My son seems to be losing his hearing

[Reallytired]

My son recently had a perforated ear drum. It has healed, he had anti biotics and saw the GP after completing the course of anti biotics. According to the GP he has no glue ear.

My son's hearing seems worst than ever, even with his hearing aids. My son is deeply unhappy that his hearing has not returned in his right ear.

I have thought about taking him to a NDCS event, but I am not sure who goes to such events. He has very good speech and doesn't sign and certainly isn't profoundly deaf.

His needs are very different to a child who has been born profoundly deaf. I would like him to meet other hard of hearing 6 year olds.

Go back to your GP and insist that is he is referred for assesment for a Cochlear Implant.

He should not be hard of hearing in this day and age.

My DH, 52 received a CI five years ago and it totally changed our lives.

No the NHS paid for it, we were just about to consider remortaging when the operation came through.

They have done it at Beaumont, in Dublin.

It used to cost about £50k stg not sure what it costs now.

He doesn't need a cochlear implant. Both his cochelars are in perfect condition.

He had his nerve hearing tested a few weeks ago and it was perfect. His hearing problems are conductive. We thought he had glue ear, but the glue has gone and he is still hard of hearing.

His problem is that the middle ear has been damaged. His ear drums are very badly scarred according to the GP. If the ear drum is badly scarred then it can't vibrate and pass the vibrations to the bones in the middle ear.

I have no idea if it is possible to repair a badly scarred ear drum.

OK

Sorry to have bothered you.

BreeVanDerCampLGJ,

Don't worry I'm glad that the CI has worked so well for your DH.

We have a good ENT consultant. We also live near to London where I am sure there are better ENT units if our ENT consultant can't help.

The problem is that my son is deeply upset by the loss of hearing. He misses being able to hear with the bad ear and wants the hearing back.

My son has hearing loss in both ears. We thought he just had severe glue ear, but our GP has told us that there is no sign of glue ear. However my son has problems holding a conservation without his hearing aids so something is still causing a hearing loss.

At his last hearing test my son had a hearing loss of about 30 dB in his good ear and a hearing loss of 40 dB in his bad ear. Both ears were considered to have a mild hearing loss.

I have no idea what his his hearing levels are now in the bad ear. He has not had a hearing test since the perforation. The problem is that he can only use the hearing aid in his good ear.

With digital hearing aids the loss is tuned for the ear, so the audiogram taken for the right ear before the perforation is probably totally different to what it would be now. I am worried of blasting his cochelar using a digital hearing aid with the wrong prescription.

Go back to your GP and insist on referral to ENT clinic so that they can retest your son's hearing.

It may be that with recent ear infection it has damaged his hearing further. Don't let them fob you off. Make sure they know your son is unhappy.

I had to break down in tears before I got seen when my hearing got worst, and they told me there was nothing wrong for ages, before they would test my hearing. I now have a cochlear implant, but that doesn't necessary mean your son is heading the same way.

Oooh, I have a cochlear implant too. Mine is a nucleus freedom by Cochlear.

HAs anyone mentioned a bone anchored hearing aid (BAHA) for conductive loss? They're made by Cochlear too. Maybe your ENT knows more about it?

Sorry your DS is having such a hard time, I know how much hearing loss affects everything.