My mom’s hearing is gone. Pffttt. Disappeared. Like that (imagine my fingers snapping.)
She already had some hearing loss, but has managed to do okay with a hearing aid in one ear. You could carry on a conversation if you spoke up a little. Then suddenly, a couple of weeks ago, she could hear almost nothing. It’s gotten a little better at times and then worse again. She can understand me if I put my mouth right next to her ear and speak slowly. That’s it.
She has an appointment tomorrow morning with an ENT. I hope we discover impacted wax or something that can be remedied on the spot. My consultation with Doctors NIH and Google tell me sudden hearing loss is often idiopathic, meaning nobody ever figures out the reason. Oh, please no. Sometimes hearing mysteriously goes away and then shows back up in a couple of weeks, as if it had been out on a beach vacation. Sometimes it goes away and never comes back and they never find a reason. Sometimes there’s a virus or a tumor. An sometimes there’s a severe wax buildup.
Mom’s quality of life has diminished quite a lot with her sudden deafness. She no longer attends the weekly Bible study, since she can’t hear what’s being said. She doesn’t have conversations with other residents of the nursing facility. She doesn’t even watch TV, unless it’s a baseball game, something she can track without the sound. Her family can’t call and chat with her over the phone. I almost always call on days I don’t visit in person. But now I can’t. My 15-year-old son is learning guitar. He’d been planning to go with me last Saturday to visit and play a couple of songs for her, but there was no point in taking the guitar after all. She is doing a lot of reading, so there’s a silver lining.
I suppose tomorrow I’ll have more information on whether she can recover her hearing or whether this is the new normal. If it’s the latter, it will be a big adjustment for everyone.
Gen BLT 