JOAN’S BLOG – WED/THUR, OCTOBER 20/21, 2010 – IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT HEARING AND BRAIN PROCESSING

Today, I would like to share with you an experience we had on Tuesday that I hope will provide you with valuable information about your own spouses’ hearing, processing, and comprehension difficulties.

Everyone who follows my blogs knows that I worked as a speech/language therapist, and one of my jobs was to teach language learning disabled students strategies to help them process, understand, and respond to language better. Thus, I was able to immediately recognize when my husband began to have language comprehension problems, and I was able to intervene with strategies.

Now that we are 7 years into the journey, my husband’s abilities have changed and diminished quite a bit. I have been noticing that he is processing only parts of sentences, words, and sounds. He does not follow conversations well, and he does not understand much of what he watches on TV. In addition, just to make things more complicated, he does not hear well.

Let me take a minute to explain the difference between processing and hearing. When words are spoken, the ear HEARS (or not) the sounds, but it is the BRAIN that must take them in and decipher their meaning. If that area of the brain is damaged, the PWD (person with dementia) may, as I noted with Sid, be missing parts of sentences, words, or sounds. For example, you may say, “The kids are playing in the backyard. Let’s take them to the zoo to see the elephants.” You are shocked and confused when your spouse answers with, “What cans? We don’t have cans of elephants in the yard.” The reason for that answer is that his/her brain PROCESSED “kids” as “cans”, and missed most of the other words, but caught “yard” and “elephant”. Therefore, the convoluted answer you received makes sense to them, while it leaves you scratching your head.

Now imagine that the EARS barely heard what you said AND the brain processed it incorrectly. A double whammy for someone who is already confused.

On Tuesday, I took my husband for a comprehensive hearing test. He had a test two years ago, but this latest was remarkable, in that the audiologist took into consideration his Alzheimer’s Disease and processing difficulty. He was able to test his processing. According to Sid’s testing, under OPTIMAL conditions – meaning no background noise or distractions – his brain is processing only 30% of what he hears. Under any conditions, his brain is just not able to keep up with the language coming into it. The results were no surprise to me, but I was gratified that my suspicions were scientifically validated. That certainly explains all of the weird conversations that take place in my house.   

The audiologist who tested Sid was able to put his results into the computer, and allow ME to hear the way Sid hears. It was a disaster. The words were muffled and distorted. It is no wonder he sits quietly while conversation is swirling around him.

Sid was astounded when the audiologist put hearing aides into his ears. He could not believe how much better he could hear and understand words. He actually had no idea he could not hear or comprehend well until he heard the difference.

Obviously the processing difficulties of my husband and your spouses who share his problem are going to continue to decline. Hearing aides cannot fix brain damage. However, they can help with clarity and volume of sound, which can only enhance their quality of life.

Unfortunately hearing aides are prohibitively expensive, putting them completely out of reach for most people. In my case, my insurance only pays about 1/2 the price quoted to me. I am currently shopping around and will continue to do so until I find something affordable.

I am sharing this information with you, so that if your spouse is experiencing hearing AND processing problems, you will be armed with knowledge. You will be able to explain the dementia related processing issues to an audiologist, and be sure that they take that into consideration when testing your spouse.

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