Hello,
I'm gonna add to the old topic. Maybe some of the musicians writing here are still around.
I'm a fellow musician (singer, pianist) from Poland, living in Germany. I was diagnosed with a large AN (2.8x2.5x2.2 cm) in October last year and operated via retrosigmoid approach in an attempt to maintain my hearing in December. I believe after waking up from the surgery I could still hear. Unfortunately a few days post-OP I could feel the hearing is much much worse. A hearing test confirmed a complete hearing loss. What a heartbreak. On top of that I have a loud tinnitus that reacts to sound - when I'm in silence it's gone or very quiet, when I hear sounds it becomes louder, corresponding to the loudness of whatever I am hearing. I am still coming to terms with what happened to me and haven't tried playing piano. I tried singing a bit and it feels strange hearing myself only on one side. I also don't like to listen to music too much, since it's aggravating my tinnitus and is tiring... I do hope this will get better with time...
If anyone is still active here, I wanted to ask you, if you have experience with hearing aids or bone anchored systems and how good are those? I tried a hearing aid in my pre-surgery time and was surprised how bad it sounded (it wasn't cheap at all! I think from Oticon) - artificial and with noticeable latency. I wonder if there is anything that does provide help and doesn't sound bad to the musician ears.
Another question is - if you suffer from tinnitus that reacts to sound - how do you deal with it? Did you learn to ignore it with time or did it become less severe? Mine so far feels a bit like exploding in my head! Any input appreciated
