McNeill Audiology

Do you have tinnitus? Then Lewis Smith at McNeill Audiology is for you! I had it very seriously. It was impacting my quality of life, my sleeping and hearing. Then I had the great good fortune of meeting Lewis, a Registered Audiologist at McNeill Audiology. Lewis, his knowledge, experience and persistence has changed my life for the better – so here’s the story. I met him due to a near emergency situation. During a 6 month “treatment” of Chemo for my Follicular Lymphoma; my Oncologist, and my Family Doctor, both thought I might ALSO have an Acoustic Neuroma, a tumour on the cover of the nerve to my ear from the brain. While awaiting an appointment with an Otolaryngologist I made an appointment with McNeill Audiology (my audiologist at that time) to see IF my hearing had diminished as much as I had thought so I could have my hearing results both “before” and “after” Chemo. That is when I met Lewis and we discussed my Tinnitus (the on-going bane of my existence), my past hearing results and my current results. Lewis told me he had some suggestions to lessen the problem of my Tinnitus and after I’d seen the specialist he might be able to help me. In addition, Lewis gave me a test for Acoustic Neuroma that Audiologists can do with their limited equipment. He stressed to me that an Otolaryngologist had much more sophisticated tools available to him. Lewis’ results were that he could detect no indication of growth on the sheathing of the ear nerve inside my skull. Later, after having an MRI, MRA and MRV, no growths on the ear nerve were found. Good news. Later, when the Acoustic Neuroma dust had settled, I went to see Lewis and he walked me through what he could do for my tinnitus. The short story is I am stunned by the improvement in my tinnitus. 1) White noise (WN): I did not realize it but my existing hearing aids had a program on them that could create WN which Lewis could fine tune to be exactly the frequency needed for the different tinnitus in both my ears! 2) I can even turn OFF the “hearing magnification” part of the hearing aid and just have the WH noise generator on. This is really spectacular. Your hearing aids now act like air plugs with only with WN. Wonderful for reading, computer use, etc., you hear less noise around you and your tinnitus is partially muffled by the WN for peaceful quiet reading time! 3) The same as 2) BUT – you can actually do 2) ONLY then wear the hearing aids to bed and it helps you reduce that roar that returns when you wake at night. So much easier to get to sleep and back to sleep. 4) Lewis Smith actually cares about me, my tinnitus, my quality of life and he has worked diligently to fine tune, as often as necessary, my devices to see that I get the best quality of life I can. 5) I see my audiologist as a friend. That’s neat – really neat. 6) I recommend Lewis highly, even if your ears are perfect you’d like him too. Even if only as a friend!