The BS of the hearing test

I'm a yard spotter thinking of trucking again with borderline hearing. I have uneven hearing loss with more in my right ear than my left. I was given hearing aids, but I don't use them at work because I don't want to be blasted by the noise of the engine and exhaust.

I've never been extensively tested by a physical for trucking so I don't know if that could become an issue. They done a quick whisper test in the clinic room not on headphones in a sound proof room.

 

Wear earplugs for several days before your DOT physical to peak up the sensitivity in your ears.

 

Well that's a hearing aid, It amplifies. (Sleep CPAP anyone?) otherwise you aint hear &^%$ lolz.

Be careful with that FMCSA. If you submit a audiologist chart that shows you do pass with prescribed hearing aids you should be on solid ground. Because your CDL is at risk now.

I had a case against Covenant whose doctor did the forced whisper to me in a room with 50 people all talking. It's not going to happen "What color is your shirt" Because of that old rule that probably has been there since the 30's maybe (You wont believe the hearing aids we started out with as children, what with the bulk and technology when it just barely became solid state technology instead of vacumn tubes. We would run around in a harness carrying one or two of the devices like a bra with a coil around our neck. (That's for the teacher to push a button essentially LISTEN UP RIGHT NOW... ouch)

Covenant kicked me out of orientation. I submitted the most recent chart and information to FMCSA the following week had a lawyer looking into a golden ticket suit against them as a hostile under the FMCSA and ACA which probably maybe ended up making me own the whole thing.

After a period of silence FMCSA Ruled first. They accepted the evidence that I can hear with aids and can keep my license and everything. HOWEVER.

A TRUCKING COMPANY. MAY.... **RAPS TABLE PAY ATTENTION.... "MAY" be MORE STRICTER THAN DOT RULES in selecting a applicant out of a group of them.

In short. 50 orientation attendees. One deaf. That leaves 49 to look at for Covenant. Legally. So much for all the words and beautiful things they said in that time there that morning. Something about the teamwork, yellow brick road and all that crap.

The Lawyer told me I had no case. Not when a company CAN BE MORE STRICTER THAN DOT in screening applicants VS THE RULE in QUESTION.

You can have a thousand hearing aids and track a mouse in a corn field from 20,000 feet by the pitter patter over the roar of the 747 engines. But if a company says forget it that's it for you home you go.

As to the yard jockey, I can absolutely understand the need to reduce noise pollution and stress. Did you think for a moment to do what I do sometimes. Literally turn off the hearing aids with them in the ear? Click. Peace and quiet. It's funny, you go and laugh. But not funny when noise pollution is involved.

My issue is with the steel mills. When that god awful machinery is moving I cannot stand it. I did some research.

In world war two... the Government carefully selected deaf people to work in noisy heavy industry, big time mills and such where normal hearing persons exhibit signs of what they called mental shell shock after a certain time around the noise. They begin to break down and have to be replaced (As well as require tranquilizers for the shakes etc) Not the deaf. So the deaf were sent into very noisy places for that reason. After a while to them it became like swimming. As long the mill is in order around them what with the temps, shaking of the feet and the walls etc things are fine. But if the say a steel support beam for a crane railroad up near the roof cracks with a BOOM they feel it and know instantly to GTFO. They are usually moving first before anyone else to get clear.

I wrote alot and I know this. There is alot involved.

Finally but not last.

Amplification is still hearing aids. Again If you compare any late 60's and early 70's era behind the ear with tube to mold, you will find that the exact... hunts for words.. FORM FACTOR is in place with those 20 dollar hearing aids today with a slight touch of modern tech.

I don't enjoy them. If someone speaks into a glass cashier or nurse office wall? It echoes back and I get all of it. It's a form of pollution. There is no post processing to tame the echoes and clear the noise to get at the important sounds in prescription hearing aids. So I can emphasize with hearing people when they find themselves in a situation where they have to deal with noise pollution.

Finally but not last. I do music. Keyboard Big Pipe a touch of the old Miss river steamboat style. The sounds has to come through clean for me to stay in time with what the music book says to do. It does not matter if you are stone deaf as long you have timing to follow that music sheet. But if you hear your own work as you do it in real time like I do checking on it, those 20 dollar hearing aids are really *&^% it dirties up everything and ruins it.

1/4 inch jack concert headphones, a booster and 110 DB takes care of that problem. Whatever the keyboard gives me is what I can use. Im not very good at it, never will be. But as a child growing up we had two battered pianos in the house and music was a way to keep me from running the streets and getting all dusty and dirty in those days or into trouble.

But as far as trucking and doctors. Any doctor that says it's not amplification can take his framed inkjet board certificate diploma, roll it and smoke it while he re contemplates the real meaning of that term.

That is the other part of trucking. You will run into people even to this day who are discriminatory. It does not matter why you wear aids late in life, middle of life or as a child. It's just like glasses, the problem is against that particular person who has a problem with it at all.

Finally. Hearing aids have gotten seriously good. I am fixing to ship my old early 70's solid state stereo set, radio and record player that is all analog again. I look forward to hearing the sounds just like it was recorded in the studio or wherever like a audiophile.

 

I understand.

It's one of those... what is the word... The most strongest force versus a immovable object. Nothing will be achieved against a examiner like that.

Ultimately a prescribed hearing aid and a audiologist chart for 500, 1000 and 2000 should settle any debate or question from examiner. Im pretty sure such august knowledge and learned Doctor will read that chart and see that you do have good hearing under 40 db as required by DOT rules.

When I run into a doctor who says one thing and I mule dig in on the opposite position, we have a problem here. Its quite possible that I will not be working for this outfit because I cannot get this stubborn doctor to say ok. Even with reams of paper and charts on his overloaded desk.

Im pretty certain there are other doctors with other company more accommodating than some of the white coated mules working for some outfits. We have a mule in our local hospital. He's not a very nice doctor at all. Actually pretty cutthroat. Make a mommy and baby cry with his brutal bedside manner with a attitude that can stop the sun from crossing the sky.

Whatever made him that sour, I don't know. But it's really tough to have to live like that.

 

Unfortunately, I have to listen for requests on this crappy walky talkie. It sounds terrible, but I hold by my Left Ear and can understand it enough.

Strangely, I think a part of my issue is with background noise interference and if I used my Hearing Aids, it would make that effect far worse by amplifying all noises. One time I tried out a job that had me assisting in a warehouse with very acoustic walls and of course these guys had a boombox going. I struggled to understand a guy reading a picklist while sitting on his forklift. I wound up being let go and this was before I had talked to an Audiologist.

Another weird thing is if someone walks up behind me and says something generic like "Hey, what's up?" and I don't know if they're talking toward me or someone else nearby. This happened a few times when I was in class room with other people and I'm not able to tell which of us they're talking to while speaking behind me. I'm not sure if normal hearing people can perceive direction of sound from behind them to know they're being addressed or what the ####.

When I Google this issue, I come up with an ability called Selective Hearing or the '####tail Party Effect'. This is something I really can't do. It actually baffles me to read the description of this. I don't think I've ever been able to do this my whole life.

How selective hearing works in the brain: '####tail party effect' explained