgot I used to be able to hear..

Well worth the money spent.....I now have to remind folks to "tone it down a bit".

Tim
 
In college a Ag Engineering professor told us a story. Seems back in the 40's a college in Iowa got a grant to study hearing loss, tested all incomming freshmen and 50% of them had hearing loss in their left ear. This puzzled the MDs doing the study and they figured grant dollars would flow to study this new malady. One of the Doctors was in the university club bragging to his colleagues about the grant he was going to get to study this problem, an Agriculture professors asks the Doctor, "is the hearing problem only in males?" the doctor runs back and looks at the data, sure enough the mystery hearing loss is mostly in males. He calls up the Ag guy and asks him how he knew that, the reply, "well when you drive a tractor you look over your right shoulder, that cocks your left ear to the exhaust stack, that kills the hearing in your left ear" I guess there are some college professors with common sense
 
Peapicker I have the same problem. Worked on turbine generators and heavy equipment for 20+ years in the Army. Now I work on turbine powered 100mw generators.
The ringing really hurts at times. But, I just do what I can. Course, the 820D popper don't help much when it's pulling hard.
 
That's strange. Our local VA insisted on giving me a pair of $7,000 hearing aids when I only marginally need them. I use them occasionally for certain occasions, but I don't wear them all the time. There's a credit card sized remote to control the volume, and sometimes with the volume turned all the way down, it's still too loud. And if I have to hit the "Mute" button, what's the point in wearing them?
 
Speaking of frequencies, here's an interesting story. Once upon a time, I was in the Far East in a Marine jet fighter squadron.

The armament control system in that particular airplane had a function where, whenever the plane was in postition to launch an air to air missile at an enemy aircraft, the pilot got an 800 cycle tone in his headset. The tone remained constant until either a missile was fired or the plane was out of position.

As was the custom, our Commanding Officer always flew the same airplane with the side number "1" on it, while the rest of the pilots flew whatever planes were available. The Colonel kept writing his airplane up that the 800 cycle tone didn't function. Ground crew would check it out, and it would be perfect. Next time the Colonel went up and had occasion to use that function, he wrote the plane up for no 800 cycle tone.

After that happened maybe a half dozen times, the Avionics Officer talked the the squadron Executive Officer, and the Exec tactfully talked to the Colonel. The Colonel had his hearing tested and found he couldn't hear an 800 cycle tone. Yet he could carry on normal conversation as though his hearing was perfect.

So cycles and ranges of cycles do enter into it.
 

The hearing aids from Sams Club (Simplicity Premier) are as good as the expensive aids and cost around $700. I got mine online last summer.
 
Tim Glad uou can hear again. What, is the word I use most around the house. The wife says I need a hearing aid. She may be right. What kind hearing aid did you get? Thanks Stan
 
I wear or use which ever word fits ,dual range Phonak brand hearing aids all the time.Mine are programmable and I change range several times a day. My hearing loss is work related from 20 years of work in the construction industry. The last 12 years of my employment was working in various nuclear power plants.40 to 60 hours a week in that noisy environment degrades your hearing extremely so.We were required to wear hearing protection but what was provided was not really adequate protection in my opinion. A small shaped foam plug stuck in your ear canal is not much protection.Some of the plant areas required ear phone type noise suppressors and by and large they worked well.I am aclimated to the fact my lack of hearing ability is compromised so now i hope I don"t lose one or both of my hearing units or that my hearing does not get worse.Every one owes them selves to have their hearing checked at least once a year if not more often.JH
 
Most anyone who has accrued significant mileage in a car or truck with the windows rolled down has sustained hearing loss in the left ear.

Ever noticed how quiet it is after rolling up the window?

Foam earplugs are much more effective when rolled very tightly and inserted deeply. So deep they almost hit the eardrum. I've seen guys who look as if their earplugs are about to fall out. Not much protection there.

I ran a sandblasting rig 150 days a year using the full 238 hp output from a 6V-71 Detroit. I would wear the new 5/8" nozzles to 3/4". Compressor was rated at 750 CFM. At anything closer than 100 feet, the noise was off the scale on the db meter. I did that for 18 years. Before that I used a 4-53 Detroit powered compressor running at 2700 rpm. My hearing is good but the audiologist says I have lost some high frequency in my left ear. She attributed it to car window noise levels and said it was quite common.
 
Hello oldironman: Your loss in your left ear sounded similar to what happened to me 12 years ago. I also went to several Ear doctors and then to the University Medical hearing clinic. Almost everyone older has some loss but for me it was the very loud ringing 24/7 that was the main problem. My EMAIL is open/active if you would want to read what I did to reduce the effect of the constant ringing. ag
 
My ears have been ringing since 1955 on the firing range in basic training. Cadre pushed me forward too far when I was in what they call the coaching position when another is firing the M 1 Garand. I knew better, been around guns since I could walk, but it was hard to argue with those guys. I haven't heard an engine ping since that day. My general hearing is pretty good if people speak clearly but in a crowd, forget it. The low frequency noises all come in fine, high frequency, nope. One example, wife had a little battery operated toy bird that tweets. I could not hear the tweet but if I held the bird to my ear I could hear the clunking from the mechanism inside but she cannot as she is hearing the tweet.
 
I have been listening to boilers hum and safety valves going off for 40yrs now.Didnt effect my hearing that much.But when I started hunting with a 44mag 16yrs ago that really damaged my left ear.I always used hearing protection at the range,not when hunting though.

Good Luck

Stan
 
they just got me a set $100.00. I'm not service-connected either. Didn't ask for'em, they just told me I was getting them.
 
Ears ringing for 40 years. Satchel charge thrown by a dink landed close enough to blow the handguards off my m-16. I also will probably have to go to the VA soon. Service connected injury but that doesn"t mean much these days.
 
Mine was mainly in the range of 2k to 4kHz, which just happens to also be the frequency range of the Female Voice!!!!! If you don't think I got mileage out of "selective hearing" when it was "honey do" time........I'm hear to tell you.

Mark
 
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