Audiology: A Hearing Analysis

I often take my ability to hear for granted. Going into the field of Audiology, we can often forget how different the world is for the person in the booth- only seeing them as a diagnosis or problem that needs fixed. We get so preoccupied with running the standard battery, finding their diagnosis, recommending some sort of aid, that we forget that they are more than just their hearing. There’s other parts of a person that are intertwined with their ability to hear. Simulating a mild conductive loss reminded me how debilitating losing just a small portion of my hearing can be. Different situations presented their own obstacles and challenges that we sometimes not easily overcome.
The most profound experience that I had through the simulation
was going out to dinner with some friends. Through clinical observations and readings, this setting seems the most difficult for patients with some degree of hearing loss so I wanted to test it out for myself. I decided I would perform this with the bilateral loss to make it more accurate of an experience. Prior to ordering, I had no significant issues; I was able to pick up on cues from others and my knowledge of how typical restaurant situations work. The difficulties began upon ordering. I found myself asking the waitress several clarifying questions about the menu and eventually my order. The frustration and doubt starts coming into play and adding another layer of difficulty to the somewhat menial task. By the end of just ordering I was unsure if my request was correctly articulated to the waitress and defaulted to head nods and smiles. To my surprise, my order was incorrect because I was not able to understand if the waitress correctly understood my order.
Aside from the ordering aspect of going to dinner, the social aspect was just as difficult. At first I tried to partake in conversation but it began to be more effortful and unnatural. I was constantly asking for my friends to speak louder and repeat themselves. It got to the point that I just “listened” instead of participating. Overall I felt embarrassed, frustrated, and defeated after the meal. I knew it was going to be challenging, but was not expecting it to go how it did. It puts into perspective how much difficulty a hearing loss can be. The psychosocial aspects are just as debilitating as the physical.
Another experience that stands out was when I tried to make a phone call.
I placed the ear plug in my dominant ear which happens to be the same ear I use the phone with. Upon answer I was not able to hear the person on the other side. I proceeded to bombard them with “Hello’s,” “Can you hear me?” and “Are you there?” I even tried to raise the volume to the maximum setting. After no success I gave up and shouted “Text me instead.” My patience was not ideal but common for people who have difficulty with tasks that they never did before. It did not even cross me at first that the struggle was due to the ear plug. I push the blame onto my phone and not inability to hear. Looking back, I keep thinking how I did not see the problem was myself. From my time in clinic, I see this happen numerous times. Patients come in thinking the problem is that people are mumbling or that places are just too loud to hear speech, but in reality the real issue is their hearing
loss.
The last significant experience that I had was with walking places while having the ear plug inserted. I encountered numerous struggles, with localization, safety, and ambient noises being the most prominent. As we know, two ears are better than one when trying to figure out where a sound is coming from. I struggled hearing traffic, people, animals, etc. coming from behind or ahead of me. It kept on my toes and forced me to be more alert than I normally am. Crossing streets came with more anxiety even though I knew I was not in any real danger. I kept thinking that I was not going to hear a car coming while crossing the street. Also on my walk I noticed they were much more quiet. The birds, the wind, the leaves, etc. were not making sounds like they normally did. The sounds I was hearing were not as loud and it felt weird and uncomfortable. It made my walks, which are something I enjoy doing, less enjoyable and made me expend much more energy. Form this experience I was able to see how easily people may abandon hobbies or other enjoyable activities because of a hearing loss.
Overall, the experiences very all very rewarding and taught me firsthand how a hearing loss can impact everyday life.
My main take-away from this assignment is that hearing loss is not just a physical loss- it encompasses the entire person. It is a catalyst to other losses and issues. As I stated earlier, the psychosocial impact of hearing loss is just as hampering as the physical. Retiring from enjoyable activities and situations becomes fairly common. Feelings of angry, impatience, self-doubt came upon relatively easily. Altogether the deficits acted as one. As audiologist, we do not just treat hearing and balance issues, we treat an entire
person.