Dear Pavel,
I have been pleased to write, as you requested, my testimonial to your highly valued help that resulted in my hearing so very much better.
Sometime ago I came with my friend Thelma Hannam, when she kept an appointment with yourself. I began to feel an excitement that day, then experienced reality several weeks later as I walked up George St to my car.
Perhaps it was a little more than eighty years ago that I contracted Scarlet Fever and was kept in bed for a long time; if I remember correctly, about six weeks.
Some years before retirement I began to experience “pain” when some sounds became too loud for comfort.
Working through a magazine, I conducted a survey and learned that some others had a similar problem to myself. They all reported having Scarlet Fever or Measles as children.
Later still, experimenting with various tones I found some relief for the hyperacusis (as I called it) hyperacusis or recruitment were not diagnosed formally.
By this time I was using amplified muffs, then my friend from Adelaide University (lecturer in electrical engineering) had some of his students working of muff specifically filtered against the primary tone of trouble (was it 417 hertz?). By the time that a student developed a suitable muff, the problem had exacerbated. I wore Siemens aids to reduce the troublesome sounds for some years, finally reaching the place where they were no longer of help.
Hyperacusis is still something of a trouble for roads noises etc, but now to be able to hear fairly well in conversations etc is very pleasing.
One of the characteristics of my hearing sensitive to some sounds, is that while I am able to make some predictions about the danger or otherwise of sounds, is that it keeps changing.
Perhaps I have developed a tolerance that I did not previously know and perhaps the problems has, or is reducing.
Either wast, if I can avoid the worst of multiple voices and low frequency sounds that are not too loud I am able to live fairly comfortably.
Certainly it is really very good to be able to hear sounds now that I had not heard for a very long time.
You will, I am sure, appreciate the fact that I am very grateful to yourself and recent technology.
Sincerely, I am
David N Peck
