AR came to the Gardner Audiology Crystal River office in 2010. He had history of ear surgery and hearing loss. He wore hearing aids in both ears that he purchased online and was unhappy with how he was hearing.
After completing the hearing evaluation, there was an obvious asymmetry that had not been medically evaluated. I referred him to an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor before pursuing trial with new a new Starkey hearing aid in the better ear. That ENT physician ordered an MRI test on the weak ear and cleared him to try a new aid in better ear. He was fitted with the new Starkey S5 hearing aid two weeks later and on his one week follow-up, he reported the MRI revealed a brain tumor on the side with the worse hearing. He was scheduled for surgical removal of the tumor. Meanwhile, he was hearing much better with the new Starkey hearing aid and opted to purchase it.
Over the next year, I followed AR on his journey with tumor removal and recovery. Because the facial nerve ran through the tumor he experienced some facial paralysis that partially recovered with time. He also completely lost hearing in the surgical ear. He was amazed at how much more difficult hearing in noise was with only one ear. He eventually upgraded to a Starkey wireless Wi110 RIC hearing aid for better hearing in noise; however, this will always be a struggle due to only hearing with one ear. Hearing in both ears, when possible, improves speech understanding in all listening situations, especially in noise.
