Hello friends!
If you or a loved one wear hearing aids, this may be of interest to you. There’s even a lesson for you normal hearing friends! I’ve had several conversations lately with men and women who are concerned about hearing loss. I published this some time ago but thought I would post it again.
I (re)learned a hard lesson a couple years ago. It started with a visit to my hearing clinic to get fitted for new ear molds. My hearing aids and assistive listening devices (ALDs) were still working well after 7 years, but the molds (the part that goes into the ear) looked disgusting and needed to be replaced. I’ll leave that to your imagination!
My audiologist delivered bad news. “Your ears have impacted wax in your left ear very close to the eardrum”. She didn’t feel confident removing the wax, so she made arrangements for me to see a senior colleague at the main location in Vancouver. This procedure held up everything – there was no way I could have mold impressions taken with the wax in my ears, and the hearing test I was due for would have to wait as well because the ears were blocked.
The appointment at the main clinic started with the audi kindly and tentatively explaining in his soft Irish accent that he would go slowly, that I should tell him if it hurt. I was already nervous because I left Miss Google in the car, something I don’t do often, and I didn’t want to leave her there long. I was assured this would take 30 minutes tops.
Now I was worried. I knew the eardrum could be damaged. He explained that when wax sits in the ear a long time, it changes from white to yellow and finally to brown as it turns into a little rock. I consoled myself with thoughts that there wasn’t much hearing in that ear anyway so it wouldn’t be THAT big a loss.
As he advanced the 12” long dry-suction instrument into my left ear canal, I immediately began measured breathing to calm myself (a count of 4 for a slow in-breath, a count of 4 on a slow out-breath). I realized he was nervous too. Our frequencies were matched; my breathing was a conscious effort to elevate mine.
Results were better than expected. He pulled several little chunks from each ear with little discomfort due to the two weeks of nightly applications of olive oil to both ears to soften the wax. Once I knew he was happy, we both started to relax.
There’s a moral to this story:
- DON’T use Q-tips to clean your ears (I should know better by now but how else do you get the tickle out?). It really does push the wax in farther and damage to eardrum is a possibility when you finally get the wax out. And it’s really embarrassing being reminded of the dangers of Q-tips after all these years of wearing aids.
- If you wear hearing aids, make an annual appointment with your audi to get ears checked for wax. Or at least every time you get new tubes.
- Getting a GP to syringe wax out of the ears is okay for hearing folks (who don’t wear ‘ear plugs’ all the time. Ears need time to dry before wearing aids again. I had been there, done that. I once ended up with an aspergillus infection in one ear that required time off work, two visits to an Otolaryngologist (ear specialist/surgeon) and two courses of antibiotics. Not fun.
My ears were a little tender for a couple of days but I’m grateful for a good outcome. And an important lesson learned. Now, instead of waiting 3 weeks for new molds, this adventure will have taken almost two months by the time I have them.
If you or a loved one is struggling to decide about testing or hearing aids, I have years of experience and would be happy to help with a little free advice and some hard of hearing communication tips.
Was this article relevant for you? I would be most grateful for your comments below. It’s important to me to create content that serves. Many blessings!