SSD and irratability

[Crystal]

Hello there -- Brian Dushaw is a Senior Oceanographer at the Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington. He has SSD and has some remarkable observastions as well as great links on the subject at his website. I wish the doctors would tell us this stuff as at least an exit interview after surgery so we would know what to expect.

I particuarly like Brian's comment on Broadband beamforming --  which is not possible with one ear.

A short synopsis:

+Those of us with SSD have an Inability to filter out background noise or selectively listen to only the important portion of the noise in the environment in a crowded or noisy situation.

+The lack of input coming from our damaged sensory apparatus can cause "ghost beeps" or ringing/tinnitus as the brain attempts to interpret the now missing sensory data. The frequency and the volume of the noise can increase according to one's physical condition (stress, fatigue, etc.).  This can aggravate social problems(irritability) and increase the difficulty of speech comprehension.

. . . I find my tinitus increases in echoing places like an enclosed stadium or a noisy restaurant. Now I know why my husband drove me crazy on a 4 hour drive last weekend -- he had on the football game which had alot of static and bad reception.  It seems like the static was amplified for me and I couldn't understand anybody in the car!
 

In Brian's words:

"People with two working ears are able to "beamform" sound. This means that when sound arrives at their ears, the brain can use the phase difference between the signals of the two ears to do several remarkable things. First, and obvious, the sound can be localized. The binaural person is able to tell from what direction the sound comes from and how far away the source is. But, the binaural signal can be used for far more that that. "Broadband beamforming" means that all frequencies of sound are beamformed, so that the various frequencies contribute independent information about the signal. This process also allows the binaural listener to exclude "noise", here defined as anything other than the signal of interest. This means that in a crowded room, a binaural person can hear the person they are talking to, while simultaneously excluding the voices of the surrounding mob of talkers to a large extent. The binaural person can hear the conversation.

In contrast, a monaural person hears only one channel of the acoustic signals. No localization or beamforming is possible. All the sound signals come in as one jumbled signal, and no separation of those signals is possible. The difference between binaural and monaural is profound. The monaural person can barely hear the conversation in a crowded room - by using the larger signal of the nearby talker, or by unique frequency characteristics of voices. Localization of sound is not possible, so that when people see me at a distance and call out to me, I do not know where they are calling from - a 360 degree search for the signal must then be conducted (or I will just sit on the curb and wait for the caller to get closer.) "Barely hear the conversation" means that only fragments of sentences or words are comprehended, and these must be sorted from noise or any other fragments of sentences or words from nearby conversations. The brain must work hard to comprehend the meaning of the sentence based on those fragments, and the context of the conversation.

Much of this discussion falls under the category of the topic of "psychoacoustics," a surprisingly challenging issue to understand; research is ongoing. For more technical
information, see this article in Physics Today: "How we localize sound". Most of the discussion on psychoacoustics is irrelevant to those of us with unilateral hearing loss!

Advantages While Sleeping - One advantage of having no signal coming from one ear is that one can sleep with the good ear against the pillow and block out annoying sounds. Similarly, the good ear against a purring cat produces a sound world of 100% purring cat."

Lots more at : http://909ers.apl.washington.edu/~dushaw/SSD/index.html
 

[tony]

So true - all he has missed is that the brain then works overtime
to try and unscramble the "fuzz"
and this too adds to the fatigue - its exhausting
Best Regards
Tony

[leapyrtwins]

Crystal -

thanks for sharing this.  Very interesting observations on SSD.

Jan 

[nancyann]

Crystal:  You Rock baby girl !!!!!!   Thank you so much for this.  I cringe everytime I'm FORCED to go to a large meeting of case managers.    I will show this to my boss - she's a sweetheart, but I don't think she fully understands how difficult these meetings are for me.  This should help her understand.
I can't thank you enough for finding this.   A MILLION THANK YOU'S !!!!!!
ps:  Hey Joef:  check out the website - Brian Dushaw is holding up a fish he just caught !! - click on Crystal's added site, then click on Brian Dushaw's name (it's not as big as the one in your picture, but, he obviously likes fishing - looks like a trout? - in THOSE waters???)

[marg]

Thanks Crystal,
     I'm going to copy what you shared and show it to my boss.  At the end of my school day I stand on a sidewalk between the street and our very busy parking lot with my 24 2nd graders...waiting for them to be picked up.  The noise of cars, busses, 300 + kids and parents just about drives me crazy as I try to listen to my students (who are telling me 'their parent is in the car over there' etc), adults trying to get my attention, former students wanting to talk to me...... and it ALL sounds the same volume !!!!      .  I try to filter out all but what I need to hear at the moment - but with almost no success.  If I couldn't read lips I would have it even worse..  I haven't really been able to explain to anyone how STRESSFULL it is for me especially at the end of a long school day.
       In the classroom I have to  ask  my students to ."say it again" .... sometimes I have to ask the soft spoken ones 4 or 5 times to repeat themselves .  They are very patient....... but it tires me out.  Frankly, If I had not taught for as many years as I have..... I would have given up..... but I am determined to get my full retirement (and I am only 4 3/4 years away from it).  ..... I also love my kids  .
     Anyway, thanks for the info..... it may not change anything...but it helps to understand why it is happening.
Margaret

[Brendalu]

Crystal,
Thank you for this information.  I emailed a copy to my doctors and printed a copy for my husband and daughters in hopes that they might finally understand.  Well maybe a little anyway.  Thanks for sharing the information!

Brendalu

[Boppie]

Brians' site is extremely helpful and easy to understand.  Thank you for this link.

I still say that a hearing device for my deaf side is helpful.  It puts my neck and head looking straight ahead and allows more people to be on my deaf side and get my attention.  Of course it helps to look at the lips of a speaker if at all possible. 

My husband has a strong hearing deficit (age related) and he does worse than me in crowded rooms.  He just shuts down and leaves!

Crystal,
My first complaint to people after surgery was that all sounds echo in at the same loud volume in a busy room.  My friends and family are kind about acknowleging my complaints but they have no way of knowing what I really mean.  I think this is the problem that frustrates so much.  As my son says, "No one can feel our pain.  We feel it by ourselves". 

[Joef]

I refer to it as "I can't focus my hearing, I hear what ever is the loudest sound in the room"

I was kinda mad a my wife at her office xmas party.. very loud, cocktail hour .. and to top it off..  all her friends were standing around near the live band  with my good ear facing the band... it was hopeless.. I could not hear a word 

I think most people really dont understand what it means "not able to localize sound" so I explain it like this ...it terms they understand
In a car and move the balance make for forth, and the hear the sound move back and forth ... it all sounds the same to me! I hear the music... but as you move the balance -- I dont hear a difference. you can "hear" the left or right speaker -- I have no idea --

a fisherman and ssd .. he must be a cool  guy 

[Crystal]

my pleasure to share.  Although it makes no difference in my hearing it is sure nice to understand why I have more trouble in crowds and loud meetings.

[Richey]

Brian sure hit the the nail on the head with his description of what us SSD folks go through every day but I agree with one of the other contributors that my hearing devise (Bi-Cross) helps pick up sounds that I would miss otherwise and keeps me from having to turn my head all the time.

[Soundy]

Thanks for this article ... I made a copy for my husband ... he dealt with a physically handicapped
sister from the time he was born til her death in March... he was her legs at times ... you could
see her twisted legs and know something was wrong...with me I look fine ( except when I get up
and wobble off some where) ...I swear he forgets sometimes that I can't hear on one side... he
speaks softly and I have a hard time understanding him... talking to him on the phone is very
interesting    in a bad way ... he just doesn't get that when we are doing something he needs
to talk louder and if on my right side we need to switch sides... when we worked the cows and
vaccinated we were both more than a bit irritated by the time we got done ... maybe this can
tell him what he doesn't get from me ...
I have started answering him muhmuhmuhmuhmuhmuhnuhduh or something like that when after
telling him over and over that I can't hear...

[TP]

Thank you for sharing this information. I work for a large computer consulting company and work out of my home. I have never met my boss. She knows that I had a brain tumor and that my MRI looks good now but doesn't really know  all the details of my situation as I don't share unless you ask. I know I told her at one point that I am deaf in one ear but since we talk on the phone several times a day she has no idea that I am straining to listen to her as well as all the other folks I talk too thru out the day.

This past weekend I had to work all weekend. I was on conference calls all day. I use speaker phones (I don't like using anything on my ear since my surgery). Well I had to contact my boss while I was on another call. She got very snippy  with me when I was trying to talk to her and had a hard time hearing. I told her I have only one good ear to hear and trying to listen to both calls (which was required for my job) was difficult.  Well most people with two ears can't hear two conversations, with one ear it is impossible. Bottom line she was not very nice and it really ticked me off.

Thru this whole process I have been amazed at who is the most considerate in understanding what we go thru after surgery. I have found that some of the grocery clerks and food service providers have been the kindest and most supporting. This past weekend there was a bag boy who noticed that I did not have black tape over my glasses any longer. I haven't seen him since May this past year and he remembered what I had been thru. I told him I got my eye fixed a couple of months ago and he was so kind and sweet and seemed very genuine in his comments.

Like many of you, I don't like large groups/crowds.  Due to my SSD I avoid going out like I use too. I have mentioned before that I am a very "strong  A" type person but since this has all happened I am not that "strong A" personality type any longer. Not feeling sorry for myself at all but am very thankful that we have this forum and are able to share "stuff" with each other and support and pray for one another!

[yardtick]

JP,
I feel for you and that is why we are all here for you.  One thing I know now is the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  I was a strong Type A personality and I became very passive.  It got me now were fast.  I am now vocal, I joke about my disability with my co-workers and I will not allow a customer to steamroll me.  I work for a financial institution and it is very noisy at the best of times.  My personality is starting to come back.  The only time I'm quiet is when I feel yucky.  Most of my co-workers can tell by looking at me and are considerate.  Its taken me 13 months to get the respect I would give them if the shoe was on the other foot. 

Good luck.  Be vocal.  I think you need to explain once again to your boss the on going problems you will have to deal with because of AN.  I told my new General Manager to Google AN.  He was blown away to say the least.

Anne Marie

[Soundy]

Came in a little bit ago from our Cub Scouts first Pack meeting since surgery...

Big  building that echos ... lots of wild and woolly little boys...my head was spinning in a
short time ... being the Cubmaster I called the meeting to order... we had some
things for the boys to do to keep them busy while we adults  planned the activities
for the next several months...

Was trying to explain to the boys what they were going to do... many were speaking over
the top of each other ... something that used to not bother me ... I whistled to get their
attention and my youngest daughter told them that I had a brain tumor and they were giving
me a head ache... alot of jaws dropped and it got very quiet...

I explained that I did have  a tumor and that I  had it removed during the summer and was
alright except for losing my hearing in right ear and had some balance problems ... now I had a
bunch of sad sacks on my hands...kids and adults... I explained the louder they were the less I
heard and could get a headache or dizzy just from the noise and they needed to be a bit quieter...
they were all so serious and said they would be quieter for me

now it is my youngest's  to add her two cents worth... she piped in with
but if she didn't get operated on she would quit breathing and wake up dead...

there was a moment of silence then one little boy yelled  yay .... she's breathing ... and the
whole bunch about 30 kids in all started stomping their feet and chanting  she's breathing
their pledge to be  quiet didn't last long ... but the noise was worth it ...

kids are neat beings... even if noisy

[4cm in Pacific Northwest]

Soudy,

Great story!

I think you should copy and paste it and also stick it here

http://anausa.org/forum/index.php?topic=5313.msg47952#msg47952

under classroom noise. The educators will love it  ... and the story fits right in!


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