Dementia and Hearing problems

Dementia and hearing problems

 Dementia is bad enough without reactions extra problems with hearing. After being diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia, I noticed that I was having extra problems associated with background noise which can be distressing at times.

I did mention all of this to my last consultant who said it was all part of the Lewy Bodies Dementia, but now I feel that there are times when it is getting so bad that I don’t want to travel anywhere, as the excess noise on trains etc is getting too much for me.

I do have problems hearing what is being said by the person in front of me, when other people in the same room are talking, and this can lead to me standing with a finger in one ear to get over this.

However this can make me look as if I am not listening, to what the person is saying.

Sometimes I turn my head sideways, so that my ear is pointing directly at the person speaking, but there again it looks as if I am not taking any notice of those speaking to me.

I now find that if I am traveling on a train I need to take my MP3 player which has large earphones on, so that all noise is masked by the music. However this does have a down side, as I can not hear my wife or anyone else who speaks to me.

I sometimes find that I can hear so much of this background noise, that when someone walks up behind me to go past, I tend to jump a mile with shock, which can be even more embarrassing to all concerned.

Recently someone suggested that I use ear plugs, but this will cut all the noise out completely and could be rather unsafe when I am traveling.

There are added problems these days with all the loud music when you enter a shop, it is so loud that you can not think or understand what is being said. When I was working, there were regulations governing noise, to ensure that everyone was safe… however this does not seem to work in shop.

Sometimes something like a bag of crisps being opened is like a hangover, as it seems to be so loud.

And we go to the opposite end when Air conditioning makes life hard, as it is humming away in the background.

I am going to speak to my GP tomorrow, as I understand that there may be some sort of device on the market which helps cut down this background noise.

After a few tests at the audiology department, I have been fitted with two hearing aids, and the difference is remarkable as I can now hear clearly, and I do not struggle with the background noise.

This has now changed my life, as I no longer jump when something passes me in the town, so this has all been totally worth it.