Doctors not listening (no pun intended)

Back in October/November I was suffering from an ear infection that would not go away and it ruptured my left eardrum. The infection was pseudomonas aeruginosa and keeps coming back as it's resistant to most drugs. I had a hearing test in Feb and apparently it was fine. Well, it's easy to hear one sound when you're in a soundproof room and are expecting it! I know my hearing isn't as good as it used to be especially in the left ear. People seem to mumble when talking to me. I sometimes realise that people are talking but can't understand the words. I find it really hard to understand what people are saying when I'm in a group or there is background noise. People are telling me that I have the TV up quite loud and sometimes when there is a lot of background noise I'm not sure if I am speaking properly and I sometimes speak louder than normal.

I'm only 22 and this is getting really frustrating. The doctors don't believe me and it's starting to affect my work and social life. What can I do?

[beachcomber13]

Welcome to the Hearing Loss Community! I am sorry you are in such a tough situation but glad you came here.

Other than listening to the beeps, what testing did the audiologist do? Since you are having difficulty understanding things even when you can hear, a test of speech discrimination should have been done. You would hear words and say what you hear. You get an accuracy percentage.

When you say that your hearing is fine, do you know what exactly your levels are? And had you ever had them tested in the past, before you had the infection?

Sorry, lots of questions. I hope to hear from you soon. Hang in there!

[whatishearing]

The problem with middle ear infections is they are quite hard to erradicate and whilst you have it, it can be a bit like listening under water.
Look on the internet for phonetically Balanced word list
Have a friend read the words to you slowly from across the room in a normal voice but not looking at you.
After each word you hear, repeat the word back to the speaker. They should score how many you get correct. ou should get 10 out of 10.
If you constantlyget less than 8 /10.
Insist on being seen by ENT.
Good luck and regards

[BobEdwards]

Hi
The symptoms you are suffering from actually sound like high frequency hearing loss. This would also show why your doctor wouldn't have noticed it as this is not tested for. High frequency hearing loss is noise induced. Do you listen to very loud music or work in a noisey environment?

[beachcomber13]

All of the speech frequencies are tested--250 Hz to 8000 Hz. Sometimes 125 Hz as well. Noise-induced hearing loss occurs most significantly at 4000 Hz. Google Carhart's notch to see what this looks like on a hearing test.