How My Hearing Aids Almost Brought Me to The Hospital!


This happened after I had been wearing my hearing aids successfully for a couple of years, and looking back makes me feel rather stupid.

Please take it as a cautionary tale if you wear hearing aids, and don’t make the mistake(s) I did!

Here’s what happened:

Like I said, I had been wearing the hearing aids for a couple of years without incident. I’d take them out every night and place them in the charger to then re-use in the morning. Easy Peasy.

One morning however, I noticed a slight pain in my inner left ear as I replaced them from the night before.

I took that as just another ‘pain-in-life – growing old’ moment and started my day anyway.

Well, the ear pain did not subside and grew stronger as the morning worn on.

Within a few hours, it had become somewhat unbearable and I was experiencing a headache and even some vertigo – my balance was off and my footing unsure.

I knew I had a problem.

So, I removed the hearing aids and inspected them closely. That’s when

I saw the problem, or at least what I suspected to be the source of my ear pain.

The left hearing aid was missing the small, pliable ‘dome’ that fits on the very end of it and is the part inserted into the ear.

I just had the hearing aids serviced by professionals (at my HMO where I purchased them) the day before and it occurred to me that maybe they didn’t secure the dome properly and it probably had fallen out somewhere.

So, I searched the charging case, my car, all over home, and even the path outside between them. All to no avail.

And looking back, that was not a logical suspicion because how could the dome have come loose and escaped from inside my ear? But, I was not thinking clearly at the time due to the pain.

Then, slowly it started to hit me. That dome must have come loose INSIDE my ear and was probably still there and was probably the cause of my excruciating ear pain!

So, I called the HMO and explained my suspicions. To which they responded, ‘get down here right away!’

When I arrived, they led me to a special room they called the ‘Extraction Procedure Room’! This was getting serious fast, but little did I know how serious it might be, yet!

With a bright head lamp and long forceps and an assistant to help, the ear specialist informed me that yes the dome was inside my ear. Further, I had pushed it in as far as it could go with cotton swabs I used earlier trying to dispel the pain before I called for help.

In fact, the dome was pushed up against my ear drum itself – which was the reason for the sharp pain.

And apparently, I was not the first to do that. They had this special room and training and experience with it. I was just the latest.

Luckily for me, and after many futile tries, the specialist was able to grab that soft dome and extract it from my ear canal. And boy, did that hurt when she did! It felt like my ear drum was literally being ripped apart.

Which I learned afterward, was a distinct possibility. Luckily, it had not.

Talk about immediate relief! The sharp pain immediately vanished to be replaced by a duller one, which was dissipating by the minute.

After which, the people helping me at that ear center informed how lucky I was.

They were concerned they could not get to the dome because it was so deep in my ear and were on the verge of sending me to the hospital’s emergency room to have a more serious intervention. One possibly involving anesthesia and a surgeon to do the dome extraction.

I had dodged a self-inflicted bullet there and learned a valuable lesson.

Always check your hearing aids when you remove them – also, when you put them back in. Look to make sure the domes are secure and in place – and if not, find out where they are.

And of course, do not use cotton swabs inside your ears.

Remind me to tell you how those same hearing aids came to install Google Search inside my head and how I had to have that removed also! They had made me a real life Cyborg!

Thanks for allowing m to share my story!