Deb Ann asked--

"By the way, why did the doctors say such things like that? Did they really graduate from college?"

I'm going to write about about my medical history in greater detail later, but I did want to give a short answer to this. From my experience few doctors know much about hearing loss. I think they must gloss over it in med school, because most doctors I've encountered seem only slightly better informed than lay people. General Practitioners and specialists other than ENT's might occasionally screen for hearing and make a diagnosis, but after that they send you to a specialist because hearing loss is over their heads.

Sometimes even ENT's know very little about hearing loss. For example the one I currently see for my sinuses specializes in sinus problems only, and has admitted he sends his patients with hearing loss elsewhere.

The only doctors I've met who seem to really understand hearing loss are otolaryngologists, which are ENT's who only see patients with hearing problems. Over the past 30 some years, I have seen four different otolaryngologists and three different ENTs in the Seattle area. The otolaryngologists all agree with my "idiopathic" diagnosis-- though they have thrown out several theories. After testing everything, they always attach a great deal of importance to my measles experience as a young child. All of them have said it was "probably caused by the measles." So just to simplify things, I tell most people the hearing loss was caused by the measles. As I said before, most lay people freak out and start telling me about specialists and giving me advice when they learn my hearing loss is "idiopathic" meaning cause unknown. After seeing seven specialists, I am satisfied with the explanation that sometimes "we just don't know."

Still, I see an otolaryngologist every few years, just in case any new tests have been developed that might give us a clue about why my cochleas don't work. The reason I have moved around between doctors was to see if any of them could come up with an explanation. It's good to get a second or third opinion. The first otolaryngologist I saw retired. He was old when I was initially diagnosed. The second one I saw has an international reputation, but a strange bedside manner. My husband still sees him for his Menieres, but he's definitely an "odd duck" and we laugh about his weird behavior sometimes. The third one I saw used to be in the same office as the "odd duck" then she moved somewhere else. The fourth was for a CI consultation. The reason for the different ENT's was because we moved and I didn't like the first one. It was clear he didn't have a handle on it. The second one retired, and the third one is in the same office as the second retired ENT, but he specialized in sinuses. Still, I like sinus guy's bedside manner very much and he's local, so I have all my hearing records sent to him. He is happy to refer to the otolaryngolgoists, and he is also connected to the audiologists I see, so it's a convenient relationship.

All of the audiologists in my office have their doctorate degrees in audiology too, but supposedly they can't diagnose biological hearing problems. They can only make a recommendation to see a doctor. Yet because they see hundreds of patients with hearing loss on a regular basis I find them very well informed and trust their opinions and recommendations much more than my GP.

The doctor I saw last week was a neurologist, and he's got an excellent reputation. He is the second neurologist I've seen about my migraine headaches. The first one had me on too many drugs and didn't seem to be listening to me when I said I didn't like these drugs. So I decided to see this other guy who my husband has seen about his Menieres when they were first diagnosing it. Neurologist number two has already changed my prescriptions to two drugs I tolerate better. This is the reason I haven't been blogging as much. I'm just feeling better and I'm busier.

I have mentioned I wanted to get my headaches under control before even considering the hybrid CI. So that's where we're at with the doctor situation.

Like you DebAnn I think it's weird that specialists could know so little about hearing loss, but the ears are a complicated organ. Few doctors run into idiopathic hearing loss in the general population. The only ones who see it often are otolaryngologists who deal with deaf/hh people all the time.