Are you having some difficulty hearing? Feel like one of your ears is blocked, or both ears? I did too. Keep reading.
Years ago I started having trouble hearing. Both ears felt like they were clogged. I, of course, ignored the issue as I did not want to deal with hearing loss, hearing aids or deafness. I chalked it up to aging. Yes, I was over 40, no longer young. OK, I was over 50.
I ignored my hearing problem for months. OK, years. It wasn't getting any better but it was not getting a lot worse either. My father had to wear a hearing aid later in life. Was my hearing difficulty hereditary? Maybe. Getting old sucks. And some people lose their hearing while they are in their 20's, 30's or 40's. Life sucks. Ears suck. Keep reading.
Finally, I could stand it no longer. I could not hear anything at normal volume. I had to get my hearing checked and, if I had to get a hearing aid, so be it. I dreaded making an appointment with an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist but I did. I showed up for my "hearing loss death sentence", and in the examination room sat down in the patient chair. The doctor came in and I said,"Hello, I can't hear." He nodded and proceeded to look in both my ears. Then, to my surprise he said, "Congratulations. You have the most ear wax I have ever seen in my 30 years of practicing medicine." "What?" I replied. He then told me that the reason I thought I was going deaf was because my ear canals were blocked with ear wax. "What?" I replied. "What does that mean? Why is it happening? And how do we fix it?" The doctor said that my ear canals were abnormally shaped and this did not allow the ear wax to normally exit but instead caused my ears to become clogged. I asked him how long had this been going on? Was it a sign of age? He told me that I probably had the increasing wax buildup for decades, that's why I was "hard of hearing". I was not losing my hearing at all, my ears were clogged, my ear canals were not getting rid of earwax as ears normally do and it built up until I could not hear normally. Huh. The doctor proceeded to clean out my ear canals - painlessly. It took like half an hour. He was quite impressed with the amount of ear wax I had accumulated. I said, "It's not my fault that my ear canals are funky."
After the treatment I could hear again! In fact, now that my stupid ear canals were no longer clogged with ear wax, I could hear as good as when I was in my 20's. Maybe better! And I was no longer hard of hearing. And I did not need a hearing aid(s). And I was not going deaf. Wow! I was a happy patient.
And, since my ears did not expel ear wax like normal ears, every six months or so I visited the doctor and he cleaned out my ear canals - and I could hear perfectly again. I had the hearing of a teenager!
That's my story. What's yours? The reason I wrote this true story is that, if you're having trouble hearing, stop delaying and go visit the doctor. Maybe, just maybe, like me you won't need a hearing aid or aren't going deaf. And, even if you are, hearing aids today are tiny and practically invisible. And they even have implants now. So, please go have your hearing checked. It's no fun not being able to hear well, especially if it's easily fixed. Go. Go now. You'll be glad you did. So will everyone around you.
