Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Tinnitus and Military Service

Hello lovely bloggy world.  I'm procrastinating/taking a break from writing furiously on my 15 page tinnitus paper, and decided to go all AuD geek on you :)  I don't know if anyone Audiology related swings by my little corner on the web, but I thought I'd share. 

This is kind of milie and audiology related- yay for cross over!  My paper for my tinnitus is on the VA and how they are on the forefront of tinnitus management- go VA on this one.  There is no cure for tinnitus, but many medically accepted ways to manage it.  There is also no formal clinical protocol nationally, but the VA is doing OODLES of research into their current method, and it appears to be really flippin' awesome.... aaaaand end the nerding out.  We shall see, but I'm hoping for my 4th year placement to work at a VA and help with some of the data collection for their studies, how crazy would that be?

I think I may have found some of my passion I've been lacking lately in my school work, this paper is really getting me fired up about military audiology and helping vets.  Don't get me wrong, I love the kiddos and little bitty babies still, but man oh man is this tinnitus stuff interesting.  I know that as the service members keep coming back from overseas they are going to need some help, and current estimates show that anyone with military service (ranging in age of 20-89) is about 2.5 times more likely to experience chronic tinnitus in their lifetime than the normal population.  Wowza.  I wish this wasn't the case, but I hope in my time as an Audiologist I can help with implementing good proven management techniques.   

And finally, on the tinnitus forefront, there is an online podcast I listen to for Audiologists and they just did an entire hour long segment into tinnitus and talking about the VA protocol, talk about amazing timing for my paper.  If you are interested, you can find the podcast here, and it's called "Ringing in the New Year".  *groan* on the title.  Well, hope this helps any AuDs that pop in here, if not it's also good info for you fellow milie girls :)

Ok, enough chatter and back to writing and studying.  Can it be the 16th yet?

4 comments:

  1. Isn't tinnitus that 'wooshing' sound in your ear?? If so, I had that for months. Lovely, it was. I was just too lazy/cheap to go to the doctor to figure it out. I just got used to it. Then one day, it was gone. My wallet likes that. :)

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  2. Sounds awesome! I am a new follower by the way, and I am loving your blog! I am a fellow army SO, and in the healthcare field, so I can definitely relate to being interested in getting involved in the healthcare aspect of the military.

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  3. If you're interested, can you send me an email about this? OccDoc manages the hearing conservation program out here, and he's always researching audiology-related things so I'm sure he'd love to read your paper. I sent him the link to the podcast and is excited to listen to it today.

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  4. Yea for the VA and for the U of I. :)

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