My whole life changed when I did this…

Hearing problems in later life can be most annoying, especially to other family members. I have a most incredible experience with a hearing problem that actually gave me more faith in the human body and spirit.

I can remember when I was a child a hearing test in school, first year of high school, the person conducting the test gave me a letter and told me to give it to my parents. I remember my father discussing the contents of the letter with my mother, the letter obviously indicated a problem with my hearing. I can’t remember the outcome of the conversation between my parents but I remember money being mentioned as a stumbling block. I actually took little notice but I did sit at the front of the class all the time as I had problems hearing and understanding the teachers.

I migrated to Australia after high school alone to a brother already settled in the country. I began a career in the mining industry working my way up on heavy machinery eventually leading to management positions. I always had hearing problems put down to industrial noise and rock and roll bands I was in for many years. Upon taking on senior management positions it became a focal problem. In 1994 my wife at the time suddenly got up and turned off the TV. She said she couldn’t stand the volume any more and I should see some professionals regarding my hearing problems.

I consulted with a professional hearing specialist, he immediately diagnosed hardening of the syrup and anvil bones in both of my ears, in my left ear externally I was completely deaf, in the right ear I had 25% external hearing, internal hearing from the cochlea onward my hearing was diagnosed as normal. The professional’s opinion was my hearing problem was serious, I was quite shocked.

At the time a British ear specialist spent six months of the year here working out of North Adelaide and I immediately made an appointment to see him, he was of the same opinion. I underwent a Stapedectomy on my left ear, the removal of the syrup and anvil bones and replacing them with platinum wires with a Teflon piston and cylinder between them. The procedure is done with a microscope inserted along side the ear canal, the replacement part can hardly be seen in any detail with the naked eye.

The results were staggering, when I came round in recovery I couldn’t work out where all the noise was coming from and there was a lot of it. As the swelling went down over two weeks or so I couldn’t walk down the street without ear muffs on. My brain took over six months to just adjust to the new input. The specialist surgeon showed me the syrup and anvil bone from my ear, it was a clustered clump of brown bone smaller than a pea. He explained I was externally deaf from birth, this told a lot and I undertook a second Stapedectomy to my right ear over a year later with the same result.

I returned to singing with a completely new aspect in controlling my voice, I could hear so much that had been missing. The handicap had actually assisted in developing my voice as I pushed it so hard to try and hear, at the time normal to me.

It also told me allot about difficulties I experienced at school progressing to later life.

It also showed me the incredible adaptability of the human body. I can still lip read at twenty metres, although the handicap affected my education it bolstered some other elements of perception such as sight and channelling conversation to alternate processing networks in my brain.

What is really amazing, is at sixty one my hearing is more than 50% better than when I was a child and although I had a handicap albeit unbeknown affected ability in some areas it boosted it.

Needles to say, family was very pleased when I kept telling them there was no need to shout.

Have you got hearing aids? How did they change your life? Do you feel like you’re having more fun now?