On Mumbling

[digitS']

I imagine this thread might be confused with @jackb 's but those who would feign to do so would employ a lame excuse. Yeah, something like, "If you want me to know what you're saying, stop mumbling!"

Just glancing through this. After all - this month marks 32 years of me wearing hearing aids. I was finally backed into a corner because of what I wanted to do and couldn't. I was also embarrassed by hearing disability. Own it!

But, I know that many, many won't. Family gatherings are good places to root them out. Actually, I think some are given to overindulgence, even anger in these settings, and are in communication self-denial. I wonder if it would work to make the call, pay your $5, and hand them the phone, "this is for you."

https://www.nationalhearingtest.org/index.html

These folks are operating under a National Institutes of Health grant. If I understand right, they are Walter Reed Hospital doctors who set this up.

The telephone can't measure hearing very accurately but it can indicate comprehension. Can you figure out what was said? Maybe you need to do something about your failures to understand, Bub.

Steve

 

[Smiles Jr.]

I have a very bad case of Tinnitus and recent studies have learned that this problem may have nothing at all to do with the ears or hearing. The studies are finding that the ringing may originate in the brain and is somehow perceived as a hearing problem. Interesting.

My Tinnitus is so bad that ringing never goes away. 24/7/365 and it sometimes drives me crazy. I have been to several doctors, clinics, audiologists, etc. only to find that hearing aids do absolutely nothing for me. I catch myself avoiding crowds or groups of people and it has a negative effect on my social activities. I cannot expect others to understand my problem, so I figure "why try".

I have slowly and naturally learned to read lips but in a social gathering there are just too many lips to be read. Also it seems to bother some people when I have to stare at their lips all the time they're talking. (side note: While I was typing the last sentence I misspelled the word LIPS and typed TIPS - it gave a whole new meaning to my message Ha Ha)

My hearing problem gives merit to the saying "silence is golden".

 

[digitS']

Well, me too, Smiles ...

The way it worked for me was that for about the first 20 years, I could put the hearing aids in, turn them on and the tinnitus would go away!

I've noticed that when I don't feel well (pain), the noise is louder. I used to really notice it when I awakened and was really, really sleepy. Kind of the staggering around situation ... the tinnitus had more dimensions at those times - symphonic!

If my experience is typical, it changes. I used to say that it was like standing listening to the fridge run. Then it was go-cart track noisy! Today, I'd say it's just a hummmmm.

Steve

 

[Smart Red]

Smiles, keep looking for a doctor who can help you. A music teacher friend had a problem with constant noise in his ears. He almost tendered his resignation since it bothered him so much he couldn't focus or hear the students in band.

I persuaded him to wait until the next school year and spend the summer seeking help further afield than he had found locally. The next school year started with big smiles. He had found a specialist (in New York) in his particular hearing problem and learned that constant noise was needed to counter what he was hearing. Special hearing aids helped him work the additional 8 years until retirement.

 

[hoodat]

I usually start all phone conversations with, "I have a hearing problem so please don't get irritated if I ask you to repeat yourself". Almost everyone is quite understanding. Hearing aids are almost useless to me. They cost an arm and a leg, never last for more than a few months and the batteries are often hard to find and expensive. I have a fairly small maxi audio device that I can put on the table in social settings and wearing earbuds I do pretty well. It also helps with TV sound. I don't have to crank up the volume till it drives everyone else out of the room. Tough little bugger. I've gotten it wet and it starts working again as soon as it dries out. I've also dropped it several times. It uses AA batteries which are reasonably priced and easy to find.

 

[catjac1975]

I usually start all phone conversations with, "I have a hearing problem so please don't get irritated if I ask you to repeat yourself". Almost everyone is quite understanding. Hearing aids are almost useless to me. They cost an arm and a leg, never last for more than a few months and the batteries are often hard to find and expensive. I have a fairly small maxi audio device that I can put on the table in social settings and wearing earbuds I do pretty well. It also helps with TV sound. I don't have to crank up the volume till it drives everyone else out of the room. Tough little bugger. I've gotten it wet and it starts working again as soon as it dries out. I've also dropped it several times. It uses AA batteries which are reasonably priced and easy to find.

I have always had trouble with foreign accents especially on the phone. I apologize and say I'm so sorry but I hove trouble with accents

 

[so lucky]

I am somewhat gratified in an odd way to read that others have this weird affliction. When mine was at its worst, there could be as many as three different beats going on in my ears simultaneously, or at least that's where I feel the pain. I took lipo flavonoids for quite a while, and that really helped, but it made my ears itch, not a good trade off, and finally that didn't help anymore.
The chirping is constant, and painless, but when the kaboom kaboom kaboom starts, it feels like the ears popping from change in air pressure, every second. then sometimes also a boom, chacalaca, boom,chacalaca rhythm on top of the other two.
I have never noticed a correlation with being tired or with blood pressure elevation but usually the sensations will abate after I get quiet and lie very still. Sometimes even the slightest eyelid movement will set it off again.

 

[dickiebird]

My wife has a kinda different problem, her ears mumble, she claims it's me, but I know it's not!!!!!

THANX RICH

 

[digitS']

We all mumble, sometimes. Except for Katharine Hepburn. Yeah. Think of that voice!

"All I'm trying to say is that there's lots of things that a man can do and in society's eye it's all hunky dory. A woman does the same thing - the same thing, mind you - and she's an outcast."

Now, my ears hear a creaking turnstile, never stopping ... some high whistling, now and then.

It's all designed to entertain me, I'm Sure. It's just that the harmless wee elves have no musical sense. That's all.

Katharine Hepburn was from Connecticut. I have an idea that @catjac1975 in eastern Massachusetts doesn't speak like Hepburn but wouldn't have any trouble understanding her. Probably the call centre lady in Mumbai wouldn't either.

Steve

 

[Smiles Jr.]

@so lucky - boom, chacalaca, boom,chacalaca. I love that. I just Googled that to find out who made that song popular in the '60s but all I could find was references to basketball and some modern foreign pop music band.

I seem to remember learning that Beethoven or Bach committed suicide because he could no longer hear the musical notes due to tinnitus.