Any nurses here deaf in one ear?

Nurses Disabilities

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Hey everyone, I'm a 1st year nursing student and I had to drop out of this falls semester (med/surg). The reason for this is that I'm having brain surgery next week to remove a large acoustic neuroma...a benign tumor that has been causing me hearing loss and which is compressing my 4th ventricle and putting pressure on my brainstem. The surgical approach the neurosurgeon wants to do is a translabyrinthe, in which they go through the middle ear. This approach destroys the middle ear, meaning I'll be permanently deaf in that ear after the surgery. He wants to do that approach instead of a retro-parietal approach because I have very little usable hearing in my right ear and apparently the translabyrinthe is the preferred approach for pts like me. Anyway, I just wanted to see if anyone here at allnurses has unilateral deafness (for whatever reason). Can you still work effectively if you are deaf in one ear? Do you have any problems with a stethoscope or any other things in the hospital environment? I love what I'm doing and I don't want to give up my dream of being a nurse because of something like this. I'd be crushed if for some reason this precluded me from becoming a nurse. Can you become a nurse with a disability like this? Thanks.

I am legally deaf and HOH from birth. I finishing up my 3rd semester of nursing school. I swear by the litmann 3100 stethescope. It is electronic one and I hear really well, acutally better than the other students. I had tried other ones from a friend and found a free trial of this stethescope at 3M and I loved it. It is around 300-350$ and its the best I've ever spent. You can get a free trial below, no tricks or anything to see if you'd like. Nothing compares to this one. DARS may be able to help you if you have one in your state. I live in texas and they will buy it for you. It is the best 300$ I've ever spent. Just do the trial and you'll love it. I was worried if I would be able to hear since I went into ICU and I found with this stethescope that I hear better then hearing students and It really is amazing. Try it, its free :) Wish u the best of luck

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_WW/global-littmann/home/stethoscope/model-3000-series/

Wow that's awesome. I'm not sure how well an electronic stethoscope would help me, considering my auditory nerve gets cut during the surgery, but your story is really inspiring. I feel a lot better now knowing that there are people out there with HOH/deafness that are able to overcome such disabilities and are able to nurse it up out there :)

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My wife had an acoustic neuroma removed in 2005 by the translabyrinthe approach, and did lose the hearing in her right ear. This was before she ever thought of becoming a nurse , and now she has been a RN for 3 years. Like ChuckeRN, I think sometimes people think she is a little "aloof" because she may miss hearing people if they are on the wrong side and she may not realize someone is speaking to her. Other than that, no problems that I know of. But, if you message her here, (she's at work now) I'm sure she would be more than willing to answer any questions for you.

Also, you might want to check out the Acoustic Neuroma Association (http://anausa.org/). We went to their symposium last summer. It was great! We wished we had started going to them sooner, and are making plans to go to the next one in 2013. It is a great organization.

!! This is exactly what I was hoping to hear. It's really relieving to hear that there is someone out there who had the exact same problem and operation and went on to become a nurse. Thanks for sharing this with me. The future doesn't look so gloomy now. I'm having my surgery next monday on Dec. 5 and I've been having a lot of anxiety and I've been really worrying a lot about the future and whether or not I could still pursue a nursing career, but after hearing this I'm feeling a lot more optimistic now. I've briefly looked at the ANA, but I didn't investigate the site in depth. I'm going to rectify that now. Thanks man. edit: do you mind if I ask you if your wife had any balance issues after the operation? Did she have to do any rehab? Thanks.

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I had an acoustic neuroma as well. Mine was too large for the translaybrinth and had just strait up brain surgery. They had no choice but to remove my acoustic nerve so I am deaf in my left ear. The only thing I had problems with was taking blood pressures, I could never hear the diastolic. I was able to get a gov grant to buy a electric litman 3100 stethoscope to get me through school - it is really cool. Now that I am working I mostly just use the nurse on the stick. Also have gotten better at taking BP's and can do it without the special stethoscope now because I know what to listen for as long as it's not too loud around me. I leave my stethascope at home, way to scared to loose it.

Hopefully you never had dreams of becoming a tight rope walker, cuz your balance will never be the same again. I had to have some vestibular training to help with mine. Now I'm much better, I used to walk into things, when it was dark it was the worst. I don't know how to explain the feeling, but I just could not walk in the dark. I would literally crawl because if walked I would fall right over. Its kinda funny now. But I'm much better now, but it took over a year. My friends still say when we walk together I always bump into them.

I have a lot more I could say here. I you are interested PM me, maybe we can exchange emails if you want.

Goodluck,

I know how scared you must be. Looking back now even through all the suckyness I can say I'm glad I had the experience. I will give you some great experience for your nursing career.

Your in my prayers

jme

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I had an acoustic neuroma as well. Mine was too large for the translaybrinth and had just strait up brain surgery. They had no choice but to remove my acoustic nerve so I am deaf in my left ear. The only thing I had problems with was taking blood pressures, I could never hear the diastolic. I was able to get a gov grant to buy a electric litman 3100 stethoscope to get me through school - it is really cool. Now that I am working I mostly just use the nurse on the stick. Also have gotten better at taking BP's and can do it without the special stethoscope now because I know what to listen for as long as it's not too loud around me. I leave my stethascope at home, way to scared to loose it.

Hopefully you never had dreams of becoming a tight rope walker, cuz your balance will never be the same again. I had to have some vestibular training to help with mine. Now I'm much better, I used to walk into things, when it was dark it was the worst. I don't know how to explain the feeling, but I just could not walk in the dark. I would literally crawl because if walked I would fall right over. Its kinda funny now. But I'm much better now, but it took over a year. My friends still say when we walk together I always bump into them.

I have a lot more I could say here. I you are interested PM me, maybe we can exchange emails if you want.

Goodluck,

I know how scared you must be. Looking back now even through all the suckyness I can say I'm glad I had the experience. I will give you some great experience for your nursing career.

Your in my prayers

jme

Thanks for sharing. It's nice to know that there are others out there that have overcome this. The balance thing I'm not so much worried about although I can see how that is probably going to be really inconvenient...it's the possibility of facial paralysis that worries me the most. Apparently the facial nerve is very close to the auditory nerve and there's like a 5% chance of some facial symptoms after the surgery. I am seeing one of the best neurosurgeons in the state though for my operation, so hopefully I'll have minimal complications. How long have you been a nurse? And did you have your surgery while you were a nurse or before you became one?

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I was all set up to start school when I got diagnosed. Ended up having surgery on what would have been my first day. I have been working as a nurse, just shy of a year.

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I have microtia/atresia of the right ear with a moderate to severe hearing loss in same ear. I also have a BAHA hearing aid (screw in my head) and am starting nursing school next semester. I play the piano and organ and have sang in several operas. Don't let your "disability" make or break you. Most people hardly notice that I have a little ear. I'm a little nervous about the stethoscope issue but I'll figure a way out. I've already let my nursing school about my disability and they took that into consideration when they accepted me into their program. I try to make it not obvious when I can't hear someone, usually I just switched sides so they are not on my bad side or I just ask them to repeat what they said. Keep me posted how you are doing and I'll do the same!

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I can't really answer your question, and I know it's been a while since it was posted, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm in the exact same situation as you! I'm planning to start my first year of nursing school this fall, hopefully. However, last year, I had surgery to remove a large acoustic neuroma in my right ear as well!! The translybrinthian approach was used, so I'm deaf in one ear. I'm actually very surprised at how easy it has been to cope with having only one functioning ear; the only thing that worries me is that the most difficult situations are those with a lot of background noise, which would be the case in a lot of hospitals and clinics. I think that the one sided deafness with be a difficulty, but not impossible to overcome. Also, the way I see it, having been through surgery and hospitilization, and now living with a disability, will help me have more empathy and compassion toward patients, especially since I'd never had ANY medical issues before this. Good luck!! :)

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When I had my acoustic neuroma surgery, I wasn't worried about facial paralysis, because the doctors told me they would make sure that didn't happen. Turned out, the tumor was a lot worse than they thought, and I woke up with a paralyzed face!! However, now it 9 months later, and with some therapy my face has recovered 75%....to the point that some people don't even notice the remaining paralysis unless I point it out to them. So even if the worst happens, you will recover :) Our bodies are pretty amazing!

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I am arly from philippines I am glad to read stories from you with hearing problem.. Me too has right deafness..

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