[MikeMiller]

When I was 10, I slipped and fell backwards and hit my head right on the round part behind my right ear.

When it happened, I was seeing stars and my right ear was ringing so loud I couldn't hear anything out of it.

I thought, I'll be able to hear once the ringing goes away.

The intense ringing went away, but 17 years later, I still have ringing in my right ear and was diagnosed to be 80% deaf in that ear. No eardrum damage. Nerve damage. When I first went to the doctor shortly after it happened, they said they couldn't do anything. So I lived with it. I did poorly in school, and I think it contributed to some form of ADD and anxiety.

Recently went to another doctor in town thinking there must be some new technologies or surgeries that can fix it.

Got the same results. 80% deaf, not really much they could do about it. They put me on a low dose of valium to help with the tinnitus, but it didn't help.

So here I sit, still deaf, still with ringing in my right ear. Fortunately I was able to overcome it mentally and make something of myself after surprisingly doing good in college and grad school.

The doctor mentioned things like a BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid) but unfortunately cochlear implants or a hearing aid wouldn't work for me because I have nerve damage, not eardrum damage.

Im frustrated because I see how fast technology is advancing for other disorders and sensory loss, but hearing loss seems to be stuck with technology from 3 decades ago. They still haven't moved past dumb, beige, mini amplifiers you stick in your ear.

Now that money is no object, I want to try and find the best doctor available. One that is researching cutting edge technologies with either nerve repair or some sort of mechanical device that will let me hear on my right side again.

Are there any clinical trials? Research? New technology? Im tired of doctors telling me there's nothing they can do to restore my hearing after I just paid them. Seems like they are all lazy and don't care.

I'll be the lab rat, I don't care, what have I got to lose? Theres GOT to be some sort of new clinical trials or experiments going on right now. If they can restore a woman's vision by interfacing a camera with the optic nerve in her brain, they can darn sure do something similar with hearing loss. Stem cells?

Where's the best hospital? Who's the leading research doctor? It's time for me to get this taken care of.