Jenniepepsi, I'm sorry you had to grow up that way. If it makes you feel any better, my understanding is that its common in a dysfunctional family to single out one child for abuse and not abuse all of the children. It's never the child's fault!
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I'm also sorry that you weren't able to get help for your hearing loss before, but its great that you are taking care of it now. What a shame that the first audi you met was one that I sincerely believed gave you really bad advice. The only thing I can think of is maybe he thought you can't afford hearing aids so why mention them? But there are ways to get hearing aids, even if you don't have any money, and he shouldn't have given you that advice, based on the information you posted here.
So, I wouldn't rely on anything the audi or ENT said, but start over with new people.
Hopefully, maybe someone here can give you a referral, or an idea on how to get a referral in your area. One way might be to call the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind and ask them for a referral. Their web site says they have a campus in Phoenix. But I would wait to hear from other posters here whether they think its a good school or not.
If you get a few referrals ask the doctor about the tests they will do using the hearinglosshelp.com article as a reference. Medical references don't always pan out because sometimes professionals get referrals because they are good at politics and not because they are actually the best audi or ENT for patients. That's why when possible I like to ask patients (very knowledgeable ones of course 
) and not organizations for references.
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Since your insurance won't cover hearing aids but will cover medical care, you have even more of an incentive to find out how much if any of your loss is due to middle ear issues and not inner ear issues.
Some middle ear issues can be handled medically or surgically and that would be covered by your insurance. If it turns out that you have a condition that can be treated surgically, you should post again because there is more to consider.
IMHO, since this is the first time that you are getting your hearing medically evaluated, you also need to rule out acoustic neuroma, or a tumor on the auditory nerve. It is unlikely that you have it because its so rare, but I still think it should be ruled out.
Also, IMHO, you really need to nail down why you have vertigo.
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Your hearing loss may be caused by noise or maybe not. Your hearing loss may have more than one cause too. BTW, did anyone else in your family have a hearing loss?
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Ear wax -- sounds like you have a lot! Did you get it removed before your audiogram? I can't believe I'm asking that question, but your audi sounds so bad, I am. Obviously ear wax build up can affect how well you hear and how well you would do on an audiogram.
You are probably going to want to deal with it. There are ways to manage it -- but I hesitate to go into them. No one is suppose to use those methods if their ear drum is perforated but I don't know how you are suppose to tell if it is, its not necc. painful if your ear drum has a hole in it. Perhaps other posters have suggestions or maybe the best thing to do is to get regular appts to have a doctor remove the ear wax.
If you end up going to the doctor to have your ear waxed removed you still have to deal with the build up and the disadvantages of build up -- including decreased hearing.
Another reason you will want to deal with your ear wax is because once you start wearing hearing aids, it will probably increase.
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So, these are my thoughts for now. Hope some of them are helpful. But keep in mind I'm not a doctor or audi! Just a person who grew up HH and reads a lot.
