HEARING ISSUES? ALZEIMERS or SEPARATE?

MattyBoy

hey LOVELY PEOPLE of the CAREGIVER FORUM...

my MOM has suddenly developed some HEARING LOSS.... not MAJOR... but NOTICEABLE (to me!)...

she is in MID STAGES of ALZ... she goes to the bathroom on her own, walks well... but, certainly well along...

i was just wondering if this is something that happens... or just a coincidental aging issue... she is 79... i mean, i am 57 and all my friends make fun of my bad hearing... ha !!!

just wanted to know if this was, yet another... part of "THIS" !!!

thanks, GUYS !!!

King Boo

The majority of people at that age have hearing loss due to aging.

Have her ears canals checked for ear wax and cleaned out.  Then see an Audiologist for a complete hearing evaluation.  While Mom can still reliably do a test.

cdn13

Looking back, one of the first signs that things were getting worse for my grandmother was that she started having trouble hearing us on the phone... had her hearing aids adjusted, even got a new phone, but she still said she couldn't hear us properly. I have read that is fairly common with dementia, that sometimes when someone says they can't hear you it really means they can't understand you.

But of course, hearing troubles are super common in older people, way more common than Alzheimers, so it could be that too. Get the ears checked out and go from there.

Paris20

This question really resonates with me. My husband, who had excellent hearing, has started to lose that ability just the past year. He’s 79 and quite well-along in the mid stage of AD. He was never a good listener and I am definitely not what Seinfeld would call a “low talker.” And yet, DH is often asking me what I said because he can’t hear me. We see his neurologist soon and I’ll tell him about it.

May flowers

My FIL went through a similar thing around the same stage as your mom. We noticed for him that his “hearing” being worse seemed to coincide with his confusion in general. We eventually determined for him that it was not an issue of not hearing us, but of not processing what we were saying.

Around the same time he began to be unable to decipher written language as well.

toolbeltexpert

Like cdn13 said it may not be a hearing problem, but a comprehension problem. Getting the ears checked shouldn't be too bad. When I started suspecting my dw of memory problems. I had her hearing checked. I figured she couldn't  remember if she never heard. I knew she had hearing problems for a long time so the hearing doctor confirmed that she had a greater than 45 % in one ear the other was not good either.  So we got 3500$ worth of hearing aides. They helped  her to hear but not remember. We are on the second set, we had to replace the first set cause of age, these are a little more fancy but the technology is useless she can't figure it out on her phone so I wouldn't waste my money getting bluetooth.  Hope it goes well.  And I want to say please get your hearing tested and if you need hearing aides get them. There are some studies that show hearing  may play a part in Altzhiemers. Maybe another member could chime in about that. Or you could Google it.

JJ401

Alzheimer’s or separate? May be both.

I’d get her ears checked. If she has impacted ear wax, hearing could be improved by removing. 

My advice would be to stay away from the advertised  commercial hearing aid centers that send the flyers for your “free” test. They tend to be more expensive. I use the audiologist connected to the ENT. While the prices are higher than I’d like to pay, they are not excessive. When making an appointment look for an audiologist who has experience with dementia patients. 

Just don’t  expect aids to miraculously make things better. Our ears are the conduit, but hearing is processed by the brain. If the brain is not processing the information correctly, there is no aid that will help.

One thing stood out to me in your post. “…i am 57 and all my friends make fun of my bad hearing... “ If others are commenting on your hearing, it’s time to get yourself checked. 

Rescue mom

I second what JJ said….you really, really need an audiologist who’s trained in dealing with dementias and hearing loss, how to test, what aids might be best. So many of those who advertise “free tests,” are part of big chains etc. will try to sell the most expensive thing, period, and may not “get” the differences between hearing loss and comprehension..

People often need hearing aids later in life, regardless of dementia. My DH with Alzheimer’s has some hearing loss, but his problem is mostly lack of comprehension. It takes a person with training to tease out those differences.

My mother with dementia needed hearing aids, the audiologist told me (more politely) she should have come in much sooner. Her actual hearing loss was significant; her dementia was just getting noticeable. Long story short, but within months of getting them, she could not deal with the care and handling they required. Not to mention losing them. They were just too much for her to learn, at that point.

And, if others are commenting to you about your own hearing, that’s a very strong signal you be checked. Just saying…

mommyandme (m&m)

My mother was an RN.  She went after anything she could to alleviate pain and discomfort over her lifetime.  I have come to the conclusion that her subscribed hearing loss was due to incomprehension and the money she spent on hearing aids was needless.  She can hear fine now in stage 7 and I believe she didn’t have a recordable deficit when she got her hearing aides. 

I must say that I thought she was losing her hearing at that time too, little did I know what was around the corner. 

Just my experience with all this mess.  Good luck. 

MattyBoy

hey... ha !!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND CONSIDERATION and THOUGHTFUL COMMENTS about my QUESTION...

and i HEAR YOU (see what i did there?!!) about your INVITATION to get my OWN HEARING CHECKED... i promise i WILL... but i am sure i will find out what i ALREADY KNOW...

"JOE, YOU HAVE SUCKY HEARING!"...

but, seriously, thank you for your KIND/COOL advice...

yeah, of course i considered that it was a COMPREHENSION THING... and i REALLY notice that is EAR-related...

i did an OVER THE COUNTER "wax remover", i feel i have gotten some results...  but this is now an OFFICIAL  "LIST ITEM" for our next DOCTOR's APPOINTMENT...

it is a CRUEL and CRAZY DISEASE... and, ultimately, i am becoming LESS SURPRISED about "WHAT IS NEXT?"...

but, one things for SURE.... ALZEIMERS will go out of its way to SURPRISE ME !!!

that being said... my MOM is in GOOD SPIRIT, LOOKS FAB, EATS WELL... and is EXPERT at HUGGING... 

so i take TIME OUT to ALWAYS APPRECIATE all of the ABOVE !!!

THANKS AGAIN... these BOARDS are CONSISTENTLY HELPFUL !!!

Wilted Daughter

...adding my 2 cents. I read hearing changes may be part of aging, other factors (illnesses) and if there is impaired hearing it increases the chances of dementia. 

My mother said she was told many, many years ago that she would "lose her hearing for understanding" and if that is the case it may be due to her other illnesses. So if she was told she would have increased hearing loss, the bit about "understanding" speaks to cognition (you can't understand what you can't hear). Mom has VD, Diabetes, High Blood Pressure...the Diabetes/blood pressure...were diagnosed long before VD are are illnesses which may affect hearing loss. 

Hearing Loss and Dementia - Who's Listening?

ncbi.nim.nih.gov

Hearing Loss and the Dementia Connection

publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/hearing-loss-and-the-dementia-connection