Say what?
As I wrote this morning, I went to see a doctor today. For a while I’ve suspected that my hearing is impaired. I don’t hear the neighbours the way Andreas does and I often have trouble hearing what people say. Especially men and especially when I’m tired or the person isn’t facing me. Background noise is also a problem for me.
But before I did the audiogram today, I didn’t believe I really had a problem. I have tinnitus, and did an audiogram eight years ago. Back then everything was fine and dandy so I’ve been believing that my tinnitus noises simply were louder than the noises I don’t hear.
Here is my audiogram:
Apparently I don’t hear much at all in the span of 500-1000 Hz. 40 dB is a lot of attenuation, foam earplugs usually attenuate 30 dB, but human speech is only partly in this interval (spanning 512 to 2048 Hz). So it really doesn’t feel like I can’t hear. Sure, I have difficulties when people talk sometimes, but my impression is mostly that they mumble. It definitely doesn’t feel like I’m walking around with earplugs! I wonder if this is what it’s like to not realize you need glasses?
I’m told that this is something genetic and that it’ll be a real problem when I get older and I’ll start losing the higher frequences as well, like most people do. I’m still getting a hearing aid in February though, that I can use in meetings and in other situations that don’t work so well. Constantly compensating and lip reading is tiring in a very unnecessary way. I’m actually curious about what hearing perfectly is really like, as this has come gradually over many years.
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