I cant warm to my Audiologist! im sure he means no wrong but I truely find the man useless!, he is indian and I cant read him properly, he also talks into his chest and mutters and for an audio who deals with HOH and Deaf people everyday he has no skills to deal with it!!
when I was small, i was looked after through school, at the age of 7 teachers and parents noticed i wasnt responding when spoken to and sent me to get my hearing tested, I had glue ear, a regular kiddies problem, they put in tupes and drained the fluid. thing is your only supposed to put tubes in twice at most, as they leave a scar on the ear drum every time they are put in and they dammage the cilia. But my hearing would drop again after the tubes came out! so they would put the tubes back in every time! from the age of 7 to the age of around 16 they put tubes in 8 times and in turn destroyed my ear drums and cillia hairs!I did not go back to see the specialist ever again after that, he was the cause of my hearing as far as im concerned and it will never be fixed as a result.I did nothing till a few years ago so I went to a new ENT specialist 3 to 4 years ago when my hearing got noticably worse, He was fantastic, and did everything he could over the few years i stayed with him,he discovered that the problem lay in my Estacian tubes, as I grew, they didnt!! they are under developed and in turn my ear canalls are tiny and only leave in a certain ammount of noise and the ear drumms are tattered!! in the end he gave me 2 options….1: have an operation to cut certain tubes behind the nose to solve the problem to a degree, but the thing is, they could sever certain cappiliraries, and i could bleed to death!! what kind of option is that?? but he had to tell me!! either that or put tubes in again and we know what they do!! so obviously they were two options i couldnt pick! they are useless to me!! in the end we agreed to be referred to my current audiologist and got new Bilateral aids.
He tested my hearing a few times b4 fitting me for the aids, and at one stage he told me i was lying in the hearing tests!! how can i lie?? I didnt like him after that!
after i got the aids, i got used to them and all was fine tho iv noticed with out my aids on my hearing has gotten worse than it was b4 i went to him!
I was called for a review last thursday morning, and i told him about the hearing loss, and the feeling of like im breathing through my eardrums, and it feels like there is something moving around in my left ear, all my concerns, and he looked into them and said that, ‘your eardrums are retracted yes’ which is nothing new!! they are always like that!
he said that nothing can be done and that he wasnt going to try and that it was just a review to see how the aids were working! the aids are fine but my hearing is not! it pisses me off to think that he obviously doesnt care! and Im left to just put up with it!
Im going to call the specialist back and voice my concerns to see if anything at all can be done, if not, ill just have to leave it be! but my current Audiologist is useless!! anyone have one like him???
January 7th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
I would definitely ask for a referral to a different audiologist as your one sounds like he is uninterested in listening to you or at least wanting to help you with your problems. If nothing else him having a strong accent and poor deaf awareness skills is a reason alone to request someone else. I am surprised no one has pulled him up on the things he can change like looking at you, not mumbling etc.
For what it’s worth I struggle with people who have Asian (sub continient of India Asian used in the UK sense) accents as well as oriental asian (Far east Asian in the US sense) accents. Sometimes medics with accents slow down and speak up as well as being understanding when I have difficulties understanding them, unfortunately sometimes individuals get pissy because I don’t understand them.
I know several people who have had grommets in several times without permanent damage, but I think every time increases permanent damage. Did they ever use T-tubes instead of grommets which are supposed to only come out with surgery - or is that what you had?
The people I know who ended up with permanent damage after ear infections as a child often have small eustacian tubes like yourself. I suspect the eustacian tubes are the problem which causes all the glue ear, infections and decreased hearing in the first place. I know some doctors will attempt to enlarge eustacian tubes as I was considered for the procedure but in my case my hearing loss is congenital and mostly middle ear bone loss/malformation which is irreparable.
I’ve had audiologists who were good at their job, but as soon as I had an opinion that differed from theirs they got rude and nasty which might as well be incompetance as far as a sensible relationship between themselves and I goes.
January 7th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
its the grommets iv had, they come out themselves, and from what i have been told by all my audios and specialists, its those 8 times that have screwed up my hearing more!
so i dunno!! im definatly gonna call up the specialist again, as far as refferring to a different audiologist, there are very few down here i may have to go to Dublin to change, but that wont be a problem if they care more!
January 8th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Not quite as bad as him- but my audiologist never really listened to anything I said, anyway. I think that most audiologists are evil.
Poor lette! Can you switch to a different person?
January 9th, 2007 at 5:13 am
iv yet to ring the specialist and ill try to get a new appointment, the audio is good to sort out my aids, but he seems to know nothing about my ears and how to inform me of whats going on!! i adore the technical side of things and i like to know all the details, i feel hepless when he doesnt explain, and i know if i go back to the specialist he was very good to talk to me and tell me whats going on, so ill ring, make an appointment and tell him my concerns!