thank you so much for all of this. im gonna answer everything IN your quote with purple k?
If you can ... going forward add in this tag [ / quote ] but with no spaces to break up the person you're responding to message.
Because that way they can respond to your message. Right now I can read your msg, but I can't quote it when replying and that may make my response a little confusing.
OH and i almost for got that they also did an MRI. i had to have an open one cause of anxiety in the big tube. and the ENT said it came back normal. im not sure if that helps.
Well, I'm glad to hear they did an MRI. An MRI would be able to detect if you had a tumor on the auditory nerve. Of course I don't know what part of your body or ear the MRI was aimed at and I think you already know I don't have a high opinion of either your audi or ENT.
I suggest asking your ENT what the MRI was for -- what conditions it was intended to rule out or rule in. If he doesn't say so on his own, ask if he was able to rule out acoustic neuroma (tumors on the auditory nerve).
Perhaps the MRI showed the condition of your middle ear and inner ear. I would ask about that as well.
I would also ask for a complete copy of your medical records from both the audi and ENT. This should be a copy of the type of records they would give to another physician and not necc. the copies they tend to give to patients. Its your right to have a copy of those records. Then, at your leisure, you can look up every single word in a medical dictionary online and figure out exactly what they did and what they know so far.
But I have a theory that people are either trustworthy or not -- so, if I were in your situation, I would still prefer to see another audi and ENT.
The thing is though, I don't know what your options are under Medicaid. I just realized that you may not be able to see another audi or ENT soon, unless perhaps you can prove that you didn't get all of the tests that you were suppose to get. Let me know if you have any questions about the hearinglosshelp.com article.
It may be possible that you have vertigo due to your anxiety issues. Do you have blood pressure issues also? You may have vertigo due to that.
The ear conditions that I heard of that cause vertigo are auditory nerve tumors and Meniere's. You said that they said you don't have Meniere's. If your hearing loss doesn't fluctuate, that may be why they don't think you have Meniere's -- but I would go ahead and read about this on your own.
There are other ear conditions that can cause vertigo, but I don't remember what they are offhand.
One of the best things you can do as a person with hearing loss is to become very knowledgeable about this area. ENTs and audis are under financial pressure to keep their appts short -- so the best thing you can do is to be very prepared for your appts and being knowledgeable helps. Becoming knowledgeable about your particular hearing loss and symptoms helps even more.
If that is what you want to do than I suggest starting to read reputable web sites. Those include ones that are connected to the government or to well known hospitals and clinics. E.g.:
MedlinePlus - Health Information from the National Library of Medicine
Mayo Clinic
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In regard to getting an amplifier or very inexpensive hearing aid off the web --
I don't know if that would be a good idea or not, although I certainly understand the temptation.
You want to be sure that you don't get too much amplification because you want to keep the hearing you have.
You also want the hearing aid's gain to be appropriate for your loss. If you don't -- your HA can be very uncomfortable.
That is why it's better to get your hearing aids through an audi, and preferably through an audi that isn't lazy and will do the entire battery of tests that they are suppose to do.
Do you think its likely that you will get a job soon? If you can't get HAs through the Starkey's foundation or from the Lions Club, I wonder if you should try to get a pair with the Care Credit card. If you can pay off your bill in the agreed amount of time -- you won't owe any interest. If you can't -- you will owe a ridicously high amount of interest. If that could possibly happen, well quite frankly its very difficult to recommend going into debt that is very difficult to pay off.
I do hope others will start posting their ideas soon.
If there was such a thing as an amplifier that only gave you 10 - 20 dbs of gain -- that might be safe for your degree of loss as you described it for a short term solution. I think it would be difficult to verify that was all the amount of gain you were getting and you wouldn't want to jeopardize what hearing you have left.
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Hearing loss cause --
The reason I asked if your family also had hearing loss was becasue you said you thought you had it from living near an airport. But if that was the case, probably other people in your family (and neighborhood) would have a hearing loss also. Of course genetics can also make one more predisposed to a loss. Basically its not always easy to know why one has a hearing loss unless one has a conclusive diagnostic test. (Sometimes people get genetic tests.) Which reminds me, don't forget to ask the ENT or audi where your hearing loss is located per your audiogram: middle ear, inner ear or both.
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I've read of about 4 different ways people manage their own ear wax -- but again if your ear drum is perforated its not a good idea.
I don't think most doctors will give you a general OK to use those methods because if you do have a hole in your ear drum, you will be making your problem worse and not better.
Just because you didn't have a hole in your ear drum in the past doesn't mean that you wouldn't have a hole in your ear drum in the future.
Personally I don't know that I would risk it, but if you're interested I'll see if I can find a thread in a forum about that topic.
i even saw in the support section someone who also has a love for Pepsi. but their name is only 'Pepsi'