Not Your Grandmother's Hearing Aids

Well actually I hope they are - today's high-tech hearing aids are a great improvement over the big, beige "bananas" of old, I'm told. The older ones were analog and amplified every sound, whereas the newer ones are digital and programmable, which means the audiologist can customize them for your  needs and hearing profile.

I'm reporting from my latest health-related adventure; skip this post if you're looking for Dharma. Consider this a public-service announcement; we will shortly return to the usual programming.

Getting a hearing aid is pretty complicated, and it's not easy to find good information. This is by far the best advice I found, by a longtime wearer named Karen McGrane:
http://karenmcgrane.com/?s=hearing+aid

Backtracking to give you my story...
Monday I had a hearing test and separate consultations with an otologist and an audiologist. The graph from the test was shaped like a cliff: low tones were normal, but higher tones fell sharply into the moderately severe range. I was surprised at how bad it was. The otologist advised me that my hearing loss from the Cisplatin and whole-brain radiation was probably permanent, which makes the decision to get a hearing aid more straightforward. I knew my hearing was getting worse but thought it would improve after I was done with chemo, as it had in the past.

My oncologist had suggested I skip my previous treatment until I saw the audiologist - because even Taxol could damage my hearing and because my CA-125 dropped 30 points in a month (to 15, safely within the normal range), so it wasn't critical that I get chemo then. The otologist said it was fine to go ahead with the chemo this week, but then my white count was too low. For a lot of patients, the only thing worse than getting chemo is not getting it, but I don't mind the break.

I'm happy with my high-end loaner hearing aids (HA). I wish all problems could be so easily remedied with technology, if only it wasn't so expensive. HAs cost $2,500 - $5,000 for a pair, and few insurance plans contribute anything toward the cost; mine is no exception. As McGrane put it, "Wearing hearing aids is just like wearing glasses, except for the part where they cost as much as a used car and you wear them inside your head." Because of the electronics in the HA, I have to keep reminding myself not to wear them in the shower : )

It seems crazy that there's no financial help. Given that good hearing aids can really improve your quality of life, I feel for everyone who would get one if they were cheaper, or would have a better one if they could afford it. In my dream world, Medicare and Medicaid and regular health insurance would at least "go halfsies" on them.

I have a follow-up appointment with the same "audie" (audiologist) to talk more about different models and am also getting a consultation at a non-profit called the Hearing, Speech & Deafness Center, which was recommended by my classmate RobL after his mother got hers there. The consultation is free, and you can return your hearing aids after a 2-month trial; the first place had a 1-month trial; I saw that other places have fees if you return them within the trial phase.

I am continuing my test drive, trying out different conditions: noisy restaurant, group discussion in a big room, etc. As I mentioned in a previous post, I watched Downton Abbey, because I tried watching it before and couldn't understand the English accents; with the hearing aids, I could understand almost everything. We signed up again for Netflix disks in the mail so that I could make use of subtitles, which aren't available when Netflix streams English movies to your TV, but it's nice not to be so dependent on subtitles for movies in my native language.

Funny Karma

Or rather, not funny karma.
It happened again at class last night, as it had at a few Dharma teachings in Vancouver: Whenever some Teachers said something funny, I couldn't hear it - I could only hear the straight Dharma! (But I think I was able to hear everything Gen-la Dekyong said, including the humorous bits.) There must be something many of us do when delivering a joke that puts it out of my hearing range - I think we tend to drop our voices.
When I see the hearing specialist on the 13th, can I complain of my humor loss?

I'm going to take my "pocket talker" to the day course tomorrow to see if it helps. (It's a small amplifier unit that comes with a small microphone, an extendable cord and a jack for headphones.) I learned about it from a Sangha friend whose Mom uses one, in addition to her hearing aid.

Like a Snow Day

Just a quick health update: Yesterday I was scheduled for chemo, but my oncologist recommended skipping it because he's concerned about my hearing loss - he wants me to get my hearing test first, and the earliest I could schedule is Feb 13. Because I scored so well on my last test (the blood test that measures my tumor marker), there was no great need for chemo this week. Next week is a regularly scheduled break from chemo. So I got a day off - like the snow days we experienced last month in Seattle, it's not a bad thing.
I am confident that my hearing will get better now that I am off the Cisplatin chemo, but appreciate my doctor's concern. He said there is a risk of irreparable loss and that even the Taxol chemo can cause some damage to the auditory nerve - although it's less famous for that than the Cis.
When I mentioned this latest development to my classmate DebV, she recommended I learn sign language, which I think it a great idea no matter what happens. Deb taught me how to say, "thank you."
http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/t/thankyou.htm
Imagine that I am saying this to you.

Tsog? Saag!

Just a funny little story about misunderstanding ...
I was at the Temple, having finished my reception shift and having helped Dachog prepare tsog offerings for that evenings' Wishfulfilling Jewel puja. I was planning to pick up Indian food on the way home, so I was on the phone with Richard to find out what he wanted.
When he said "saag", I said "tsog?" They really do sound similar, even to someone with decent hearing.
If he had ordered his usual, saag paneer, I think I would have gotten it, but he wanted saag korma.
If I hadn't just prepared tsog offerings, I probably would have understood.
Context is everything.
At home they call me "Miss Communication" (or is that miscommunication?).

I used to be an editor, and my Dad used to claim I couldn't be a communications professional because I was so bad at communicating - which to him meant I didn't phone him often enough.

Sometimes when I make a mistake, I console myself that I'm mistaken about literally everything - in the sense of the true nature of reality - so what's one more mistake?