My New Ear!

It became apparent in 1976 that there was something not quite right with my hearing…so I went and got a test. The result came back positive, that is I had hearing loss in both ears, with the right ear the worst of the two. This a brief story of my hearing journey since then.

I suffer from a condition called otosclerosis, where a hardening usually occurs in the middle ear, but sometimes appearing in the inner ear. One of the bones, typically the stapes (stirrup!) slowly becomes ‘stuck’ and does not conduct the sound well enough through vibration of the bones, into the inner ear and the cochlea.

This condition is something my mother had too—surgery in 1960 remedied the hearing in one of her ears. This operation, called a stapedectomy, replaced the stapes with a prosthetic device, thus allowing the vibration of sound to be transmitted across the middle ear bones and through to the cochlea.

I had a similar operation in 1976 at the South Perth Community Hospital on my right ear. Once I awoke after the operation, it was apparent that my hearing had not improved at all.

A subsequent investigative operation some years later found that there was a small leak in the oval window, where the base of the stapes connects to the inner ear. This discovery however did not lead to improvement, rather identify a cause of failure. This is not uncommon and there are many potential causes, as was the case with me.

This is the ear showing the artificial stapes inserted in the middle ear at the oval window

Source: Professor Marcus Atlas – Ear Science Institute Australia

Over the next fourty or so years, I trialled and used many hearing aids, some suited me, others I returned with a ‘thanks but no thanks’! My left ear benefited from hearing aids but, the right did not—after several trials it became apparent the noise level was too distracting and not clear enough to recognise speech.

In 2020, a suggestion and subsequent follow up determined I was a candidate for a cochlear implant, where a surgically inserted probe is placed inside the cochlea. This will provide the necessary signals to the auditory nerve to be sent to the brain’s sound processor. The procedure will be performed on my right ear but, with no guarantees, I will have to wait and see…or is that hear?!

I am calling this my new ear!