Tommy, can you hear me?

Fellow blogger Yamalis and I went on a site visit to Rochester Hearing and Speech Center (RHSC). United Way currently funds three of their programs, including Audiology, which provides a plethora of services, ranging from prevention of hearing loss to helping those that already have hearing problems deal with it through adaptive devices such as hearing aids.

During the visit, our host, Dr. Larry Medwetsky, gave us the chance to try an innovative hearing test. This service is free and you don’t need an appointment- you can just go the agency and either enter the hearing screening room (immediately to the right upon entering the Door # 1 entrance of the Golisano Building at the corner of Elmwood and South Avenue) or go to RHSC front desk and let the receptionist know that you want to do the free computerized screening. You sit in a sound proof booth in front of a computer and put on headphones. A series of tones are played in each ear of the headphones, and you indicate to the computer if you hear them. RHSC's software is set up to go into secondary screening if the initial test indicates potential problems.

Now, let me let you in on a couple of secrets. When Super United Way Girl was much younger, she played guitar (poorly) and sang (even worse) in a few rock bands. AND she waitressed (even worse yet!) at a couple of live music clubs. AND she wasn't always that great about protecting her hearing. She's also noticed that recently, she is having trouble hearing in certain situations. For example, at the Rochester Children Zone's Implementation Conference, the whole group was often broken up into small groups that met in different parts of the same room. She had difficulty hearing others in her group against the background noise of the other groups. So she was really interested to see if the test indicated any problems.

Yama went first and passed with flying colors. Then it was my turn- right ear was fine. Left ear, however... a different story. So the computer program went into further testing of the left ear and identified some mild hearing loss in the higher frequencies. (You can see the results in the graphic- I scored a 35 in the 3000Hz and 4000Hz frequencies, which is in the range between slight hearing loss and moderate hearing loss). Dr. Medwetsky gave me some very practical advice on how to cope with some of my hearing issues and to prevent future hearing loss.

To learn more about this and other services provided by RHSC, call 585-271-0680 [tel]585-442-2985 [tty] or check out the website at http://www.rhsc.org/.