The next day when I went for my appointment, I was told that I had a viral infection in my cochlear. The ENT said that we might be able to reverse some of the damage but there will be some irreparable damage to the cochlear. He gave me some cortisone immediately and then referred me on to an audiologist to have my hearing tested.

After doing several tests the audiologist told me that I have a unilateral sensor neural hearing loss. We couldn't tell if the cortisone had helped much as there wasn't enough time for me to have my hearing tested before I had the cortisone. However, the results showed the loss was moderate to severe and the audiologist told me that I would benefit from wearing a hearing aid.

I almost fell over backward when she mentioned the word hearing aid. To me a hearing aid was for someone with impairment and I had difficulty placing myself into that category even though I now did have a hearing loss. My audiologist then explained all the different kinds of hearing aids to me and which ones she felt would be most suitable. I was definitely not keen on ones that fitted behind the ear. As far as I am concerned, those are far too big and noticeable and (yes even though I am male) I do worry about what I look like – being single and all – it is a priority. She then explained the price range to me, which came as a bit of a shock since I couldn't even have guessed the price of this kind of technology. We then phoned my medical aid to find out how much they contributed so we could work out what was a reasonable amount for me to spend. After a while we decided on the Bravo hearing aid, the really small one that fits right into the ear. She took an impression of my ear so Widex could make up the hearing aid and we re-scheduled an appointment for 3 days time.

The next 3 days were hell. I had so many questions that I had never thought about. My audiologist had given me a little book to read and this was pretty helpful in answering most of my questions. There were just so many things that kept on popping into my mind about how I would cope once I was wearing the hearing aid. Like for instance playing sport. I play sport on a regular basis and I go to the gym at least 4 days a week, and I was worried about not being able to use the hearing aid then. When I went back for my fitting all my questions were answered. It actually sounded as if I would be able to wear the aid most of the time unless I was swimming or showering and depending on how hard I was working at the gym, or rather how much I was sweating. The audiologist then connected the hearing aid to her computer and after about a minute she said everything was done. It felt really comfortable in my ear and I was surprised because I had imagined it to feel like a plug. Everything sounded incredibly natural and to my amazement rather quiet but yet I could still hear everything that I wanted to. She asked me a couple of questions about the comfort of sounds and we tested it by slamming doors, shaking keys on a desk. Everything sounded completely comfortable. We decided that I would take the hearing aid home for a week and try it out in different environments like at home and whilst I was working, especially in my car because in my line of work I spend a lot of my time in the car.

I was really amazed at how quickly I adapted to my hearing aid. In no time at all, I would forget about it in my ear. The sound was really comfortable and the best thing about it was that no one even noticed it. I wouldn't wear it if I was at home on my own because I didn't really feel like it was necessary but as soon as I went out for drinks or dinner, I always made sure I had it in. I have now been wearing it for about 3 weeks and it really has made a difference. Obviously I still wish that I had seen the doctor about my viral infection earlier, but wearing my Bravo hearing aid hardly makes me feel like I have an impairment at all.
 

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