Can you hear me now?

We've all seen the cell phone commercials where the guy says "Can you hear me now?"  For some of us that is a more regular reality though.

For several years now I've struggled with hearing in large groups, especially in noisy environments.  Many times, I've missed a phone call or a text coming in because I didn't hear my cell phone even if it's in the same room as me.  I'm often the woman who stands in group settings smiling and nodding while having no clue on half of what's going on around me because I struggle to hear what's being said.  What I do catch is only a portion of what's being said leaving me to piece together what I think I'm hearing and what is actually being said.  This requires a lot of effort and concentration to filter out other conversations and general background noise that it's often just easier to do the smile and nod approach and not tax myself so much to hear what's going on.  Therefore I feel left out a lot as it's hard to contribute to a conversation when you have no clue what's going on!

These last few months my ears, more specifically my right ear has gotten worse which prompted my primary care doctor to send me to an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor who I went to see yesterday.  After sticking a camera up my nose and doing a CT Scan of my sinuses he decided to perform a basic hearing test.  My left ear came back within the normal range but my right ear was below normal which prompted him to send me to an audiologist.  Thankfully they had a cancellation for today so I was able to get right in this morning (yea!).

After a battery of more in depth tests, the audiologist determined that yes my right ear appears to have neurological damage causing me to have mild hearing loss in my right ear.  The anticipated next step is an MRI and then possibly a hearing aid in my right ear.

A part of me isn't looking forward to having to wear a hearing aid for the rest of my life but on the flip side, it would be SO nice to actually be able to hear normally and not have to strain to hear anything and everything!