hearing problems
Posted By: Happy MT on 2008-12-10
In Reply to: Problem "hearing" - Rhonda
You should probably get your hearing checked out. A close friend of mine who is an MT uses hearing aids. She was able to get them through the Dept. of Vocational Rehab since they were necessary for her continued employment. Then, you should invest in a set of really good headphones. I have found that the headphones that are sold for MTs, even on the websites that specifically cater to MT equipment, just aren't all that hot. I invested in a pair of Bose headphones for about $150 and I cannot believe the difference in what I am able to hear.
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HEARING
I have noticed a hearing change. But it is weird as my hearing is better in my right ear where I listen to the dictation. It is my LEFT ear that isn't so good anymore. I guess old age is catching up with me; unfortunately, in many ways, not just one !!
hearing
the latest buzz about hearing and earphones was more related to ear buds that fit in your ear, which puts it much closer to your tympanic membranes.
hearing
Have a hearing problem, anyone know if or where I can get a headset specifically for hearing deficit.
you should be hearing from them again soon.
nm
hearing
Get your ears checked. Mine accumulate ear wax regularly and there is a huge difference when the wax is removed. Good luck!
Losing hearing
Does anybody else feel that over time their hearing has deteriorated due to the constant noise from wearing headphones?
hearing same from mine.
I have head the same from my 15 year old son who plays both competitive travel ice hockey and high school.
Last season he told me the same thing, he is burning out, hockey is 10 months on his travel team. We start in Sept and don't finish until end of Mar.
I just listened to his reasons why and then explained to him that if he wanted to stop the travel hockey because its just too much OK, but he should continue to play for his school. I explained to him that high school is such a short time in his life and to make the most fun of it. His friends and family that come to what him play are OK with his decision.
He thought about it for a while and just last week came started and he is now playing both. I asked him what changed. He just said he needed some down time and now he's ready to go. Thank God it a short season at this time. Aug to Nov and Nov to Feb.
Don't get to down on him, he may pick up some other sport he finds challenging.
PS - He also went out for track and field for his HS team.
hearing loss
Has anyone noticed a loss of hearing over years of MT work? A new report on the news says that continuous use of head sets can cause hearing loss. I have noticed it (and tinnitus) among me and my MT friends. Anyone else?
Hearing problems
I got of of this work because of the problems with hearing loss and tinnitus. It got so bad I was affecting my balance. I miss the work, keep up with the board, may do a little transcription, but not for long periods. I can not longer deal with it. I too am 45, but due to the hearing problems sometimes feel older. My hearing is flucutates. Had to purchase a hearing aid, the right one for my problem cost $2481.97 (for one) and the Insurance company did not pay one penny for it.
hearing loss
After 30 years in this job, yes my hearing is REAL bad! I'm going to start pricing hearing-aids this month, mightly only be able to afford one. Insurance companies - if they are generous might pay for one - if you work at GM I'm told. I'm certain this job has accelerated a natural aging phenomenon. I'm hoping to make it another 5 years. I can't interview for another line of work if I can't hear the interviewer!
I look forward to hearing more
...especially about satellite connectivity. That is my big issue at the moment. We have high-speed, business-grade satellite with Direcway, but some companies cannot work with this. Do you know if DRC can?
Wonder how many MTs have hearing problems sm
I notice on lots of these reports I have to crank up the volume to catch the nuances of crappy dictators with poor sound quality. Then there are the reports that are cranked up because the dictator is talking very softly, only to BONK! COME IN WITH A LOUD NOISE or adjusted volume on his end.
My concern is what this is going to do to my hearing over the long run. Anybody have ideas or similar concerns? Probably a study of MTs has never been done, but I bet it would show hearing loss.
I too have hearing problems.
I guess the little felt covers were irritating my ears as I would have many ear infections a year. 2 years ago I switched to earphones that go over my ears now, looks funky but no ear infections and sound is great. Take care
I'm so tired of hearing this.
I'm so tired of hearing MT's talk about how they're slaves to their jobs.Don't you think everyone's a slave to their job in every field.Do you think MT'g is the only career path that has so called slaves.Do you think there's any career out there a person can work where they won't be a slave of some sort????? I really get tired of hearing all the MTs cry their poor pitiful me tune, I'm such a slave. Please ... get over it. 
Hearing loss
Is there any new technology out there on improving hearing loss besides hearing aids? My DH has a herititary hearing loss that seems to be getting worse these past few years. He refuses to wearing hearing aids even though we have spent $$$ on them. He is a teacher and it is getting very difficult for him to teach his classes effectively or without students making fun of or taking advantage of his hearing loss. Just curious if anyone knows of anything before we spend $$$ and time seeing doctors that will tell him nothing.
Hearing loss
My son who is 11 has worn hearing aids since before he turned 3, first the BTE kind (which were mini) and for the last couple of years, since he has shown so much responsibility, he now has ITE very small,programmable aids. Quite expensive, but worth it.
One of the contacts that assist me in the state (VA) with school issues recently sent me additional information; included was a brochure from NFSS Communincations which is a supplier of assitive-listening devices.
However, I would not just randomly purchase an item without discussing it with an audiologist that you trust. Fortunately, my son's audiologist is wonderful beyond words and quite helpful.
I have quite a bit of additional information on this subject if you need it.
My son says to tell your husband just to get good hearing aids and wear them. (Nothing mean intended, he just knows that if he can hear with assistance, then why not wear them). He has explained to the other children that basically it is just like someone who wears glasses to see better.
I hate to see anyone struggling due to this matter and hope that he finds something he is comfortable with. Good luck!
jrm
After hearing some surgeons
mangle their reports, I vow to never let hm near me with a sharp object in his hand. And when they say "informed consent" I wonder who did the informing and whether the patient could understand it any better than I do.
It's comical. Just like when we were hearing sm
those little voices a few months back. I did hear the buzzing sound when I opened ER-MT's post above.
I am interested in hearing how this goes for you - sm
I too am waiting on a foot pedal for a new job that uses EMDAT. I should have mine on Monday though. I thought it would be just a plug in and it would work kind of deal. I just don't want it to interfere with my other foot pedal (serial port) and my MS Word, which it does mess up I think. I will know for sure the next time I use it (going to repeat the training) and then later try to use word by itself on my computer (rebooting fixed it, just hate rebooting as it takes about 10 minutes for the whole process since I have so much on my computer). You may have to change your hot keys, the EMDAT is F2, F3 and F4 keys for play, rwd and FF respectively.
hearing loss
Has anyone heard of Transcriptionist losing their hearing due to the long hours of listening on the headphones?
Hearing loss
I have been an MT for 35 years. I started with tinnitus in my left ear about 3 years ago. Saw my doctor who sent me to an ENT doctor who said I also had TMJ. Then he sent me to an audiologist and I have some hearing loss to low tones in my left ear. I still have the tinnitus, and loud noises, loud music drive me crazy. I am now going to look into homeopathic treatment for the tinnitus to see if I can get some relief. But, the ENT doctor and audiologist did tell me that it was from using the ear phones for all of these years.
Hearing loss
I think hearing loss is inevitable due to having the headsets inside the ear canal so near the eardrum and the bones of the middle ear. Perhaps a worker's comp problem if you are an employee. Or a work-related disability if it is bad enough. If so - I can tell you from experience, start saving now - hearing aids cost at the least $6000 for 2 (if you need them for both ears) and to date I have not found an insurance company that will cover any of the cost and I have been looking for the past 17 years for an insurance company that would cover them.
hearing loss
Thank you everyone for the replies on my question regarding hearing. Since I started 2 weeks I'm already noticing weird pluglike sensation in my ears everyday. Not to mention I work in a room with loud filthy mouth MA's. At times I have to up the volume so that I can hear clearly. The weird thing about the sensation in my ears, it's that I feel fine in the morning but by the time I leave there's that sensation again. Sometimes I even open my mouth with to pop my ears. I just hope this isn't progressing into something serious.
What is offended is my hearing!
I know exactly where the post comes from. I hear physicians say the patient mother, no patient's, but the patient mother. That really grates on my nerves. Some words are not even pronouced correctly. I would think if you have the sense to become a physician, surely you can get some English in on the side. It is very rude and offensive for me to have to listen.I get enough of that on the evening local news.
LOL, so where do you get your hearing aids?
I keep hearing about low wages
Even 8 cpl at 200 LPH is 16 dollars an hour, which is not a bad wage, and that is what many of the large services pay, plus you get benefits and get to stay home. No high gas prices (3 dollars a gallon or more in places).
Hearing Loss
Any long-time MTs out there noticed any hearing loss from this profession?
Hearing Loss...SM
I have had quite a bit of loss, though my mom has hearing problems but has otosclerosis and I don't, mine is conduction. I wear bilateral hearing aids to work and also have to use a Bose headset (headset has to cover my ears because my hearing aids are in-the-ear, but the Bose headset is extremely comfortable), but with this help I don't have any problems hearing what the docs are saying now. Have been wearing the hearing aids for about 2 years --- boy is my television loud when I put my aids in!!!
Are you hearing things like
not just the usual cellphone, fire alarm, land phone, gabbing, snorting and the like but I have some that people sound like they are dropping things in the background, as in equipment? Banging away. These are the operative notes and just wonder if putting away things or what in the heck. I have 1 physician who always dictates from the room where you hear the beat, beat, beat of the machine, all while he is dictating. Women physician the other day had baby crying at her knee. So unthoughtful.
So you'd be comfortable hearing
that you have an eye disease like glaucoma or retinal detachment or cataracts or diabetic retinopathy or macular degeneration, which will render you blind in time? Come on, eyes and teeth and feet and all the other parts are all protected by HIPAA, silly!
For the newer MTs hearing a "v"
would not send them to the "z" section of a book or any website. Maybe a Google search would have worked, but I didn't try it to see.
How about lightening up on the new MTs asking questions on the Word Board. I am not a new MT (20 years), and I've asked questions. I'm not so sure there is a "level of word asking." Why be so brusk and hard on the new MTs? Are you afraid they will take your job? Don't worry there is plenty of work to go around.
I would hope if you had a question on the Word board, someone does not go on another board and post how horribly incompetent you must have been to ask that question on the Word board.
This is a wonderful resource.
reply to hearing it all
Notice she did not say she was licensed. Anyone can take a bunch of kids in to babysit. Dare care is a whole different senario. A good daycare has a structured environment with daily activities that teach them something besides hitting each other in the head with a truck while you are over in the corner doing another job.
hearing aids
If anyone that has hearing problems or uses hearing aids sees this, please reply. and let us know how you have managed. I have been told by a salesman of hearing aids that I have 30 - 35% loss of hearing,of course he works on commission and probably was counting $$ which the one he recommended was about $5000. so far work has been doable but don't know how long it will be that way, I work in office for doctor who chews, mumbles and yawns which doesn't make it any easier.
:::hearing dueling banjos:::
That explains a LOT!
I'm sure that is the only option for you.
Who would want to recruit someone like YOU?!? LOL
Puleeez. I don't scrape the bottom of the barrel. I hire the best of the best. People who know "nowhere" is one word at the very least.
I absolutely have hearing loss, more so in one ear than the other.
I am always asking people to repeat themselves, and I have the volume on my dictaphone turned up very high.
RIP Lou! most of us grew up hearing/feeling him..nm
x
Many thanks - look forward to hearing about the keyboard (nm)
Thanks
Hearing birds sing - nm
xx
you are so very welcome. Everything I'm hearing makes me ache for you,,, but if they can pay you
Keep using us to bounce things off of... Sometimes just talking lets you sort stuff out. I know, talking to my girlfriends, then I go home and sleep on it and wake up feeling like something was right about what I said, or some parts were burned around the edges and should be changed somehow. Keep talking, keep in touch, keep pulling in all the info you need. Somebody did a study in the recent past re: decision making. They found that people who thought and thought and thought and THOUGHT about decisions, versus people who went on their gut feeling and slept on it and just did what felt right for them... Between the 2 groups, better decisions were made by the gut feeling group. I think that's where you are conflicted. Your gut is telling you to take that kind of job, and your head is fighting you.
Best wishes. Take care of yourself.
That is so cute, hearing voices. nm
nm
OMG! I keep hearing that noise, too! I also thought I was
nm
This man had to be hearing voices in his head or have
other psychotic problem. The scariest part is that he was able to behave normally while all this was going on in his head. He was just a time bomb waiting to go off, apparently with no outward signs.
Hi, Paul. Appreciate hearing from you/him directly.) SM
Anon, I also love this product; Paul and Ben did a great thing producing it and I'm grateful. I can't say why I like the platform so much except that it pretty much doesn't make me think about it. The work's in the reports, not fussing with the system. With one big exception as far as I'm concerned--it really needs a wild card or at least a better search feature for practitioner's names. That's often a major time waster.
I also like it so much because I find I'm faster on VR. It turns out I have a knack for editing, while I'm just a mediocre typist; others are obviously discovering the opposite. I certainly don't feel the disconnect from the dictator's meaning described by another editor. I confess, although many "hearing-it-wrong" mistakes are made by eScription (enough to make me needed), I've come to have a very healthy respect for its ear and listen very very carefully before overriding its reading.
That said, I'm unfortunately soon moving on to another, untried platform. My old account was offshored, like other eScription accounts with my employer before. I've heard the profit margin with eScription is just too low to compete with local editors. Sad reality???
Another Ellen with Hearing Loss
Funny you should ask about this. I just got my first hearing aids two days ago!! I have sensorineural hearing loss and have been finding it increasingly difficult to understand the TV, conversations, etc., but no problems with transcription. Actually, I had my hearing tested probably 6-7 years ago and was advised to get hearing aids then but I was too cheap. It's unbelievable how expensive they are and I think it's crap that insurance doesn't pay for even a portion of the chart.
Anyway, since I only started transcribing full-time five years ago, I know that transcribing didn't cause my original hearing loss. It's hereditary in my case with a long line of hearing-impaired relatives on my mother's side. Whether it's become worse is up for debate. BTW, I worked 30+ years as a medical technologist (lab), where there is always a lot of low-level noise but not really loud.
I can't decide about these hearing aids. Sometimes I totally forget they're there but other times I feel like I have wads of gum in my ears. I take them out and I'm not sure I'm hearing all that much better with them. Time will tell, I guess.
Ellen S. 
Yes! I was having hearing difficulties last year due to ....sm
ear infections, and since my other headphones were old, I dubiously spent the money on the Bose -- of course, you have to be working with decent files to begin with, but my, they truly cut down on any noise distortion, background noise, very crisp and clear...now if we could teach the docs to ENUNCIATE!
Hearing Aids - Can you be still a transcriptionist?
Anyone know if being a transcriptonist and wearing hearing aids are compatible? Thank you.
transcribing and hearing aids
My daughter wears hearing aids and tried to just listen to some transcription years ago to see if it was possible - for her it was not - she tried multiple headsets and just could not hear without the background noise, etc. She wears a very expensive, computer-correctable hearing aid (2) that can be changed with a change in the chip as her hearing changes - but as for transcribing - for her it wouldn't work. Good luck for those who are able to wear them and also work.
Hearing loss/tinnitus
I have been a MT for 19 years. I have started having a major problem with tinnitus lately. I know it is directly related to working because it eases up some after a couple of days off. At the end of my shift, the ringing much louder and I am very noise sensitive. Normal "kid" noises (I have 3 of them) are painful, and I find myself very short with my kids and constantly telling them my ears hurt and to please be quieter.
About 6 months ago I starting using JVC marshmallow earbuds like you would use with an IPOD. These are great because they block out almost all background noise and the sound is crisp and clean. About 5 months ago I started editing VR reports, in which the dictation is greatly speeded up, making the tone of the doctors voices much higher pitched. I keep the volume as low as I possibly can.
Has anyone ever experienced similar problems. I'm really becoming concerned I am doing permanent damage. I welcome any insight and suggestions. I am trying to go back to my "old-fashioned" headset and see if this helps. Thanks!
Any MTs out there who wear hearing aids sm
I posted awhile back in January about needing hearing aids. I was diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss back then and was sent for an MRI, which was clean. I was told the next step would be hearing aids.
I had been having a lot of blanks through work and let the company I am an IC with know what was going on. I received an e-mail today telling me not to turn in more work until they have a copy of my hearing test. I am not sure what that means.
Honestly, with the amount of blanks I have had, they could have let me go for not hitting whatever percentage of accuracy required.
Anyway, I am just looking to see if anyone else out there has had to get hearing aids and what type they use that works best with being an MT.
Thanks for your help!
Hearing/typing ratio
Wondering what the input/output ratio of most is. Are you typing in the spot you are hearing or somehow listening further ahead (and still typing from what you heard prior)?
Do you have to stop/start the dictation much?
Any descriptions appreciated. 
I used to be semi-proud! At least content that I was doing well, but hearing these #s
thrown around constantly has really done a number on my job self-esteem. If they use normals to hit those high #s, which I really think they must, I just wish they would post that for all of us - know what I mean? Again, I can't imagine being a newbie and reading that everyone hits those #s. I'd probably give up. I hit a bunch of Ops once where the guy did have a standard - cataract surgeries. I did about 20 in an hour, and the count was HUGE - like 500 lines? I nearly fainted, but that only happened once, and my account just does not permit it, nor do most accounts I have as back-ups, come to think of it! I know a lot of MTs in my company have their "canned" text, like opening paragraphs for Op reports, and they just stick them in no matter what is dictated as the opening. I think that's terrible, and would NEVER do that. Plus now they will be getting "canned" themselves if they keep it up!! New company policies!
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