Hearing and Balance Tests

As luck would have it, next to my ENT's office is the Professional Hearing Services Dizziness and Balance Center. My doctor prescribed a battery of tests from this clinic.

Hearing test

I have taken at least three hearing tests since the onset of Meniere's Disease, and all have produced the same results. The hearing in my good ear (right) is normal, and the hearing in my Meniere's ear is compromised. At the lower and middle frequencies hearing is nearly normal, but as the frequency increases for the higher portion of the mid-range to the high range, my hearing drops off rather sharply. This is consistent with my personal observations. If I cover my good ear, I have trouble hearing overall. Sounds are muffled and it is difficult to make out speech. And I cannot hear things like the beeping of the microwave or a cell phone ringing in the distance.

Loud noises of all frequencies irritate my bad ear. When my children (ages 3 and 1.5) scream, which they often do (for fun), it is very painful. Other loud noises such as a garbage truck passing me on the street can also be painful. They do not hurt in the classic sense, but sound very irritating and distorted, like the feeling you get at a loud music concert.

But I should point out that I can still hear in my bad ear. I can hold the phone to this ear and carry on a conversation. I believe that the further a sound source such as a human speaker is from the ear, the more dramatically my ability to perceive drops off, so that phone conversations are not a problem because the phone is directly against my ear whereas a speaker from several feet away is difficult to perceive. Although I have some trouble telling from which direction a particular sound came, I can still do so adequately. I am a bike rider (much more about this later) and thankfully can still hear a car approacing from the left as I approach an intersection.

Nystagmography

The second test I received was Electronystagmography (I think), in which electrodes monitored my eye movements while stimuli were introduced to my ears that caused me to be very dizzy. I lay on my back and wore some kind of goggles which monitored my eye movements. The tester then sprayed water steadily into each ear for two mintues, first cool water and then warm water. The water would drain out immediately. The water made me very dizzy, and they monitored my eye movements during this dizziness. They told me to tell them a story during the water stimulation in order to take my mind off of how unbelievably uncomfortable this was. It was very, very unpleasant. It was all I could do to speak at all during the water, let alone to remember the story I was attempting to tell. After this testing was finished, I kindly asked the audiologist to please never ever do that to me again.

Evoked Potentials

The final test was some kind of evoked potential, where electrodes were placed on my scalp, face and neck, and I wore headphones which transmitted various static and tonal sounds. The machine presumably measured my neuronal reaction to these stimuli. This test was not necessarily unpleasant, and was a veritable party after the last one.

Results

So what was the diagnosis (verdict)? Nothing, really. I'm glad my insurance covered most of the cost of these tests, because they really didn't tell us much other than to confirm that my hearing was damaged and my vestibular system on the left is in fact under some kind of stress. Objective proof of the obvious, I suppose.