January 18, 2010

Today was Martin Luther King day; however Dr. Hersh (as well as most Doctor’s offices) had hours today.  The pace of the day was very good; the first four patients that I tested were right after the other!  After I finished with one test, another patient was coming out of Dr. Hersh’s consultation room with an audio request.  I tested one patient who I had seen last year.  Stanley had a high frequency sensorineural hearing loss starting at 1500 Hz in both ears, and the loss was worse in the right ear.  He remembered me from last year and asked about what can be done to make speech more clear.  I recommended open ear hearing aids like the ones I was wearing, as his low frequency hearing is very good.  He did acknowledge that they were expensive, and asked about other means for making speech more clear.  I showed him some personal amplifiers on the internet, but indicated that the clarity of speech probably wouldn’t improve much.  He was encouraged (as was I) that his hearing sensitivity had not changed much from the previous year.  I even offered him a 2 week no-obligation trial with an open ear hearing aid, however he said he would think about it and follow up if things got worse.  Research does show that people wait an average of 5 years after being diagnosed with hearing loss before obtaining hearing aids.  Dr. Hersh finished early today around 5:20pm.  I was waiting for a patient’s daughter to show up and pick up her mom’s repaired hearing aid, luckily she was on foot and she met me near my car on 112^th Street.  I made excellent time driving home to Shelter Island, as the traffic was much lighter than usual because of the holiday.