A little bit about me...

Hi Everyone!

Well, this is my first blog post! It's kind of exciting!

To start things off I will tell you all a little bit more about me! My name is Jenny, I am 18 years old, and I live in Toronto Ontario. I am currently finishing up high school, working, and figuring out how I want to live my life in the future. To say that I have a busy life is a bit of an understatement. Up until one week ago I spent my time going to high school, taking a course at a Univeristy, taking dance classes, singing in a choir, working at two different jobs, and when I had a free moment hanging out with my friends.

Then one week ago on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 I noticed that there was a sudden drop in the hearing in my left ear. I didn't think much of it at the time, having dealt with cronic ear problems and hearing loss for my whole life. It was some what normal for my hearing to fluctuate because of infection, or pressure changes. The following day I noticed another drop. This one was late at night and did concern me. I had none of the symptoms of an ear infection, perforated ear drum, or pressure changes. I was a little worried at that point but it was late at night and I had an appointment with my audiologist in the morning to make some programming adjustments to my hearing aids.

I woke up on Friday morning and the hearing still hadn't come back. I went to my audiologist and told her what was going on. She first checked my hearing aids and they were fine. She looked in my ear and everything was fine, she tested the pressure and everything was fine. She then suggested that we do a quick tone test in my left ear. She said just with the inserts, no bone conducted test, no test with the head phones, just to see where I was at. So she tested my left ear and then came into the booth and said she was going test my right. She tested my right ear and then came in and said she wanted to test me with the head phones. She tested both my ears, came back in, and said she wanted to do a bone conducted test. She tested both ears, came back in and said she was going to try the bone conducted test while masking my other ear. Very quickly this quick test of just my left ear was turning into a full audiogram. She finished the testing and sat me down and told me not only was my hearing dramatically worse in my left ear, but my right as well. We looked at the change that had occured since my last audiogram, just a month and a half previous. The last audiogram showed a 60-90db loss, the new audiogram showed a 90-120db loss with a few NR's.

My audiologist said she wanted me to see and ENT right away and tried to arrange for me to see one that day. The ENTs that she knew were all on vacation (it was March break so anything with a child was on vacation) Neither Toronto General, or Mount Sinai hospitals had an ENT that I could see, they were all on vacation. My audiologist then told me to see my family doctor and try to get an ENT referral from them. I couldn't get a hold of my family doctor so I went to the hospital that she is based out of, and waited in their urgent care center. It took two hours to be seen by a doctor but when I finally saw one she got me a referral to see an ENT at Sunnybrook Hospital the following Monday, this meant waiting the whole weekend. I talked to my audiologist and told her this. Apperently she then called the ENT and was very firm that he saw me that day. I got an appointment and headed to the hospital right away.

The ENT told me the loss was permanent. He didn't examine me at all and just took what my audiologist said to be true. I trust my audiologist 100%, but the fact that he didn't even examine me, and said it was permanent anyway was unnerving. I went right back to my audiologists office, by now it was 5:00 PM and my first appointment with her was at 9:00AM. She was going to adjust my hearing aids and bump them up as high as she could. My aids are Phonak Savia Arts, they are good aids, but they don't have as much power as I need now. I get only very limited environmental sounds from them. My audiologist ordered me Phonak Naida's that should be in next week. I am very excited to try them! She had also secured me an appointment with and ENT at Toronto General for the 28th. She made this appointment while we were looking for an ENT to see me that day.

On Tuesday, March 18 at about 1:00AM I noticed that there was a warm sensation in my left ear, and then the tone of my tinnitus changed. After the sudden hearing loss my audiologist made me promise that if anything else happened I would get it checked out right away. Not wanting to deal with the wrath of my audiologist, I went to Toronto General at 2:00AM. I had my friend call ahead to let them know a Deaf person would be coming in. I got there and signed the sign in sheet and went to wait. I spent 5 hours in that ER waiting to see a doctor. I dealt with a nurse who wouldn't look at me when she spoke, another nurse who accused me of ignoring her, and a drunk man freaking out at me. All in all it was a wonderful experience. I finally saw a doctor after 5 hours and he said he didn't know what was happening, there were no signs of infection and he wanted me to see an ENT. I waited another two hours to see an ENT resident who said there was nothing he could do and to go home. I emailed my audiologist and told her what had happened. She wanted me to come in that afternoon to make some programming adjustments to my hearing aids, so I went home, slept, and then went to see my audiologist.

We made some quick adjustments to my hearing aids and then she said she wanted to do another quick test, just my left ear with the inserts (where have I heard that before?!?!) The situation played out much like the one on the previouse Friday and it quickly became a full audiogram. This time she even decided she wanted to do a speech discrimination test too. The last one I had done was on January 25, 2008. I had got 84% at 105db. I got 0% on Monday.
The new audiogram revealed aother 10db of loss, putting me at a 90-120db loss still but with many many more NR's.

We don't know if it will drop more, there is no way of telling because we don't know why it is happening. I have an appointment with a cochlear implant audiologist, another ENT, and many more appointments with my audiologist coming up. It is going to be a busy few weeks while I decide what to do....and that's me!

-Jenny