Introducing Me

[cofaye]

Hi everyone. I'm Cofaye. When I was in junior high school I noticed moments when people would be speaking to me and all of a sudden there was no volume. It would only last a few minutes and then I could hear again. I went to an audiologist who said I was fine, there was nothing wrong with me. In 2005 I started hearing bugs crawling in my right ear. I didn't have health insurance, and I was terribly embarrassed that I had bugs in my ear. Through the years more sounds have become part of my life. I hear wind rushing through both ears when it's quiet, I have the fun high pitch ringing which is intermittent, and then in my left ear I have the fluttering going on of my ear drum. The last one HURTS!! As the years have gone on I've noticed that I am avoiding people. I gave up my music because what I hear and what I produce are two different things. If I'm in a room of people talking I can't hear the person in front of me talking to me but I can hear the other conversations. Besides the volume being turned off on my hearing now and then. Now a days it's primarily just been in my left ear though. I finally got health insurance 2 years ago and up until 6 months ago I was able to keep the doctors away from my ear. I didn't want them to see the bugs in my ear. But I let my guard down one visit and the doc said that everything looked great, that he could see all the way back to my eardrum. Wait what?! Did he just say I DID NOT have bugs in my ear?? How was that possible? Anyhow, I was referred to have an in clinic hearing test. Which I failed, and then sent to Audiology. It was there that I was diagnosed with Eustachian Tube Dysfunction. I was told that I have some hearing loss, more in my left ear then my right. Plus that I could hear the words just fine as long as they were louder. However I have a hard time with hearing the first parts of words. I was referred to ENT, but I'm still waiting on that appointment. That's pretty much me in a nutshell.

 

[Atlantis]

Hi everyone. I'm Cofaye. When I was in junior high school I noticed moments when people would be speaking to me and all of a sudden there was no volume. It would only last a few minutes and then I could hear again. I went to an audiologist who said I was fine, there was nothing wrong with me. In 2005 I started hearing bugs crawling in my right ear. I didn't have health insurance, and I was terribly embarrassed that I had bugs in my ear. Through the years more sounds have become part of my life. I hear wind rushing through both ears when it's quiet, I have the fun high pitch ringing which is intermittent, and then in my left ear I have the fluttering going on of my ear drum. The last one HURTS!! As the years have gone on I've noticed that I am avoiding people. I gave up my music because what I hear and what I produce are two different things. If I'm in a room of people talking I can't hear the person in front of me talking to me but I can hear the other conversations. Besides the volume being turned off on my hearing now and then. Now a days it's primarily just been in my left ear though. I finally got health insurance 2 years ago and up until 6 months ago I was able to keep the doctors away from my ear. I didn't want them to see the bugs in my ear. But I let my guard down one visit and the doc said that everything looked great, that he could see all the way back to my eardrum. Wait what?! Did he just say I DID NOT have bugs in my ear?? How was that possible? Anyhow, I was referred to have an in clinic hearing test. Which I failed, and then sent to Audiology. It was there that I was diagnosed with Eustachian Tube Dysfunction. I was told that I have some hearing loss, more in my left ear then my right. Plus that I could hear the words just fine as long as they were louder. However I have a hard time with hearing the first parts of words. I was referred to ENT, but I'm still waiting on that appointment. That's pretty much me in a nutshell.

If you have some hearing loss (doesn't need to be severe), hearing aids could help your tinnitus.